Tribune of the plebs

These tribunes had the power to convene and preside over the Concilium Plebis (people's assembly); to summon the senate; to propose legislation; and to intervene on behalf of plebeians in legal matters; but the most significant power was to veto the actions of the consuls and other magistrates, thus protecting the interests of the plebeians as a class.

In imperial times, the powers of the tribunate were granted to the emperor as a matter of course, and the office itself lost its independence and most of its functions.

[1] Fifteen years after the expulsion of the kings and establishment of the Roman Republic, the plebeians were burdened by crushing debt.

A series of clashes between the people and the ruling patricians in 495 and 494 BC brought the plebeians to the brink of revolt, and there was talk of assassinating the consuls.

Instead, on the advice of Lucius Sicinius Vellutus, the plebeians seceded en masse to the Mons Sacer (the Sacred Mount), a hill outside of Rome.

[1][6] Ius intercessionis, also called intercessio, the power of the tribunes to intercede on behalf of the plebeians and veto the actions of the magistrates, was unique in Roman history.

Because they were not technically magistrates, and thus possessed no maior potestas, they relied on their sacrosanctity to obstruct actions unfavourable to the plebeians.

If a magistrate, the senate, or any other assembly disregarded the orders of a tribune, he could "interpose the sacrosanctity of his person" to prevent such action.

[8] Tribunes also possessed the authority to enforce the right of provocatio ad populum, a precursor of the modern right of habeas corpus.

Because the sacrosanctity of the tribunes depended on the oath of the plebeians to defend them, their powers were limited to the boundaries of the city of Rome.

On the return of the envoys, the senate and the tribunes agreed to the appointment of a committee of ten men, known as the decemviri, or decemvirs, to serve for one year in place of the annual magistrates, and codify Roman law.

Worse still, in 448, two patricians were co-opted to fill vacant positions in the tribunate, although they proved to be of moderate views, and their year of office was peaceful.

[i][15][14] Beginning in 376, Gaius Licinius Calvus Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus, tribunes of the plebs, used the veto power to prevent the election of any annual magistrates.

Although the tribunes retained the power to intercede on behalf of individual citizens, most of their authority was lost under Sulla's reforms.

[19] Former tribunes were once again admitted to the annual magistracies beginning in 75 BC, and the tribunician authority was fully restored by the consuls Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus in 70.

Although considered outrageous at the time, Clodius' scheme was allowed to proceed, and he embarked on a program of legislation designed to outlaw his political opponents and confiscate their property, while realizing a substantial gain from his actions.

[20][21][22] In 48 BC, the senate bestowed the tribunicia potestas (tribunician power) on the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar, who, as a patrician, was ineligible to be elected one of the tribunes.

Agrippa, Drusus the Younger, Tiberius, Titus, Trajan, and Marcus Aurelius each received the tribunician power in this way.