tribune of the plebs
tribune of the plebsThe ‘tribuni plebis’ (or ‘plebi’) were the officers of the plebs first created in 500–450 BC (traditionally in 494, the date of the first secession of the plebs and their corporate recognition; see Rome (history) §1.2). The word is evidently connected with tribus, but it is uncertain whether the tribunes were at first chiefs of the tribes who later became officers of the plebs (they are sometimes phylarchoi in Greek, but dēmarchoi is standard), or whether the title imitated that of the military tribunes (tribuni militum) already existing. The original number of the tribunes is variously given as two, four, or five; by 449 it had certainly risen to ten. The tribunes were charged with the defence of the persons and property of the plebeians (ius auxilii). Their power derived not from statute (initially, at least) but from...
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