the cursus honoram or course of honor was not a path that was set in stone but rather a guide to the magistracies necessary to attain high public advancement marcus livia strucius it seems went through these offices in a somewhat non-traditional order we know for instance that drew served in some administrative capacity in anatolia rather than serving first as tribune of the plebs it's likely he was attached to the staff of lucius cornelius sula who as proprietor of cilicia was tasked with settling affairs in anatolia while there drusis attracted a significant amount of attention by conspicuously refusing to wear his official rank insignia as a way to respect the authority of his superior most romans when given a badge of authority wore it proudly sometimes even haughtily marcus livia strucius's form of respect garnered him a lot of praise over the rarity of such humble behavior though sula did not return from the east until approximately 92 bc we know drusis returned before him and served a term as edial using the vast wealth his father had acquired drusis lavishly entertained the public which gained him even more popularity and praise the more lavish the entertainment the more likely the edale's name would still be on the public's lips come election time by the time sula returned to rome drusis though he had already held his lower magistracies unexpectedly announced his candidacy for tribune of the plebs for the upcoming 91 bc year the historians are not clear as to why he made this surprising choice but marcus livestrosis 91 bc tribune it was so controversial that it is still debated to this day though we don't know why he chose to run for tribune of the plebs we do understand the political landscape surrounding this unexpected decision understanding rome's most pressing political matters and knowing some of the various pieces of legislation he attempted to pass off as some insight for unravelling the controversial tribunate of marcus live estrusis in 95 bc while lucius cornelius sula was still in the east the consuls lucius lycinius crassus and quintus mucia skyvala passed a new but extremely polarizing law in response to the greatly inflated number of roman citizens on the voting polls which did not match the census records the lex licinia mucia was passed this law forced all italian roman residents to re-register with the census in order to prove their citizenship those who refused to re-register would be investigated if found to have illegally entered their names as roman citizens in order to vote and take advantage of rome's grain doll the illegal aliens would be subject to punitive judgment soon the optimatis and those who sympathized with this new law were labeled as prejudiced against all italians xenophobia ran rampant the subject of illegal immigration suddenly tainted every debate in rome any attempt to sort out the imbalanced number of alleged roman citizens was met with accusations of racism paranoia grew one side argued that the lex licinia mucia was only an investigation into illegal immigration and those who could prove their legal citizenship were not at risk the other side promoted the fear that this new law was simply a way to mark and tag the italians for future persecution another significant event which may have prompted drusis's unexpected decision to announce his candidacy as tribune of the plebs for the 91 bc year took place around this same time as well dreucis's uncle the ex-consul publius retilius rufus had recently returned from his service as military legate in anatolia during this legit ship retilius rufus had prevented major abuses to the people of smyrna from the equestrian publicani or public contractors the public arnie were the equip businessmen who bid on government jobs such as construction projects road building and tax collection they accompanied governors to their provinces then bled those provinces dry by over charging for taxes and appropriating from the locals anything deemed valuable the equits who had become very powerful under the consecutive consulships of gaius marius had grown accustomed to getting what they wanted and were outraged that publius retilius rufus had dared to interfere once back in rome the publicani brought retilius rufus to trial they charged drusis's uncle with corruption and provincial abuse of the citizens of smyrna modern-day izmir turkey the court which was made up of jurors drawn solely from the public acquired class was a kangaroo court that represented the interests of the publicani they successfully indicted rufus for embezzlement and had him exiled from rome in order to prove the obvious nepotism within the equity courts retilius rufus chose as his place of exile the very city he was accused of abusing because publius retilius rufus had been the first roman to stand up to the public arne on their behalf the citizens of smyrna from whom he was accused of extortion welcomed rufus with all honors the fate of publius retilius rufus likely played a part in drusis's sudden decision to run for tribune of the plebs as one of drewsis's first legislative moves was an attempt to reform the kangaroo court which had found him guilty the problem with this particular court had begun in the late 120s bc during the reforms of gaius gracchus at that time grackis had tried to build a support base from among the ecwidts in order to offset the opposition he knew he would get from the patricians this was several years after the patricians had manipulated the murder of his brother tiberius and gaius gracchus needed an alternative power base from which he could safely challenge their supremacy it's unlikely gaius gracchus foresaw the future abuse of this court the court was now a tool used by the equits to force senators into corruption through a type of protection racket senators were required to cater to the public arne's demands in the provinces so that they would not find themselves dragged through the plebeian court on charges of corruption and mismanagement marcus livia struc's response was to create balance within this court by passing a bill requiring the juries be mixed with equits and patricians drusis hoped that a mixed group would break the deadlock resulting in more just outcomes unfortunately drusis would not succeed in making this law stick around this same time drusis tried to pass another piece of legislation which seemed to go hand in hand with his attempted reform of the plebeian court he proposed a law which made equits liable to prosecution for bribery this meant that not only patricians but ecwidts could now be taken to court for offering or receiving bribes unfortunately like his attempt at court reform this anti-corruption legislation would be dismantled and remain untested marcus livia strucius is often viewed as one of the major demagogues of the late roman republic yet his initial reforms were moderate and reasonable drusis seemed to understand that things could not go on as they had between the increasingly deadlocked and polarized factions change was inevitable but would roams factions allow it