the Senate. They judged the
opportunity favorable for depriving the Equites of the judicial power
which they had enjoyed, with only a temporary cessation, since the time
of C. Gracchus. The Equites had abused their power, as the Senate had
done before them. They were the capitalists who farmed the public
revenues in the provinces, where they committed peculation and extortion
with habitual impunity. When accused, they were tried by accomplices and
partisans. Their unjust condemnation of Rutilius Rufus had shown how
unfit they were to be intrusted with judicial duties. Rutilius was a man
of spotless integrity, and while acting as lieutenant to Q. Mucius
Scaevola, Proconsul of Asia in B.C. 95, he displayed so much honesty and
firmness in repressing the extortions of the farmers of the taxes, that
he became an object of fear and hatred to the whole body. Accordingly,
on his return to Rome, a charge of malversation was trumped up against
him, he was found guilty, and compelled to withdraw into banishment
(B.C. 92).

The following year (B.C. 91) witnessed the memorable Tribunate of M.
Livius Drusus. He was the son of the celebrated opponent of C. Gracchus.
He was a man of boundless activity and extraordinary ability. Like his
father, he was an advocate of the party of the Nobles. He took up arms
against Saturninus, and supported the Senate in the dispute for the
possession of the judicial power. His election to the Tribunate was
hailed by the Nobles with delight, and for a time he possessed their
unlimited confidence. He gained over the people to the party of the
Senate by various popular measures, such as the distribution of corn at
a low price, and the establishment of colonies in Italy and Sicily. He
was thus enabled to carry his measures for the reform of the judicia,
which were, that the Senate should be increased from 300 to 600 by the
addition of an equal number of Equites, and that the Judices should be
taken from the Senate thus doubled in numbers. Drusus seems to have been
actuated by a single-minded desire to do justice to all, but the measure
was acceptable to neither party. The Senators viewed with dislike the
elevation to their own rank of 300 Equites, while the Equites had no
desire to transfer to a select few of their own order the profitable
share in the administration of justice which they all enjoyed.

Another measure of Drusus rendered him equally unpopular with the
people. He had held out to the Latins