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35]
After them the tribune Livius Drusus, a man of most
illustrious birth, promised the Italians, at their urgent request, that he
would bring forward a new law to give them citizenship. They desired this
especially because by that one step they would become rulers instead of
subjects. In order to conciliate the plebeians to this measure he led out to
Italy and
Sicily several colonies which had been
voted some time before, but not yet planted. He endeavored to bring to an
agreement the Senate and the equestrian order, who were then in sharp
antagonism to each other, in reference to the law courts. As he was not able
to restore the courts to the Senate openly, he tried the following artifice
on both of them. As the senators had been reduced by the seditions to
scarcely 300 in number, he brought forward a law that an equal number should
be added to their enrolment from the knights, to be chosen according to
merit, and that the law courts should be made up from all of these
hereafter. He provided in the law that they should make investigations about
bribery, as accusations of that kind were almost unknown, since the custom
of bribe-taking prevailed without restraint. This was the plan that he
contrived for both of them, but it turned out contrary to his expectations,
for the senators were indignant that so large a number should be added to
their enrolment at one time and be transferred from knighthood to the
highest rank. They thought it not unlikely that they would form a faction in
the Senate by themselves and contend against the old senators more
powerfully than ever. The knights, on the other hand, suspected that, by
this doctoring, the courts of justice would be transferred from their order
to the Senate exclusively. Having acquired a relish for the great gains and
power of the judicial office, this suspicion disturbed them. Most of them
fell into doubt and distrust toward each other, discussing which ones seemed
more worthy than others to be enrolled among the 300; and envy against their
betters filled the breasts of the remainder. Above all were they angry at
the revival of the charge of bribery, which they thought had been ere this
entirely suppressed, so far as they were concerned.
