Tribune - Plebeian Tribune

Plebeian Tribune

In 494 BC, the city was at war, but the plebeian soldiers refused to march against the enemy, and instead seceded to the Aventine hill. The Patricians quickly became desperate to end what was, in effect, a labor strike, and thus they quickly agreed to the demands of the plebeians, that they be given the right to elect their own officials. The plebeians named these new officials plebeian tribunes (tribuni plebis), and gave them two assistants, the plebeian aediles (aediles plebi).

Since the plebeian tribunes and plebeian aediles were elected by the plebeians (non-aristocrats that owned land) in the Plebeian Council, rather than by all of the People of Rome (plebeians, the patrician nobility, and the capite censi, landless commoners), they were technically not "magistrates". While the term "plebeian magistrate" (magistratus plebeii) has been used as an approximation, it is technically a contradiction. The plebeian aedile functioned as the tribune's assistant, and often performed similar duties to those of the curule aediles. In time, however, the differences between the plebeian aediles and the curule aediles disappeared.

Since the tribunes were considered to be the embodiment of the plebeians, they were sacrosanct. Their sacrosanctity was enforced by a pledge, taken by the plebeians, to kill any person who harmed or interfered with a tribune during his term of office. All of the powers of the tribunes derived from their sacrosanctity. One obvious consequence of this sacrosanctity was the fact that it was considered a capital offense to harm a tribune, to disregard his veto, or to interfere with a tribune. The sacrosanctity of a tribune (and thus all of his legal powers) were only in effect so long as that tribune was within the city of Rome. If the tribune was abroad, the plebeians in Rome could not enforce their oath to kill any individual who harmed or interfered with the tribune. Since tribunes were technically not magistrates, they had no magisterial powers ("major powers" or maior potestas), and thus could not rely on such powers to veto. Instead, they relied on the sacrosanctity of their person to obstruct. If a magistrate, an assembly or the senate did not comply with the orders of a tribune, the tribune could 'interpose the sacrosanctity of his person' (intercessio) to physically stop that particular action. Any resistance against the tribune was tantamount to a violation of his sacrosanctity, and thus was considered a capital offense. Their lack of magisterial powers made them independent of all other magistrates, which also meant that no magistrate could veto a tribune.

Tribunes could use their sacrosanctity to order the use of capital punishment against any person who interfered with their duties. Tribunes could also use their sacrosanctity as protection when physically manhandling an individual, such as when arresting someone. On a couple of rare occasions (such as during the tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus), a tribune might use a form of blanket obstruction, which could involve a broad veto over all governmental functions. While a tribune could veto any act of the senate, the assemblies, or the magistrates, he could only veto the act, and not the actual measure. Therefore, he had to physically be present when the act was occurring. As soon as that tribune was no longer present, the act could be completed as if there had never been a veto.

Tribunes, the only true representatives of the people, had the authority to enforce the right of provoco ad populum, which was a theoretical guarantee of due process, and a precursor to the common law concept of habeas corpus. If a magistrate was threatening to take action against a citizen, that citizen could yell "ego te provoco!", which would appeal the magistrate's decision to a tribune. A tribune had to assess the situation, and give the magistrate his approval before the magistrate could carry out the action. Sometimes the tribune brought the case before the College of Tribunes or the Plebeian Council for a trial. Any action taken in spite of a valid provocatio was on its face illegal. In this capacity, the tribune was the principal, and often the only, guarantor of the civil liberties of Roman citizens against arbitrary state power. The degree of liberty afforded to Roman citizens by the tribune through the power of Provocatio was unmatched in the ancient world.

Tribunes were required to be plebeians, and until 421 BC this was the only office open to them. In the late Republic the patrician politician Clodius arranged for his adoption by a plebeian branch of his family, and successfully ran for the tribunate. When Lucius Cornelius Sulla was dictator he severely curtailed the tribunes of the plebeians by invalidating their power of veto and making it illegal for them to bring laws before the Concilium Plebis without the Senate's consent. Afterwards, the tribunate was restored to its former power during the consulship of Crassus and Pompey.

Throughout the Republic and its fall, powerful individuals used the tribunes for their personal glory and gain. Clodius and Milo were both tribunes who used violence in the courts and government in order to achieve the needs and requests of Pompey and Caesar. When the Senate refused to grant Caesar's veterans lands and a further governorship of Gaul, he turned to the tribunes with his demands and got them.

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