DRUSUS, MARCUS LIVIUS, Roman statesman, was col league of Gaius Gracchus in the tribuneship, 122 B.C. The pro posal of Gracchus (q.v.) to confer the full franchise on the Latins had been opposed not only by the senate but also by the mob, whose privileges would thereby be diminished. Drusus threatened to veto the proposal. Encouraged by this, the senatorial party put up Drusus to outbid Gracchus. Gracchus had proposed to found colonies abroad; Drusus provided twelve in Italy, to each of which 3,00o citizens were to be sent. Gracchus had proposed to distrib ute allotments to the poorer citizens subject to a state rent-charge; Drusus promised that they should be free, and inalienable. In ad dition to the franchise, immunity from corporal punishment (even in the field) was promised the Latins. The absence of Gracchus, and the inefficiency of his representative at Rome, led to the ac ceptance of these proposals, which were never intended to be car ried. Drusus himself declined all responsibility in connection with carrying them out. He was rewarded for his services by the consulship (112), and the title of patronus senatus. He received Macedonia for his province, and he was the first Roman general to reach the Danube. He is possibly the Drusus mentioned by Plutarch as having died in log, the year of his censorship.
See Appian, Bell. Civ. i. 23 ; Plutarch, Gaius Gracchus, 8-11; Florus iii. 4 ; A. H. J. Greenidge, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. (1904) •