The optimates, having again triumphed over the democracy, adopted a policy of moderation. Their consuls of 98, Q. Caecilius Metellus and T. Didius, attempted by a mild statute to check the most flagrant abuses of tribunician legislation, (1) the combination of various dissimilar provisions in one bill (lex satura) for the purpose of drawing the votes of all parties, (2) the passing of bills through the assembly by surprise. Their law accordingly, reviving usages once in force but recently neglected, forbade such combinations[2456] and ordered that the promulgation should precede the voting by at least a trinum nundinum—an interval which included three market days.[2457] Similarly in 95 their consuls, L. Licinius Crassus and Q. Mucius Scaevola, aimed by an equally moderate law to check the usurpation of the citizenship on the part of aliens. It forbade peregrini to perform the functions of citizens, though it did not order the innocent among them to leave Rome.[2458] It provided for the appointment of a special commission to discover and punish usurpers of the citizenship.[2459] Those found guilty were sent back to their communities.[2460] Though the authors were eminent in justice and cherished the best intentions, their law proved to be not merely useless but most pernicious to the state,[2461] as it helped drive the Italians to revolt.[2462] The next attempt at reform proceeded from the inmost circle of the aristocracy.[2463] M. Livius Drusus, tribune of the plebs in 91, was a man of the highest nobility, wealthy, eloquent, and upright at heart, the son of that Livius who had opposed C. Gracchus.[2464] Regarding his aims and the quality of his statesmanship conflicting opinions have been expressed by modern scholars. The sources intimate that he wished primarily to strengthen the senate by breaking away from its hide-bound conservatism and undertaking various pressing reforms. His agrarian measure was conceived in the Gracchan spirit but was more radical.[2465] Appian[2466] states that it proposed the founding of colonies voted long ago but not yet established. Reference must be to the twelve colonies planned by his father.[2467] It probably abolished the statute of 111 and ordered the division not only of the Campanian lands,[2468] but also of those public domains which were held by the allied communities—in brief, of all the public land remaining in Italy and Sicily;[2469] and it established a board of ten for making the assignments.[2470] Livy[2471] attributes to the author a frumentarian proposal, though we are not informed of its character. The aim must have been to win the support of the populace for his other measures.[2472]