excellent memoir of him (which has served as a basis for all extant biographies) by his brother-officer, Captain Larcom, published in the semi-official Papers on subjects connected with the duties of the Royal Engineers, vol. iv., 1840.—F. E.
DRUMMOND, Sir William, of Logiealmond, an eminent scholar and archæologist. He appears to have been devoted to study from his boyhood; and the extraordinary extent and diversity of his attainments are best shown by the variety of the subjects which he has adorned with his pen. His first work, which appeared in 1794, was entitled "A Review of the Governments of Sparta and Athens;" and in 1798 he published a metrical translation of the Satires of Persius, which is possessed of decided merit, though it has been in a great measure superseded by the well-known version of Mr. Gifford. But the works by which Sir William Drummond is best known as an author are his "Academical Questions," 1805; "Herculanensia," 1810; and "Origines, or Remarks on the Origin of several Empires, States, and Cities," 1824-26. "Herculanensia" was published by him in conjunction with Robert Walpole. It contains archæological dissertations of great value, together with a copy of a manuscript found among the ruins of the city of Herculaneum. The "Origines" is devoted to investigations connected with the history and antiquities of the Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians, Phenicians, and Arabs; and by the amount of information collected from all available sources which has been brought to bear on these subjects, some of the most intricate passages of ancient history have been successfully explained. All Sir William Drummond's works exhibit marks of profound erudition and diligent research; while some of them, such as the "Academic Questions," display much bold and masterly philosophical speculation. They are also characterized by great logical ingenuity and remarkable purity of style. Sir William occupied a seat in parliament for several years after the commencement of his literary career. He represented the borough of St. Mawes in 1795, and afterwards sat for Lostwithiel. He also held the appointment of British ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, and of envoy-extraordinary to the court of Naples. He was a knight of the Turkish order of the crescent, and a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh. He died at Rome in March, 1828.—W. M.
DRURY, Joseph, a learned divine and scholar, was born at London in 1750. He received his first education at Westminster school, from which he was sent in 1768 to Trinity college, Cambridge. There he had for tutor the eminent Dr. Watson, afterwards bishop of Llandaff, who recommended him as an assistant to Dr. Sumner, head master of Harrow, before he had completed his twentieth year. Drury became head master of that school in 1785, on the removal of Dr. Heath to Eton. He resigned his office in 1805, and retired to Cockwood in the parish of Dawlish in Devonshire, where he applied himself to agricultural improvements. He still held the prebendal stall of Dultingcot in the cathedral of Wells. His death took place in January, 1834. A cenotaph was erected to his memory in the church of Harrow. At Harrow, Drury had Lord Byron for one of his pupils, and it is thus that the noble poet wrote respecting him—"If ever this imperfect record of my feelings should reach his eyes, let it remind him of one who never thinks upon him but with gratitude and veneration—of one who would more gladly boast of having been his pupil, if, by more closely following his injunctions, he could reflect any honour on his instructor." Byron refers to him again in the notes to Childe Harold—"The Rev. Dr. Joseph Drury was the best and worthiest friend I ever possessed; whose warnings I have remembered but too well, though too late, when I have erred; and whose counsels I have but followed, when I have done well or wisely."—R. M., A.
DRURY, Robert, an adventurous English mariner, a native of Leicestershire, whose memory has been preserved by his account of Madagascar, on which he was shipwrecked in the Degrave East Indiaman in 1702. He was then a boy, and lived on the island as a slave for fifteen years. His narrative is very curious, and its truth was corroborated by the journal kept by John Benbow, son of the famous admiral, who was second mate of the Degrave at the time of her shipwreck. Drury's work was first published in 1729, and has since been frequently reprinted. The date of his death is unknown.—J. T.
DRUSILLA, daughter of Herod Agrippa I., king of the Jews, and sister of the second Herod Agrippa, was born about a.d. 38. She had been promised in marriage to Epiphanes, son of Antiochus; but the latter refusing to embrace the Jewish religion, the union did not take place. She was afterwards married to Azozus, king of Emesa in Syria, whom she soon divorced. She then became the wife of Felix, governor of Judea, by whom she had a son called Agrippa. Drusilla was present on that memorable occasion when her husband trembled, "as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." Acts xxiv. 24.—R. M., A.
DRUSIUS or DRIESCHE. See Driesche.
DRUSUS, the name of a Roman family, several members of which are distinguished in history:—
Drusus, Marcus Livius, son of that Caius Livius Drusus who held the consulship 147 b.c., was tribune along with the celebrated Cains Gracchus, twenty-five years later; and being a staunch supporter of the aristocracy, was of special service in thwarting the schemes of his colleague. The policy which he adopted for this purpose was not of an honourable character. Throwing the veto and other hindrances in the way of the liberal measures proposed by the popular leader, he unblushingly adopted some of the legislative schemes which he had defeated, and carrying them into law, secured for his party the favour and gratitude of the populace. His enactments for enlarging the privileges of the Latins, for removing the tax on lands distributed to the poor, and for the founding of twelve colonies, each containing three thousand Roman citizens, were thus the fruits of a desire to strengthen the influence of the nobility, rather than the results of a disposition to promote the interests of the common people. But the latter were deceived, and the power of Gracchus waned; his efforts to obtain his re-election to the tribuneship the following year, 121 b.c., were unsuccessful; and he perished with his friend Flaccus in the tumult that ensued soon afterwards. Drusus held the consulship 112 b.c., with Macedonia for his province, where he had to repel the inroads of the wild Thracian Scordisci, who had been for some time harassing that part of the Roman frontier. The chastisement which he inflicted on them compelled them to retreat across the Danube, and he received a conqueror's welcome, with probably the honours of a triumph, on his return to Rome. He seems to have been censor with Scaurus, 109 b.c., and to have died in office.
Drusus, Marcus Livius, son of the preceding, inherited, along with his large fortune, his aristocratic principles and his desire to occupy the front rank in fighting the battles of the senatorial order against the popular party. Bayle, following the testimony of Velleius Paterculus, has styled him "a man of great parts, eloquence, wit, and courage." He certainly displayed in the course of his political career much ability and energy; but he was at the same time of a haughty ambitious spirit, and unscrupulous in the means which he employed for his own aggrandisement and the triumph of the party to which he had attached himself. He was one of those who rallied to the side of Marius, in the struggle which closed the career of the infamous demagogue Saturninus. His ædileship was signalized by the magnificence of his gifts to the people, and he is said to have refused to wear the insignia of his office, when he was quæstor in Asia, because he arrogantly reckoned himself too great to need them. But it was in the tribunate, which he held, 91 b.c., that he exercised his principal political influence. He adopted his father's policy of bestowing a gift where he struck a blow; but probably he had his own interested purposes in view, rather than the advancement of his party, when he proposed to enlarge the privileges of the Italic provincials, and procured the adoption of a law readmitting the senators to the judicial offices which had been wholly transferred to the equites, and calling three hundred of the equites into the senate. But he had a formidable rival in his brother-in-law Cæpio, and a still more dangerous opponent in the consul Philippus, who attacked him in the senate as a traitor to its interests, and ultimately prevailed upon that body to rescind the laws which he had carried. Driven thus to the alternative of resigning his hope of power, or venturing a higher stake for it, Drusus chose the latter course. By intrigue and bribery he induced a number of his fellow-citizens to join him in a conspiracy, which ere long began to show itself in public discontent and threatenings of civil strife. Energetic measures were adopted on the other side, and in the course of the preparations Drusus fell by the dagger of an assassin. Paterculus says that he died with the following words upon his lips—"When shall Rome have a citizen like me?" Although the perpetrator of the crime was not discovered, the suspicion which naturally arose in the
