T

owards the late nineties of the first century BCE, some thirty years after the violent demise of Gaius Gracchus and Fulvius Flaccus and about a decade after Marius’s decisive victories in the costly Cimbric Wars, the Roman and Italian body politic were under tremendous strain from a number of festering socioeconomic and political fissures. With the support of some of the foremost senators of the day, the noble and gifted Marcus Livius Drusus as tribune of the plebs in 91 embarked on a comprehensive and cohesive reform program, anxious to defuse and stabilize the overall situation in Rome and Italy. This paper seeks to probe the causes, aims and method of Drusus’ policy, as well as highlight the enormity of his fateful failure in the face of the final major hurdle.

A conference by Frederik J. VERVAET (Associate Professor of Ancient History at the University of Melbourne)

For more informations

yann.berthelet@uliege.be

Poster (PDF)