Tribunates

Tribunates refers to the office or offices of tribune in ancient Rome, collectively describing the body of magistracies known as the tribunate. The most prominent form was the tribunate of the plebs, created to protect the rights and interests of the common people against the patrician magistrates.

Ten tribunes of the plebs were elected annually by the Plebeian Council. The office enjoyed sacrosanctity, meaning the person of a tribune was inviolable and protected by law. Tribunes could intervene in matters involving other magistrates, most notably through the power of intercessio, or veto, which allowed them to block actions by consuls and other officials. They could also convene the Plebeian Council and initiate legislation known as plebiscites.

Plebiscites were originally binding only on plebeians, but after the Lex Hortensia of 287 BCE they became binding on all Roman citizens. Tribunes could propose laws and protections for the people and act as guardians against abuses of power, including protecting citizens from arbitrary prosecution or detention.

In addition to the plebeian tribunes, the term tribunes also referred to military tribunes (tribuni militum), officials serving in the Roman army, typically appointed under consuls and sometimes functioning as a college within the army rather than as a civilian magistrate.

The influence of the tribunate fluctuated over time. Its powers were curtailed and restored variously by constitutional reforms and political conflict, and after the late Republic it survived in a reduced or ceremonial form under the Empire. The tribunate remains a key episode in the Roman constitutional evolution, illustrating the tension between popular sovereignty and aristocratic authority.