TRIBUNE (Lat. tribunes, originally a tribal officer, from tribes, tribe). In ancient Rome the name tribune was applied to two distinct functionaries, the military tribunes minium) and the tribunes of the plebs (tribuni Picbis), which will be considered separately. (1) In the traditional organization of the citi zens by Romulus the leader of the quota of war riors furnished by each of the three tribes was called tribunes and the same was true when the tribes were increased to four under Servius Tullius, when we read also of tribuni crre•ii, whose duty it was to collect and pay into the treasury the tribal taxes ('tribute'). Under the Republic each legion was under the eommand of six military tribunes, at first appointed by the consuls (who were the commanders-in-chief), afterwards elected at the commlma tribute. Their importance was greatly diminished at the end of the Republic, when the actual command of the legion in the field was confided to a skilled officer called legates legionis, and the six tribuni mill tuns were retained only as an honorary staff of the general. With the formal development of the curses honorem, or regular sequence of offices for men of senatorial rank, the military tribuneship took its place in the preliminary service, as a stepping-stone by which young nobles might reach the higher positions. Under the Empire the name tribuni was given also to the officers of each cohort of the przetorian guards, city guards (cohortes urbanr), and night-watch (Hynes).
(2) In the early period all the perquisites and prerogatives of government in Rome were in the hands of the patricians, while the plebs, the bulk of the people, had only the burdens of taxation and military service. This galling condition is said
to have been partly remedied by the secession of the plebs in n.c. 494, when they secured the right to have annual magistrates, called tribuni plcbis, chosen from their number to look after their especial interests and needs. These were six in number (at first perhaps five), served for one year, and were reeligible. They were invested with three important privileges: (1) ius ar_rifIi, the right to defend a plebeian on any charge: intercessio, the right of vetoing any measure pro posed by the senate; (3) personal inviolability during their term of office. After a.c. 471 the tribunes were regulany elected by the popular comitia tribute. The power and energy of the plebeian tribunes were responsible for tbe grad ual extension of political rights to all the people, and to the struggle between patricians and plebeians that marks the history of the Republic. They caused the eodifieation of the laws ('Twelve Tables') in B.C. 451: the recognition of the popu lar decrees (plebiscite) as binding on all alike, B.C. 449; the right of intermarriage between patricians and plebeians by the lex Canulcia, B.C. 445; the successive opening up of the high offices to the plebeians; the Licinian Rogations (q.v.), n.c. 367; and the agrarian agitation of Tiberius and Gains araechus. (See OaAccays,) Augustus Caesar took to himself the power and rights of the tribunes (tribunieia potestas), and hence under the Empire the office lost its im portanee, becoming a function for senators of plebeian rank, held between the qutestorship and the pratorship.