Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/203

Rh by the senate. The law of Crassus and Scaevola (lex Licinia Mucia de civibus regundis or redigendis), passed in 95, had apparently annulled the old Latin privilege of acquiring Roman citizenship by settling and registering in Rome, and had instituted a court for punishing, by banishment to their own communities, those who illegally exercised the rights of Roman citizens. This law proved to be pernicious and was one of the immediate causes of the war with the allies.

It must already have been plain that a conciliatory measure was imperative. Drusus, who had kept this part of his plans in reserve, had bound himself by a promise to the Italian allies, and now proposed that citizenship should be granted to all of them. Perhaps he intended to combine this proposition with his deferred bill on the establishment of colonies, in order to secure the passage of both. However, one evening, before the day set for the meeting of the assembly, he was murdered by an assassin. No judicial investigation was made. One more of the noblest sons of Rome had perished in vain, and the last attempt to avert civil war had failed.

Law of Quintus Varius concerning Treason. — The civil or social war soon opened with the massacre at Asculum in the Picene territory in the year 91. Not the harsh and selfish rule of Rome for two centuries, not the Licinio-Mucian law, but Drusus, was charged with the blame for the insurrection. The party of opposition, of which the equestrian class formed the chief element, proceeded in the face of the impending crisis to punish his followers and to take revenge for the attack on the equestrian courts. With the assistance of armed knights, the tribune Quintus Varius, a base and dissolute man, carried, in violation of tribunician intercession, a law respecting treason (de maiestate), establishing a special commission to try those who had aided or abetted the