Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Tribunus

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

TRIBU'NUS. A tribune; a title originally signifying an officer belonging to a tribe, either elected as its president, or to perform certain duties in its behalf; whence the name was subsequently transferred to several different kinds of officers appointed for the performance of various other duties. Of these the most important are the following: —

1. Tribunus Celerum. The tribune who commanded the royal body guard of cavalry under the kings. Liv. i. 59. Pomp. Dig. i. 2. 2. CELERES.

2. Tribuni militum consulari potestate. Tribunes of military rank with consular power. These were supreme magistrates possessing the same rank and power as the consuls, but varying in number from three to six, who were first elected in the year U.C. 310, instead of consuls, as a sort of compromise between the patricians and plebeians, in order to avoid the necessity of appointing members of the latter class to the consulship. Their costume and insignia of office were the same as those of the consuls. Liv. iv. 6. and 7.

3. Tribuni militares or militum (χιλίαρχοι). Military tribunes; officers in the Roman army who held a rank below that of the legati, but superior to that of the centuriones. (Varro, L. L. v. 81. Cic. Cluent. 36.) The numbers of these officers appointed to each legion varied at differed periods, as the number of men composing its strength was increased; but they enjoyed an important command and high rank, being often represented on the columns and arches in the immediate staff of the imperator, and wearing the same accoutrements with himself and the legatus, as exhibited by the annexed group (Tribunus/3.1), from the Column of Trajan, which shows the emperor in front, a legatus immediately behind him, and the tribune in the rear.

4. Tribuni plebei or plebis (δήμαρχοι). Tribunes of the people; magistrates elected by the plebeians from amongst their own order, to defend the rights and interests of the poorer and weaker classes against the power of the patrician aristocracy. Their numbers varied from two at first to ten finally; but they enjoyed immense power, and were attended by runners (viatores) instead of lictors, whence the emblems attributed to them on coins are the long bench (subsellium) and a wand (virga); though as mere civilians, they have no distinct costum but the national toga. Liv. ii. 32. Cic. Leg. iii. 7.

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  Tribunus/3.1