TRIBUNI, tPi-bfi'-ni. r. PLEBIS, /3/i•'-bi.T, the Tribunes of Me Gammons. annul Mouton officers, instituted after the first secession of the Plebs, 49.4 !IX to protect their interests, the Plebs being then excluded from political offices and status, and overwhelmed with debt. From the characteristics of this office, it is evident that such an anomalous feature as the Tribunes of the Commons in the constitution could at first have been intended to be merely temporary, till a different arrangement was come to between the Patricians and Plebeians ; but a permanent character was given to the office 457, when the number, originally two or five, was raised to ten. The houses of the Tribunes were to be open at all hours, that any one requiring their aid might approach them ; and, to give them the necessary protection, their persons were declared inviolable, sacra sancti ; i.e., any one offering them violence was accursed, nicer, and might be slain by any person. Only Plebeians (by birth or adoption) were eligible for the Tribinrcia j3otes'tas, with which, under the Empire, the prince was usually invested, the Tribunate being still re tained, but without any influence or authority. The Tribunes were not, strictly speaking, magistrates, nor had they any especial offices in the government. Their duty was to protect the Plebeians by imposing their veto (inter cessio) on the encroachments of the Patricians, either in the shape of a decree of the Senate or of a magistrate ; but, though probably not at their institution, one Tribune could nullify the decision of the rest by his intercessio, and thus, by procuring the alliance of one Tribune, the opposite party could render the veto of the rest inoperative. The Tribunes early arrogated the
right of summoning the Patricians before the Cbmi tin Tributa, and gradually assumed the initiative in the proposal of laws at this Assembly. After the equalization of the Plebs and Patricians, the object of the veto was to oppose those encroachments on the rights of the united people which were attempted by the government through decrees of the Senate, or by the Magistrates, and they occasionally enforced this veto by confiscation and arrest. They had the right of being present at a meet ing of the Senate, and of calling it together ; but they were not members of the house till 131 B.C. The authority of the Tribunes did not extend beyond 7,000 j5assus (1,618 English yards), and they could not be absent from Rome one entire day. Each Tribune had a state attendant, vief'tor, but they had no other external symbols of dignity. 2. MILITARES CONSULAR! POTESTATR, vu-11-td-res 13(Y-leS-tle-te, officers, chosen indifferently from Patricians and Plebeians, instituted 445 B.C., after the third secession of the Plebs, as a compromise of the proposal to throw open the Consulship, with the powers and insignia of which these officers were intrusted. Their number varied from three to six. The Consul ship was restored 365. 3. MILITUM, officers in the Legio. 4. CELERUM, cel-e-rum, commander of the royal body-guard (see Equrrns).