*The **trial** of Rutilius Rufus: 93 B. C.* The senators and the equestrians had combined for the moment against the terrorism instituted by the popular demagogues but the coalition was not lasting. As Caius Gracchus had foreseen the control of the law courts proved a standing bone of contention between the two orders. Especially aggravating to the senators was the use of the court established for the trial of cases of extortion to force the provincial governors to administer the provinces in the interest of the Roman financiers. A scandalous instance of this abuse was the case of Rutilius Rufus in 93 B. C. He had been quaestor under Mucius Scaevola, in 98 B. C. governor of Asia, where both had sternly checked any unjust exactions by the agents of the _publicani_. A trumped-up charge of extortion was now brought against Rutilius, and he was tried and adjudged guilty. His fate was to serve as a warning to officers who took their provincial obligations seriously. Rutilius retired to Asia and lived in great esteem among the people whom he was condemned for having oppressed. *The **legislative program** of Livius Drusus: 91 B. C.* Two years later Marcus Livius Drusus, a tribune, of a prominent senatorial house, brought forward a proposal for the reform of the juries. He proposed to increase the number of the Senate to six hundred by the inclusion of three hundred prominent equestrians, and to have the juries chosen half from the new Senate and half from the remaining equestrians.(10) Equestrian _jurors_ were to be made liable to prosecution for accepting bribes. To secure support for his judiciary law, Drusus introduced a bill to found new colonies and another to provide cheaper grain for the city populace. However, when he encountered serious opposition to his judicial reform in the Senate as well as among the _equites_, Drusus combined this and his other reforms with a law for the enfranchisement of the Italian allies. He contrived to carry his measures through the Assembly, which was probably coerced by the presence of large numbers of Italians in the city, but since he had included several distinct proposals in one bill, which was unconstitutional, the Senate declared his law invalid. Drusus yielded but prepared to introduce the franchise bill to be voted on a second time. Before this could be done he was mysteriously assassinated, doubtless by an agent of his political opponents. Thus died the last civilian reformer of Roman history. Later reforms were carried by the power of the sword. VII. THE ITALIAN OR MARSIC WAR, 90–88 B. C.