Roman tribe
[1][2] According to tradition, the first three tribes were established by Romulus; each was divided into ten curiae, or wards, which were the voting units of the comitia curiata.
Although the comitia tributa lost most of its legislative functions under the Empire, enrollment in a tribe remained an important part of Roman citizenship until at least the third century AD.
[4] According to the ancient Roman tradition, shortly after the founding of Rome, Romulus created the first three tribes: the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres.
It may be to this period, rather than the time of Romulus, that the institution of the Luceres belongs; and indeed the names, if not the ethnic character, of all three of the Romulean tribes appear to be Etruscan.
The only curiae whose names are now known were: Acculeia,[ii] Calabra, Faucia,[iii] Foriensis,[iv] Rapta,[v] Tifata,[vi] Titia,[vii] Veliensis,[viii] and Velitia.
[15][16][17][14][18] In the past, it was widely believed that membership in the curiae was limited to the patricians, and that statements to the contrary, indicating that clientes were admitted meant no more than that they were passive members with no voting rights.
Under Servius Tullius, the rights to declare war and to decide appeals were transferred to the comitia centuriata, another legislative assembly.
The higher magistrates were elected by the comitia centuriata, which also presided over certain capital trials, and held the power to declare war, and to pass legislation presented by the senate.
The comitia also retained the power to decide whether to admit a non-patrician into that order, and to oversee the process of arrogatio, particularly when a patrician was being adopted into a plebeian family.
[26] Another group of officials, the divisores coordinated gifts among tribesmen and were regularly implicated in electoral bribery during the late republic.
[29] Toward the end of the Republic, the tribe became so important that it became an official part of a Roman's name, usually appearing, in the most formal documents and inscriptions, between a citizen's filiation and any cognomina.
When the Sabine Appius Claudius removed to Rome together with his clientes, in 504 BC, he was admitted to the patriciate, and assigned lands in the region around the mouth of the Anio.
In 332, the censors Quintus Publilius Philo and Spurius Postumius Albinus enrolled two more tribes, Maecia (originally Maicia) and Scaptia.
Those who wished to limit the voting power of the lower social orders, and particularly of freedmen, advocated enrolling them only in the four urban tribes.
Legislation, passed concurrently by the senate and the people, decreed that citizens created by further territorial annexation would be registered in one of the rural tribes.
By the end of the Republic, the plebs greatly outnumbered the patricians, and it was through this comitia that the collective will of the citizens could be exercised without regard to wealth or status.
A committee of seventeen tribes, chosen by lot, nominated the Pontifex Maximus, and coöpted members of the collegia of the pontifices, augures, and the decemviri sacrorum.
[4] The comitia could pass resolutions proposed by the tribunes of the plebs, or by the higher magistrates, on both domestic and foreign matters, such as the making of treaties or concluding of peace.
In the later Republic, these suits typically involved charges of maladministration; the tribunes and aediles were entitled to levy substantial fines.
He filled half of the available magistracies with his own candidates, and Tiberius transferred the comitia's remaining electoral authority to the senate.
[4] Although the comitia tributa continued to exist until the third century AD, its only remaining functions were symbolic; it took auspices and gave prayer; it conferred the emperor's legislative powers and other authority; and it proclaimed the laws presented to it for approval.
