Tribune

Tribune, word derived from “tribe”, and official title of several kinds of ancient Roman public officials, the most important of whom were the military tribunes and people's tribunes.

In the traditional organization of Roman citizens, the leader of the soliders provided by each of the three Roman tribes was called tribunus clerum, or commander of the horsemen. From 444 to 367 bc, military tribunes with consular power were frequently elected in place of the regular magistrates or consuls. During the Roman Republic, six military tribunes served as senior officers of the Roman legions. After 362 bc they were elected annually by the people in the comitia tributa, or assembly of tribes. The number was gradually increased to 24, and more could be nominated by the consuls. Towards the end of the republic, however, command in the field was entrusted to a skilled officer, and the tribunes served as the general's honorary staff. Election to the military tribuneship was a means of gaining higher public office.

In the early period all the perquisites and prerogatives of government in Rome were controlled by the patricians, while the plebeians, who constituted the majority of the population, had to bear the burdens of taxation and military service. Following the rebellion of the plebeians in 494 bc, these conditions were partly remedied when the plebeians won the right to elect their own magistrates, called tribuni plebis, to represent their interests. Although originally there were only two peoples tribunes, by 450 bc there were ten.

The people's tribunes enjoyed three important privileges: the right to defend a member of the plebeians on any charge; the right to veto any measure proposed by the Roman Senate; and personal inviolability during their terms of office. These tribunes gradually extended political rights to all the people. Roman emperors also took the title of tribune thus acquiring the constitutional rights of tribunes and a popular image. The office itself gradually lost its importance, although it continued to exist until dissolution of the western Roman Empire in the 5th century ad.