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In 91 BC the reforming tribune Marcus Livius Drusus was assassinated. His death was the catalyst for the Social War, one of the first major conflagrations of the Republic's final century.* He was also a man of impeccably conservative stock, and perhaps the last statesman who could put forward a reform program that was acceptable to both optimates and populares.

Not only did his death set off the Social War, but the revelation that the grateful Italian allies had sworn to become his clients upon his citizenship saw all his previous reforms get swept away.

Let's say that the evidence of the oath of allegiance stays hidden, or that no oath is sworn at all. Without the spectre of a Tribune with the whole of Italy as clients, the opposition to his reform program never becomes strong enough to invalidate all his bills.

Furthermore, he manages to get his bill granting citizenship to the Italians through.

So by the end of his term of office he has doubled the size of the senate, coopting many powerful equestrian families. He has also stripped many of the juries away from the equestrians, appeasing many in the Senate. He devalued the currency so that he could lower the price of grain and ensure a constant supply, and he even set up a commission for land reform. In all, it was a remarkable legislative program.


In our timeline, it was all so much dust. But what if his legislation survived? Assume, for the moment that the oath was sworn but his opponents couldn't use it for political capital. What next?












*Yes, I know that the early Imperial period is in many ways a continuation of the Republic, but let's go with how it's usually understood.
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