Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

386

TRIBUNUS.

to the plebeians the right of appointing tri-
bunes (tribuni plebis) with more efficient
powers to protect their own order than those
which were possessed by the heads of the
tribes. The purpose for which the}7 were
appointed was only to afford protection
against any abuse on the part of the patrician
magistrates ; and that they might be able to
afford such protection their persons were
declared sacred and inviolable, and it was
agreed that whoever invaded this inviola-
bility should be an outlaw, and that his pro-
perty should be forfeited to the temple of
Ceres. A subsequent law enacted that no
one should oppose or interrupt a tribune
while addressing the people, and that who-
ever should act contrary to this ordinance
should give bail to the tribunes for the pay-
ment of whatever fine they should affix to
his offence in arraigning him before the
commonalty ; if he refused to give bail, his
life and property were forfeited. The tri-
bunes were thus enabled to afford protection
to any one who appealed to the assembly of
the commonalty or required any other assist-
ance. They were essentially the representa-
tives and the organs of the plebeian order,
and their sphere of action was the comitia
tributa. With the patricians and their co-
mitia they had nothing to do. The tribunes
themselves, however, were not judges, and
could inflict no punishments, but could only
propose the imposition of a fine to the com-
monalty [multam irrogare). The tribunes
were thus in their origin only a protecting
magistracy of the plebs, but in the course of
time their power increased to such a degree
that it surpassed that of all other magistrates,
and the tribunes then became a magistracy
for the whole Roman people, in opposition to
the senate and the oligarchical party in gene-
ral, although they had nothing to do with the
administration or the government. During
the latter period of the republic they became
true tyrants, and may be compared to the
national convention of France during the
first revolution. At first the number of the
tribunes was only two, but soon afterwards
they were increased to five, one being taken
from each of the five classes, and subse-
quently to ten, two being taken from each of
the five classes. This last number appears
to have remained unaltered down to the end
of the empire. The tribunes entered upon
their office on the 10th of December, but
were elected, at least in the time of Cicero,
on the J 7th of July. It is almost superfluous
to state that none but plebeians were eligible
to the office of tribune ; hence when, towards
the end of the republic, patricians wished to
obtain the office, they were obliged first to

renounce their own order and to become ple-
beians ; hence also under the empire it was
thought that the princcps should not be tri-
bune because he was a patrician. But the
influence which belonged to this office was
too great for the emperors not to covet it.
Hence Augustus was made tribune for life.
During the republic, however, the old regu-
lation remained in force, even after the tri-
bunes had ceased to be the protectors of the
plebs alone. There is only one instance re-
corded in which patricians were elected to
the tribuneship, and this was probably the
consequence of an attempt to divide the tri-
buneship between the two orders. Although
nothing appears to be more natural than
that the tribunes should originally have been
elected by that body of Roman citizens which
they represented, yet the subject is involved
in considerable obscurit}'. Some writers state
that they were elected by the comitia of the
curies ; others suppose that they were elected
in the comitia of the centuries; but whether
they were elected in the latter or in the
comitia of the tribes, it is certain that at first
the sanction of the curies to the election was
at all events necessary. But after the time
of the Lex Publilia (b. c. 472) the sanction
of the curies is not heard of, and the election
of the tribunes was left entirely to the co-
mitia tributa, which were convoked and held
for this purpose by the old tribunes previous
to the expiration of their office. One of the
old tribunes was appointed by lot to preside
at the election. As the meeting could not
be prolonged after sunset, and the business
was to be completed in one day, it sometimes
happened that it was obliged to break up
before the election was completed, and then
those who were elected filled up the legiti-
mate number of the college by cooptatio.
But in order to prevent this irregularity, the
tribune L. Trebonius, in 448 b. c, got an
ordinance passed, according to which the
college of the tribunes should never be com-
pleted by cooptatio, but the elections should
be continued on the second day, if they were
not completed on the first, till the number
ten was made up. The place where the elec-
tion of the tribunes was held was originally
and lawfully the Forum, afterwards also the
Campus Martius, and sometimes the area of
the Capitol.—We now proceed to trace the
gradual growth of the tribunitian power.
Although its original character was merely
protection [auxilium or /3oij0e<.a) against pa-
trician magistrates, the plebeians appear
early to have regarded their tribunes also as
mediators or arbitrators in matters among
themselves. The whole power possessed by
the college of tribunes was designated by the