plebeian tribune

According to the annalistic tradition, one of the most important events in the struggle of the orders was the creation of the plebeian tribunate. After being worn down by military service, bad economic conditions, and the rigours of early Rome’s debt law, the…

The tribuni plebis (tribunes of the plebs, or lower classes) were in existence by the 5th century bc; their office developed into one of the most powerful in Rome. The exact date of its institution, the original mode of election, and the original extent of its…

…will, in part because the plebeian tribunes, as members of the senatorial order, generally shared the Senate’s interests and in part because the plebeians benefited from Rome’s great successes abroad under senatorial leadership. Yet senatorial fear of unbridled popular legislative power is perceptible in the Aelian and Fufian law of…