TRIBUNE [Lat. tribunes, connected with tribes, tribe], a name assigned to officers of different descriptions in ancient Rome.
The original tribunes were the com manders of the contingents of cavalry and infantry supplied to the Roman army by the early tribes : the Tities, the Ramnes, and the Luceres. In the historical period, the infantry in each legion was commanded by six tribunes, and the number six is to be traced to the doubling of the three tribes by the incorporation of the new elements which received the names of Tities secundi, Ramnes secundi, Luceres secundi. The tribuni celerum, or com manders of the horsemen, no longer existed in the later times of the republic, having died out with the decay of the genuine Roman cavalry. So long as the monarchy lasted these tribunes were nominated by the king as commander-in-chief ; and the nomina tion passed over to his successors, the consuls. From 362 B.C. six tribunes were annually nominated by popular vote, in 311 B.C. the number was raised to 16, and in 207 B.C. to 24, at which figure it remained. The tribunes thus elected sufficed for four legions and ranked as magistrates of. the Roman people, designated tribuni militum a populo, while those who owed their office to the consuls bore the title of tribuni rufuli. The rights of the assembly passed to the emperors, and "the military tribunes of Augustus" were still contrasted with those nominated in the camp by the actual commanders. (For Tribuni aerarii, see AERARII.) There was another important class of tribunes that owed its existence to the army. In the long struggle between the patrician and plebeian sections of the population, the first distinctions to which the plebeians forced their way were military, and the contest for ad mission to the consulate was, in part, a contest for admission to the supreme command of the national forces. In 445 B.C., power was given to the senate of determining from year to year whether consuls or military tribunes with consular authority (tribuni mil itares consulari potestate) should be appointed. But no election
was valid without the express sanction of the senate.
The most important tribunes were the tribunes of the plebs (tribuni plebis). These were the out come of the struggle between the patrician and the plebeian orders. When in 494 B.C. the plebeian legionaries met on the Sacred Mount, it was determined that the plebeians should by themselves annually appoint executive officers, two tribunes (the very name commemorated the military nature of the revolt) to confront the two consuls, and two helpers, called aediles, to bal ance the quaestors, and that the persons of the tribunes and aediles should be regarded as inviolable. The ancient traditions concerning the revolution are extremely confused and contra dictory. It must have ended in something which was deemed by both the contending bodies to be a binding compact, although the lapse of time has blotted out its terms. This is necessary to explain the "sacrosanct" character always attached to the tribun ate. There must have been a formal acceptance by the patricians of the plebeian conditions; probably the oath which was first sworn by the insurgents was afterwards taken by the whole com munity, and the "sacrosanctity" of the plebeian officials became a part of the constitution. There must also have been some con stitutional definition of the powers of the tribunes. These rested at first on an extension of the power of veto which the republic had introduced. Just as one consul could invalidate an order of his colleague, so a tribune could invalidate an order of a consul, or of any officer inferior to him. There was, no doubt, a vague understanding that only orders which sinned against the just and established practice of the constitution should be annulled, and then only in cases affecting definite individuals. This was tech nically called auxilium. The cases which arose most commonly concerned the administration of justice and the levying of troops.