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242 Sentences With "tribune of the plebs"

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Our Constitution doesn't mandate that only the wealthy can become senators, and we don't have a tribune of the plebs.
Gaius Terentilius Harsa or Arsa was a Tribune of the Plebs of the Roman Republic in 462 BC.
Lucius Aurelius Cotta was a Roman magistrate, tribune of the plebs in 154 BC, and consul in 144 BC.
Gaius Cornelius was a politician during the late Roman Republic. He is most famous for serving as tribune of the plebs in 67 BC.
Gaius Appuleius Decianus was tribune of the plebs in 98 BC, known primarily for his connection to politically motivated prosecutions in the Late Roman Republic.
The following individuals held the position of Tribune of the Plebs (Tribunus Plebis) during the Roman Republic, starting with the creation of the office in 493 BC.
Gaius Furnius was tribune of the plebs in 50 BC,Cicero ad Att. v. 2, 18 and a friend and correspondent of Cicero.Cicero, Ad Fam. x. 25, 26.
Gaius Manilius was a Roman tribune of the plebs in 66 BCE. He is primarily known for his Lex Manilia, the bill which gave Pompey the Great command of the war against Mithridates.
The aediles benefited from a law passed the previous year by the tribune of the plebs Gnaeus Aufidius, which allowed importation of beasts from Africa for the circus games.Pliny, viii. 64.Broughton, vol. I, pp.
P. Porcius Laeca was tribune of the plebs in 199 BC, when he prevented Lucius Manlius Acidinus from entering Rome to celebrate an ovation granted by the senate.Livy, xxviii. 38, xxix. 1—3, 13, xxxii.
Dionysius, xi. 22–27. The second, and more famous misdeed concerned a young woman named Verginia, the daughter of a centurion, Lucius Verginius. She was betrothed to Lucius Icilius, tribune of the plebs in 456.
Their father, Quintus, was a praetor; the Q. Baebius Tamphilus who was tribune of the plebs in 200 may have been the eldest of his sons.See Baebia (gens) for more on Q. Baebius, the tribune of 200 BC.
Marcus Duronius was a tribune of the plebs, most likely in 97 BC. He abrogated a sumptuary law, one of the Leges Liciniae.Aulus Gellius 2.24.10; Macrobius 3.17.7; T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (American Philological Association, 1952), vol.
Carfulenus served under Caesar in the Alexandrine War, B.C. 47. Hirtius describes him as a man of great military skill.Aulus Hirtius, De Bello Alexandrino, 31. At the time of Caesar's murder in 44 B.C., Carfulenus was tribune of the plebs.
As a result, the plebeians seceded and departed to the nearby Mons Sacer (the Sacred Mountain). Ultimately, a reconciliation was negotiated and the plebs were given political representation by the creation of the office of the Tribune of the Plebs.
A member of the plebeian gens Aurelia, Cotta was elected tribune of the plebs in 154 BC. During his term as Plebeian tribune, Cotta refused to pay his debts during his term as magistrate, citing the 'sanctity' of his position.
The gens Terentia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Dionysius mentions a Gaius Terentilius Arsa, tribune of the plebs in 462 BC, but Livy calls him Terentilius, and from inscriptions this would seem to be a separate gens.Livy, iii. 9.Dionysius, x. 1.
The Lollii appear to have been either of Samnite or Sabine origin, for a Samnite of this name is mentioned in the war with Pyrrhus and Marcus Lollius Palicanus, who was tribune of the plebs in 71 BC, is described as a native of Picenum.
The gens Terentilia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Only one member of this gens appears in history; Gaius Terentilius Arsa was tribune of the plebs in 462 BC.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p. 996 ("Terentius", No. 1).
M. Baebius Tamphilus was a tribune of the plebs in 194.CIL 12 2.585. Broughton notes that the Lex agraria of 111 names a M. Baebius who was both plebeian tribune and one of the IIIvir col. deduc. and whom Mommsen identified as this man.
Only laws and the decrees of the Senate or the People's assembly limited their powers, and only the veto of a fellow consul or a tribune of the plebs could supersede their decisions. A consul was escorted by twelve lictors, held imperium and wore the toga praetexta. Because the consul was the highest executive office within the Republic, they had the power to veto any action or proposal by any other magistrate, save that of the Tribune of the Plebs. After a consulship, a consul was assigned one of the more important provinces and acted as the governor in the same way that a Propraetor did, only owning Proconsular imperium.
Publius shouted to Gaius in Greek, "Brother, help me!". The other assassins then joined in. At the time Casca held the office of tribune of the plebs. After the assassination he fled Rome, and his colleague in the tribunate, Publius Titius, had him deprived of his office.
Quintus Aelius Tubero was a Stoic philosopher and a pupil of Panaetius of Rhodes. He had a reputation for talent and legal knowledge.Cic. Brut. 117Cic. pro Muren. 75Tac. Ann. xvi. 22Gell. i. 22 He might have been a tribune of the plebs in 130 BC.Broughton, vol.
Tiberius Canutius or Cannutius was tribune of the plebs in 44 BC, the year of Caesar's assassination. As a supporter of the senatorial party, he opposed the triumvirs, resorting to military force during the Perusine War. He was captured and put to death by Octavianus in 40 BC.
The nomen Rabuleius belongs to a large class of gentilicia formed with the suffix -eius, which was often, but not exclusively of Oscan origin.Chase, pp. 120, 121. According to Dionysius, the decemvir Manius Rabuleius was a patrician, although earlier Dionysius mentions a Rabuleius who was tribune of the plebs.
Titus Didius held office in 103 BC as a tribune of the Plebs. He is noted for attempting to veto fellow tribune Gaius Norbanus’s prosecution of Quintus Servilius Caepio in the aftermath of the Battle of Arausio, which resulted in him being driven off from the proceedings by force.
The law's alternative title as plebiscitum Claudianum and the fact that Quintus Claudius was a tribune of the plebs both how the law was passed. The title plebiscitum refers to resolutions which were passed by the consilium plebis, the plebeian assembly, which was convened a presided over by the tribune of the plebs. Despite previous restrictions during this period, the passage of plebiscitum did not rely on the approval of the senate and were binding for all citizens. Although they accounted for a significant amount of Roman legislation, they remained a pathway for challenging the authority of the senate and this is most likely why lex Claudia was passed using this method, given the senatorial resistance to it.
The gens Cantia was an obscure plebeian family at Rome. The only member of this gens mentioned in history is Marcus Cantius, tribune of the plebs in 293 BC; however, some manuscripts of Livy give his nomen as Scantius.Livy, x. 46.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol.
According to Suetonius, Lurco held a high office at Rome. In 61 BC, he was a Tribune of the Plebs. During his time as Tribune, he was the author of the Lex Aufidia or Lex Aufidia de ambitu. The Lex Aufidia was a law concerning the Roman assemblies or Comitia.
108f During Hadrian's time as Tribune of the Plebs, omens and portents supposedly announced his future imperial condition.For instance, a probably bogus anecdote in Historia Augusta relates that as tribune he had lost a cloak that emperors never wore: Michael Reiche, ed., Antike Autobiographien: Werke, Epochen, Gattungen. Köln: Böhlau, 2005, , p.
Gaius Atinius Labeo was tribune of the plebs in 196 BC, and carried a bill authorizing five colonies. He also joined with the tribune Quintus Marcius Ralla in vetoing the attempt of the consul, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, to prevent peace with Philip.Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita xxxii.29, xxxiii.25.
Titus Didius belonged to the plebiean gens Didia, which was relatively new in Roman politics. The first known member of the gens was his homonymous father, who passed a sumptuary law (the lex Didia) when he was tribune of the plebs in 143 BC.Broughton, vol. I, pp. 472, 474 (note ).
Monument of Titus Calidius Severus. The gens Calidia or Callidia was a Roman family during the final century of the Republic. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Quintus Calidius, tribune of the plebs in 99 and praetor in 79 B.C.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
Ogilvie doubts the existence of Quintus Hortensius, ostensibly tribune of the plebs in 422 BC, suggesting that this story was invented at the time of the marriage of Sempronia with Lucius Hortensius, the father of the famous orator, and concluding that the Hortensii probably arrived at Rome during the fourth century BC.
Marcus Flavius was Tribune of the Plebs in 327 and again in 323 BC.Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium libri IX ix. 10. § 1. In 329 BC, Flavius was accused of seducing married women by the aedile, Gaius Valerius Potitus (consul 331 BC).Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium libri IX viii. 1.
Metellus returned to Rome and to his houses at the Palatine Hill and the Via Tiburtina and lived there the rest of his days, intervening little in public affairs. Cicero dubiously reports a rumour that Quintus Varius, the populist tribune of the plebs for 91 BC, ultimately poisoned Metellus – presumably Metellus Numidicus.
The gens Acutia was a minor plebeian family at Ancient Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned from the early Republic to imperial times. The first of the Acutii to achieve prominence was Marcus Acutius, tribune of the plebs in 401 BC.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p.
His paternal grandfather was also a consul in 238 BC. His mother's identity is not known. His father was not the same Publius Sempronius Gracchus who served as tribune of the plebs in 189 BC. Instead his father had possibly died during the Second Punic War, since no further references exist to him.
Livy is our only source for the next few years. According to him, in 388 the Roman tribunes of the plebs proposed to divide up the Pomptine territory, but met little support from the plebs.Livy, 6.5.1-5 In 387 BC Lucius Sicinius, tribune of the plebs, again raised the question of the Pomptine territory.
Walker, Book 6, Chapter 1.11, p. 200 Cominius and a tribune of the plebs summoned Mergus, a high- ranking military career person, before the people because of sexual relations with young men and women outside his marriage. He was prosecuted and sent to prison. In Book 6 Chapter 1.12 Valerius tells the story of Chiomara.
He in a served a number of political roles throughout his life, beginning in 149 BC when he held the office of tribune of the plebs. During his tribunate he proposed the first law for the punishment of extortion in the provinces, the Lex Calpurnia de Repetundis.Cicero, Brutus 27, In Verrem iii. 84, iv.
In 180 BC, the tribune of the plebs Lucius Villius Annalis made a successful proposal for a law that regulated 'the ages at which each magistracy might be sought and held' (Livy 40. 44). Evans noted that the law likely introduced an 'obligatory biennium between curule offices, or at least between praetorship and consulship'.
In 204 BC Marcellus was a tribune of the plebs, appointed to lead a commission (also including Cato) to investigate charges made against Scipio Africanus. The charges were dismissed, and it is unclear what relationship, if any, existed between the two men. (Marcellus's father and Scipio's uncle had been co-consuls in 222 BC).
The gens Duilia or Duillia was a plebeian family at Rome. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Marcus Duilius, tribune of the plebs in BC 470. The family produced several important statesmen over the first three centuries of the Republic, before fading into obscurity.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
Anthony Birley, Restless Emperor, p.54 His next post was as ab actis senatus, keeping the Senate's records.Boatwright, in Barrett, p. 158 During the First Dacian War, Hadrian took the field as a member of Trajan's personal entourage, but was excused from his military post to take office in Rome as Tribune of the Plebs, in 105.
The gens Ampia was a plebeian family at Rome, during the last century of the Republic, and into the first century AD. The first member of the gens to achieve prominence was Titus Ampius Balbus, who was first tribune of the plebs, then held the praetorship in 59 BC.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
De Haruspicum Responsis 13. who was also tetrarch of the Tolistobogii. By Deiotarus' daughter Adobogiona, Brogitarus was the father of Amyntas, tetrarch of the Trocmi and king of Galatia. Cicero claims that Brogitarus obtained his elevation to the kingship of Galatia alongside Deiotarus by bribing P. Clodius Pulcher, who was then tribune of the plebs at Rome.
The gens Appuleia, occasionally written Apuleia, was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, which flourished from the fifth century BC into imperial times. The first of the gens to achieve importance was Lucius Appuleius, tribune of the plebs in 391 BC.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 248 ("Appuleia or Apuleia Gens").
The gens Furnia was a plebeian family at Rome. The Furnian gens was of great antiquity, dating to the first century of the Republic; Gaius Furnius was tribune of the plebs in 445 BC. However, no member of the family achieved prominence again for nearly four hundred years.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, pp.
Holland, Rubicon, pp. 234, 235. His scheme was successful, and Clodius was elected tribune of the plebs, taking office on November 16. He immediately began preparing for the destruction of Cicero, at the same time undertaking an extensive program of populist legislation, intended to position himself as benefactor to as much of the community as possible.
Aulus Pompeius (flourished 2nd century BC) was the son Quintus Pompeius tribune of the plebs in 132 BC, who was an opponent to politician Tiberius Gracchus and was the younger brother to the above named. His mother is unknown. Aulus was named after his paternal great, grandfather of the same name. Very little is known on this Aulus Pompeius.
Glabrio was a tribune of the plebs in 201, plebeian aedile in 197, and praetor peregrinus in 195. He was elected consul for the year 191 BC together with Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica.Broughton, MRR2, p. 525. As consul, Glabrio defeated the Seleucid ruler Antiochus the Great at the Battle of Thermopylae, and compelled him to leave Greece.
Gaius Canuleius, tribune of the plebs in 445 BC, addresses the senate. The gens Canuleia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Although members of this gens are known throughout the period of the Republic, and were of senatorial rank, none of them ever obtained the consulship. However, the Canuleii furnished the Republic with several tribunes of the plebs.
Publius Falcidius was an ancient Roman Tribune of the Plebs in 40 BCE, of the gens Falcidia. He was the author of the Lex Falcidia de Legatis, a law on inheritance which remained in force in the sixth century CE, since it was incorporated by Justinian in the Institutes. It is remarkable that Cassius Dioxlviii. 33 (cited by Donne) mistakes its import.
A Publius Magius was tribune of the plebs in 87 BC with M. Marius Gratidianus. and both Appuleius DecianusBobbio Scholiast 95 (Stangl). Appian is misleading, or the text has been misread, when he calls Magius and Fannius "Sertorians"; see Konrad, Plutarch's Sertorius, pp. 191–192. and the senator AttidiusAppian, Mithridatic Wars 90; this long friendship, however, ended with Attidius's execution in a conspiracy.
R. Shackleton Bailey trans., Cicero’s Letters to his Friends (Atlanta 1988) p. 154-5 and p. 204 when at the end of 51 BC Curio got himself elected as a tribune of the Plebs for 50 BC. As Tribune he suddenly did a volte-face and became a supporter of Caesar (probably because in return for his support, Caesar paid off his debts).
There were two main families of the Villii, bearing the cognomina Annalis and Tappulus. The former was given in consequence of Lucius Villius, tribune of the plebs in 179 BC, and author of the lex Villia Annalis, establishing the minimum age (annus, literally a person's "year") at which candidates could stand for public offices.Livy, xl. 44.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Mythology, vol.
He was successfully defended by Crassus and, more famously, Cicero, whose speech Pro Caelio argued that the prosecutor, Atratinus, was being manipulated by Clodia to get revenge on Caelius for an affair gone wrong. Caelius was tribune of the plebs in 52 and curule aedile in 50.D R Shackleton Bailey trans., Cicero’s Letters to his Friends (Atlanta 1988) p.
He was a politically involved citizen of the city of Bologna, where he held several magistrates, such as those of the court of the merchant forum and Tribune of the Plebs. He was also a member of the Accademia dei Gelati (with the alias "l'Innestato"), of the Accademia degli Indomiti (as "lo Stellato"), and of the Accademia della Notte (as "il Rugiadoso").
In the Roman Republic, a law was passed imposing a limit of a single term on the office of censor. The annual magistrates—tribune of the plebs, aedile, quaestor, praetor, and consul—were forbidden reelection until a number of years had passed.Robert Struble Jr., Treatise on Twelve Lights, chapter six, part II, "Rotation in History." (see cursus honorum, Constitution of the Roman Republic).
The gens Apronia was a plebeian family at Rome throughout the history of the Republic and into imperial times. The first member of the gens to achieve prominence was Gaius Apronius, tribune of the plebs in 449 BC. None of the Apronii obtained the consulship until the first century AD.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
When the consuls were absent from Rome, leading their armies in campaign against the Aequi and the Volsci, Terentilius, tribune of the plebs, proposed a law creating a special commission charged with regulating consular power. Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, named Praefectus urbi in absence of the consuls, opposed drafting the law and deferred the vote until the return of the consuls.
Milo was tribune of the plebs in 57 BC. He took a prominent role in recalling Cicero from exile after Clodius had arranged for his exile the previous year. In 56 BC, Milo was charged with illegal violence by Clodius. He was defended by Cicero and Pompey (among others). The trial led to riots between Milo's and Clodius's supporters in the Forum.
When the consuls were absent from Rome, leading their armies in campaign against the Aequi and the Volsci, Terentilius, tribune of the plebs, proposed a law creating a special commission charged with regulating consular power. Quintus Fabius Vibulanus, named Praefectus urbi in absence of the consuls, opposed drafting the law and deferred the vote until the return of the consuls.
Lucius Scribonius Libo was a tribune of the plebs in 216 BC, during the Second Punic War. A question arose pertaining to the ransoming of Roman captives; he referred the matter to the Senate.Livy 22.61.7. He was one of the three men appointed triumviri mensarii, a commission created by a Lex Minucia, possibly to deal with a shortage of silver;Livy 23.21.6.
Gratidianus was probably tribune of the plebs in 87 BC;Unless otherwise noted, offices and dates are from T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, vol. 2, 99 B.C.–31 B.C. (New York: American Philological Association, 1952), pp. 50, 52 (note 8), 57, 59 (note 1), 60, 589. Some slight question exists as to whether Gratidianus was a tribune this year.
He was tribune of the plebs in 52 BC and was a supporter of triumvir Pompey. Marcus Caelius Rufus accused Pompeius of violating laws of the Roman Senate which he had taken an active role in passing. He was condemned and was exiled to Campania. Also Caelius accused Pompeius of forcing his mother to give him the property that belonged to his father.
A puzzling and textually incomplete passage in FestusFestus, 180 in the edition of Lindsay; Broughton, MRR1, p. 21. lists Cominius among several men who were burned publicly near the Circus Maximus in 486 BC. Valerius Maximus says that a tribune of the plebs burned nine colleagues for conspiring with Spurius Cassius Vicellinus, a consul in this year who plotted to make himself king.Valerius Maximus 6.3.
Holmes I, pg. 325 At the end of the year Bibulus emerged from his self-enforced retirement and presented himself before the Senate. He took the traditional oath declaring he had done his duty in his consulship. He was then about to justify his actions as consul when the new tribune of the plebs, Publius Clodius Pulcher, used his veto to prevent Bibulus from speaking further.
The gens Pompilia was a plebeian family at Rome during the time of the Republic. The only member of the gens to attain any prominence in the Roman state was Sextus Pompilius, who was tribune of the plebs in 420 BC; however, persons by this name are occasionally found throughout the history of the Republic.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p.
Publius Mucius Scaevola served as tribune of the plebs in 141 BC. The consuls of this year were Cnaeus Servilius Caepio and Quintus Pompeius. Not much is known of Scaevola’s actions during his year as tribune. Most significant in the historical record is his carrying of a plebiscite which placed Hostilius Tubulus on trial for accepting bribes during his year as praetor in 142 BC.
306 He became a Tribune of the Plebs in 52 BC, the year in which the followers of Milo killed Clodius in a street brawl. Sallust then supported the prosecution of Milo. Sallust, Titus Munatius Plancus and Quintus Pompeius Rufus also tried to blame Cicero, one of the leaders of the Senators' opposition to the triumvirate, for his support of Milo.(Asc. Mil., 20 (37)) Asconius Pedianus.
Mommsen, Theodor; The History of Rome, Book IV The end result was a rout, with at least 70,000 Roman legionaries dead, and total losses numbering over 120,000. While Caepio survived the debacle, his career did not. He was quickly stripped of his proconsular imperium and his seat in the Roman Senate. He was soon brought up on charges by the tribune of the plebs Gaius Norbanus.
His proof of valour remained with him at all times.'Plutarch, Life of Sertorius, 8. Upon his return to Rome he ran for tribune of the Plebs, but Lucius Cornelius Sulla thwarted his efforts (for reasons unknown, but probably because he was in Marius's clientele and Sulla and Marius were at odds), causing Sertorius to oppose Sulla.Lynda Telford, Sulla: A Dictator Reconsidered, p. 164.
As tribune of the plebs in BC 472, Publilius proposed a law transferring the election of the plebeian tribunes from the comitia curiata (or possibly the comitia centuriata) to the comitia tributa. The significance of this measure was that it would prevent the patricians from influencing the election through the votes of their clientes. The proposal was debated throughout the year, but never passed.Livy, ii. 55.
Lollia was a Plebeian of the gens Lollia.Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum, Caesar, 50. She may have been a daughter of Marcus Lollius Palicanus, who was tribune of the plebs in 71 BC. Lollia married Aulus Gabinius and they had the son Aulus Gabinius Sisenna together.Aulus Gabinius Sisenna article at ancient library Some time during their marriage she became a mistress of Julius Caesar.
John Leech, A Lictor is sent to arrest Publilius Volero, from The Comic History of Rome. In this account, the powerful Publilius seized the lictor and set him down roughly on the ground. Volero Publilius was tribune of the plebs at Rome in 472 and 471 BC. During his time as tribune, he secured the passage of two important laws increasing the independence of his office.Broughton, vol.
Creticus' sister, Caecilia Metella, was the wife of Gaius Verres, who was governor of Sicily from 73 BC to 71 BC. Creticus' daughter was also named Caecilia Metella. She married Marcus Licinius Crassus who was a son of Marcus Crassus, a member of the "First Triumvirate". Caecilia Metella's tomb still survives on the Via Appia. Creticus' son Quintus Caecilius Metellus was a Tribune of the Plebs.
The gens Numitoria was an ancient but minor plebeian family at Rome. The first member of this gens to appear in history was Lucius Numitorius, elected tribune of the plebs in 472 BC. Although Numitorii are found down to the final century of the Republic, none of them ever held any of the higher magistracies.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. II, p.
The son of the Quintus Pompeius who was Plebeian Tribune in 132 BC, Rufus was elected Tribune of the Plebs in 99 BC. He, alongside Marcus Porcius Cato Salonianus, put forward a bill to recall Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus from exile, but it was vetoed by Publius Furius. In 91 BC, Pompeius was elected Praetor urbanus, followed by his election as consul in 88 BC, alongside Lucius Cornelius Sulla. The outbreak of the First Mithridatic War during their consulship saw the command of the war given to Sulla. This was opposed by the former consul and general Gaius Marius, who had a tribune of the Plebs, Publius Sulpicius Rufus, firstly bring forward a law which would enrol the Italian allies who had just received Roman citizenship across all of the Roman tribes, thereby giving Marius a large enough body of voters to pass a law to strip Sulla of his command.
The office of Tribune of the Plebs was an important step in the political career of plebeians. Patricians could not hold the office. The Tribune was an office first created to protect the right of the common man in Roman politics and served as the head of the Plebeian Council. In the mid-to-late Republic, however, plebeians were often just as, and sometimes more, wealthy and powerful than patricians.
Due to their unique power of sacrosanctity, the Tribune had no need for lictors for protection and owned no imperium, nor could they wear the toga praetexta. For a period after Sulla's reforms, a person who had held the office of Tribune of the Plebs could no longer qualify for any other office, and the powers of the tribunes were more limited, but these restrictions were subsequently lifted.
A fanciful 16th century portrayal of Tiberius Gracchus from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum Tiberius Gracchus took office as a tribune of the plebs in late 134 BC while "everything in the Roman Republic seemed to be in fine working order."Flower, p. 89 There were a few apparently minor problems, such as "the annoyance of a slave revolt in Sicily"Flower, p. 89, see also Fields, pp. 7-10.
Cicero, De Oratore 3.75 Crassus served as Tribune of the Plebs in 107 BC at the age of 33.Cicero, Brutus 160 His tribunate was as an example of a notably 'quiet' one: Cicero had not realised Crassus even served as tribune until he read about it by chance in a passage of Lucilius.Cicero, Brutus 160T. Robert. S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, Volume 1, p.
124-5 and Octavian was undoubtedly correct to work through established Republican forms to consolidate his power.J Boardman ed. The Oxford History of the Classical World (1991) p. 538 He began with the powers of a Roman consul, combined with those of a Tribune of the plebs; later added the role of the censor; and finally became Pontifex Maximus as well.D Wormersley ed, Abridged Decline and Fall (Penguin 2005) p.
Denarius of Gaius Antistius, 146 BC. The obverse shows the head of Roma, behind which is the shape of a dog. The Dioscuri are depicted on the reverse. The gens Antistia, sometimes written Antestia on coins, was a plebeian family at Rome. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Sextus Antistius, tribune of the plebs in 422 BC.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol.
Publius Aquillius Gallus was a tribune of the plebs in 55 BC. With his colleague Gaius Ateius Capito, Aquillius Gallus opposed the Lex Trebonia and the plans regarding proconsular commands for Crassus and Pompeius. Crassus's war against Parthia resulted in one of the worst defeats ever suffered by a Roman army, the Battle of Carrhae.T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (American Philological Association, 1952), vol. 2, p.
Titus Labienus (c. 100 – 17 March 45 BC) was a professional Roman soldier in the late Roman Republic. He served as tribune of the Plebs in 63 BC. Although remembered as one of Julius Caesar's lieutenants in Gaul, mentioned frequently in the accounts of his military campaigns, Labienus chose to oppose him during the Civil War and was killed at Munda. He was the father of Quintus Labienus.
In 202, Minucius Thermus may have been the military tribune named Thermus who served in Africa under Scipio Africanus.Appian, Lib. 36; Broughton points out that Friedrich Münzer accepts the testimony of Appian, despite questions of reliability. As a tribune of the plebs in 201, Thermus and his fellow tribune Manius Acilius Glabrio opposed the desire of Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus to have Africa as his consular province.Livy 30.40.9–16.
The gens Acilia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, that flourished from the middle of the third century BC until at least the fifth century AD, a period of seven hundred years. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Gaius Acilius Glabrio, who was quaestor in 203 and tribune of the plebs in 197 BC.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, p. 13 ("Acilia Gens").
Gaius Memmius (died circa 49 BC, incorrectly called Gemellus, "The Twin") was a Roman orator and poet. He was Tribune of the Plebs (66 BC), possibly a patron of Lucretius, and an acquaintance of Catullus and Helvius Cinna. His sister Memmia was married to Gaius Scribonius Curio. While at first a strong supporter of Pompey, he later quarrelled with him and went over to Caesar, whom he had previously attacked.
Lucius Scribonius Libo (tribune of the plebs 149 BC) was a member of a Roman Senatorial family. He accused Servius Sulpicius Galba for the outrages against the Lusitanians. He might have been the Scribonius who consecrated the Puteal Scribonianum often mentioned by ancient writers, which was located in the forum close to the Arcus Fabianus. It was called Puteal as it was opened at the top, like a well.
The gens Orchia or Orcia was a minor plebeian family at Rome. Few members of this gens held Roman magistracies, of whom the most notable was probably Gaius Orchius, tribune of the plebs in 181 BC, and the author of a sumptuary law, the repeal of which was strongly opposed by Cato the Elder. Other Orchii are known from inscriptions.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol.
Cassius returned to Rome in 50 BC, when civil war was about to break out between Julius Caesar and Pompey. Cassius was elected tribune of the Plebs for 49 BC, and threw in his lot with the Optimates, although his brother Lucius Cassius supported Caesar. Cassius left Italy shortly after Caesar crossed the Rubicon. He met Pompey in Greece, and was appointed to command part of his fleet.
Membership of the Senate was sought after by individuals seeking prestige and social standing, rather than executive authority. Severianus probably became a senator late in the reign of Hadrian (). He is first mentioned as a senator in inscriptions from Ostia in the 140s., , , and The traditional Republican magistracy of tribune of the plebs followed, another prestigious position which had lost its independence and most of its practical functions.
Etruscan urn containing the ashes of Pomponius Notus The gens Pomponia was a plebeian family at Rome. Its members appear throughout the history of the Roman Republic, and into imperial times. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Marcus Pomponius, tribune of the plebs in 449 BC; the first who obtained the consulship was Manius Pomponius Matho in 233 BC.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. III, p.
Cicero names "P. Scipio" among the young nobiles on his defence team when Sextus Roscius was prosecuted in 80 BC. He is placed in the company of Marcus Messalla and Metellus Celer, both future consuls.Cicero, Pro Roscio Amerino 77, as cited by Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, p. 245. Metellus Scipio was probably tribune of the plebs in 59 BC,Dates and offices from T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, vol.
The gens Aternia was a patrician family at Rome in the early years of the Republic. The only member of the gens to hold the consulship was Aulus Aternius Varus in 454 B.C. Six years later, he became one of the few patricians ever to hold the office of tribune of the plebs, without first leaving the patriciate.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita iii.
Papirius was elected consul in 436 BC together with Marcus Cornelius Maluginensis. They lead raids against the Veii and the Falisci. During the consulship the tribune of the plebs, Spurius Maelius, proposed a bill targeting two senators, Gaius Servilius Ahala and Lucius Minucius Esquilinus Augurinus. The goal was to confiscate the property of Ahala, mark him as a caedes civis indemnati (loosely translated: unlawful murderer) and to condemn Minucius for false accusation.
Marcus Octavius is tribune of the Plebs in 133 BC, political opponent of Tiberius Gracchus, possibly son of Gnaeus Octavius, consul in 165 BC;. Marcus Octavius was a name used for men among the gens Octavia. Marcus was one of the four chief praenomina used by the Octavii, the other three being Gaius, Gnaeus and Lucius. The most known member was the tribunus plebis in 133 BC and colleague-turned-opponent of Tiberius Gracchus.
The rogatio Aufidia de ambitu, sometimes referred to as the lex Aufidia de ambitu, was a proposed Roman law, aimed at punishing electoral bribery, ambitus. It is known from a letter of Cicero to Atticus, Cic. ad Att. i.1 and was put forward by Marcus Aufidius Lurco as tribune of the plebs in 61 BC. The rogatio was passed by the senate, but was not voted on by the Roman people.
Popillius refused to return to Rome until a tribune of the plebs promised to bring him to trial in absentia. Popillius was tried, but the trial came to nothing due to the influence of his brother, the consul for the year, and other Popillii.Livy, xlii.21-22. Despite his actions against the Ligurians, Popillius was later elected censor with Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum in 159 BC.Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, iv.20.
It may have been in the same year that Agrippa began his political career, holding the position of Tribune of the Plebs, which granted him entry to the Senate.Mentioned only by Servius auctus on Virgil, Aeneid 8.682, but a necessary preliminary to his position as urban praetor in 40 BC. Roddaz (p. 41) favours the 43 BC date. Bust of Agrippa, Pushkin Museum In 42 BC, Agrippa probably fought alongside Octavian and Antony in the Battle of Philippi.
Valerius writes of another example on ingratitude being the circumstances around Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio. Nasica had led a group of conservative senators of the Roman Senate to kill the populist tribune of the plebs Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BCE.Book 3, Chapter 2.17 He soon afterward had to withdraw from public life because the people of Rome had judged his merits unfairly. Nasica, a Pontifex Maximus, went to Pergamum ostensibly as a diplomat and never returned.
Walker, p. 266 Another case Valerius records is where the Roman people were acting as an unfair, lax judge. In this case Servius Sulpicius Galba was being harshly denounced at the rostra by Lucius Scribonius Libo, tribune of the plebs in 149 BCE.Walker, p. 266 Cato the Elder supported the tribune's charges in a grand speech at a Roman assembly as is recorded in his Origins.Walker, p. 266 Galba had committed an atrocious war crime against the Lusitanians.
Thus, the angusticlavia served to indicate social status above regular citizenry but below senators and magistrates. On certain occasions, particularly during times of political or social upheaval, senators in Rome chose to wear the equestrian tunic as a public display of distress. This practice was part of the semi-egalitarian legacy of the Republic. In 58 BCE, when the tribune of the plebs Clodius was pushing Cicero into exile, the senators took on the angusticlavia in public protest.
Plebeian Genucii appear as early as 476 BC, when a Titus Genucius was Tribune of the Plebs. If the gens was originally patrician, then the plebeian Genucii may have arisen as the result of intermarriage with the plebeians, or because some of the Genucii were expelled from the patriciate or voluntarily chose to become plebeians. Throughout the history of the Republic, these Genucii were renowned as representatives of and advocates for the rights of the plebeian order.
Plebeians. Ten years later, in 123 BC, Gaius took the same office as his brother, as a Tribune of the Plebs. Gaius was more practically minded than Tiberius and consequently was considered more dangerous by the senatorial class. He gained support from the agrarian poor by reviving the land reform programme and from the urban poor with various popular measures. He also sought support from the second estate, those equestrians who had not ascended to become senators.
If a consultum conflicted with a law promulgated by one of the Republic's legislative assemblies, the law took on a priority status and overrode the consultum.Polybius, History, VI.4 All proposed motions could be blocked by a veto from a tribune of the plebs or an intercessio by one of the executive magistrates. Each motion blocked by a veto was registered in the annals as senatus auctoritas (will of the senate). Each ratified motion finally became a senatus consultum.
The others are an Antonius who is either the famous Marcus Antonius or one of his two brothers, Gaius or Lucius; Cassius Longinus and his brother Lucius; and Quintus Mucius Scaevola (tribune of the plebs in 54 BC). Other close members of the Censorinus family were supporters of Antonius as triumvir, and one of them, the consul of 39 BC, came into possession of Cicero's house on the Palatine after his death.According to Velleius Paterculus 2.14.3.
The following is a list of Roman tribunes as reported by ancient sources. A tribune in ancient Rome was a person who held one of a number of offices, including Tribune of the plebs (a political office to represent the interests of the plebs), Military tribune (a rank in the Roman army), Tribune of the Celeres (the commander of the king's personal bodyguard), and various other positions. Unless otherwise noted all dates are reported in BC.
After serving in the army, Tiberius was elected tribune of the plebs c. 187 BC, in which capacity he is recorded as having saved Scipio Africanus Major from prosecution by interposing his veto. Tiberius was no friend nor political ally to Scipio, but felt that the general's services to Rome merited his release from the threat of trial. Supposedly, in gratitude for this action, either Scipio or his son Publius Cornelius Scipio betrothed Scipio's youngest daughter to him.
During the second settlement, Augustus was also granted the power of a tribune (tribunicia potestas) for life, though not the official title of tribune. For some years, Augustus had been awarded tribunicia sacrosanctitas, the immunity given to a Tribune of the Plebs. Now he decided to assume the full powers of the magistracy, renewed annually, in perpetuity. Legally, it was closed to patricians, a status that Augustus had acquired some years earlier when adopted by Julius Caesar.Gruen (2005), 36.
The army commanded by Quintus Poetelius withdrew to Fidenae and Crustumerium then returned to the field after the death of Lucius Siccius Dentatus, former tribune of the plebs and staunch opponent of the patricians. His death was concealed as though it were a loss suffered in an ambush. The soldiers then mutinied and elected ten military tribunes to command the army. They returned to Rome and camped on the Aventine before merging with the other army on Monte Sacro.
Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum Veturia was a Roman matron, the mother of the possibly legendary Roman general Gaius Marcius Coriolanus. According to Plutarch her name was Volumnia. Veturia came from a patrician family and encouraged her son's involvement in Roman politics. According to Roman historians, Coriolanus was expelled from Rome in the early fifth century BC because he demanded the abolition of the office of Tribune of the Plebs in return for distributing state grain to the starving plebeians.
Lucius was always a strong supporter of Mark Antony. In 44 BC, the year of Antony's consulship and Julius Caesar's assassination, Lucius, as tribune of the plebs, brought forward a law authorizing Caesar to nominate the chief magistrates during his absence from Rome. After the murder of Caesar, he supported his brother Marcus. He proposed an agrarian law in favor of the people and Caesar's veterans and took part in the operations at Mutina (43 BC).
The scriba Sextus Cloelius kept a high profile as an agent of the popularist Clodius Pulcher. At the beginning of Clodius's year in office as tribune of the plebs in 58 BC, Cloelius organized ludi compitalicii, neighborhood new-year festivities that had been banned as promoting unrest and political subversion. Cloelius also led the people in riots when Clodius was murdered a few years later, taking his body to the senate house and turning it into the popular leader's funeral pyre.
Flaminius was elected as tribune of the plebs in 232 BC. Cicero writes that Flaminius was an accomplished orator before the people, a skill that likely helped him achieve the tribunate.Cicero, Brutus, 57. During his term Flaminius proposed the Lex Flaminia de Agro Gallico et Piceno viritim dividundo, a controversial agrarian law proposing the settlement of Roman citizens in the Ager Gallicus Picenus lands around Picenum and Ariminum, made available by Rome's defeat of their previous occupants, the Senones, in 283.Polybius, 2.21.
Matters are complicated when Ateius Capito is found murdered, mauled almost beyond recognition. Though Capito was reviled by the city for performing the curse, a tribune of the plebs is supposed to be sacrosanct from violence, and the populace is outraged almost to the point of rioting. Pompey hands Decius a second commission, to locate Capito's murderer - or, at least, a convenient scapegoat to pacify the mob. Decius tracks Capito's movements a short distance beyond the city gate, then loses the trail.
This meant that the offender became forfeit to the god(s) and on his death he was surrendered to the god(s) in question.Ogilvie, R.M. (1995) A Commentary on Livy, Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 500-2 The implication was that anyone who killed him was considered as performing a sacred duty and enjoyed impunity.Altheim, F. (1940) Lex Sacrata, Amsterdam In the literature by Roman historians, the term sacrosanctity is usually found in relation to the Tribune of the Plebs, or plebeian tribune.
Like his father-in- law, Thrasea Paetus, whose daughter Fannia he had taken as his second wife, Priscus was distinguished for his ardent and courageous republicanism. Although he repeatedly offended his rulers, he held several high offices. During Nero's reign he was quaestor of Achaea and tribune of the plebs (AD 56); he restored peace and order in Armenia, and gained the respect and confidence of the provincials. His declared sympathy with Brutus and Cassius occasioned his banishment in 66.
Silva commissioned an amphitheater to be built in Urbs Salvia after the year 81 AD. The amphitheater was used for gladiatorial contests and other entertainments. In 1957 a stone inscription was found at the amphitheater which described Silva's various posts - tresvir capitalis, tribune, quality figures of the Legio IV Scythica, quaestor, tribune of the plebs and legatus legionis of the Legio XXI Rapax. The amphitheater is used to this day for annual drama festivals. His life after his second consulate is unknown.
The army commanded by Duillius withdrew to Fidenae and Crustumerium then returned to the field after the death of the soldier Lucius Siccius Dentatus, former tribune of the plebs and staunch opponent of the patricians. His death was concealed as though it were a loss suffered in an ambush. The soldiers then mutinied and elected ten military tribunes to command the army. They then returned to Rome and set up on the Aventine before merging with the other army on Monte Sacro.
Livy, 3.2 In 465 BC Servilius was appointed Praefectus urbi during a justitium when both consuls were to be absent from Rome dealing with the ongoing military threat from the Aequi.Livy, 3.3 He was elected quaestor in 459 BC and attempted to prosecute the tribune of the plebs, Marcus Volscius Fictor, for giving false witness against Caeso Quinctius. His colleague in the quaestorship was the otherwise unknown Aulus Cornelius. The trial against Volscius was continued by the quaestors of the following year.Livy.
To be hurled off the Tarpeian Rock was, from a certain perspective, a fate worse than mere death, because it carried with it the stigma of shame. The standard method of execution in ancient Rome was by strangulation in the Tullianum. The rock was reserved for the most notorious traitors and as a place of unofficial, extra- legal executions such as the near-execution of then-Senator Gaius Marcius Coriolanus by a mob whipped into frenzy by a tribune of the plebs.
Gaius Julius Caesar. In 61 BC Julius Caesar invited Cicero to be the fourth member of his existing partnership with Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus, an assembly that would eventually be called the First Triumvirate. Cicero refused the invitation because he suspected it would undermine the Republic.Rawson, E.: Cicero, 1984 p. 106 In 58 BC the demagogue Publius Clodius Pulcher, the tribune of the plebs, introduced a law threatening exile to anyone who executed a Roman citizen without a trial.
The gens Manilia was derived from the same name, and its members are frequently confused with the Manlii, as are the Mallii. However, Manius was not used by any of the Manlii in historical times. The Manlii were probably numbered amongst the gentes maiores, the greatest of the patrician families. As with many patrician gentes, the Manlii seem to have acquired plebeian branches as well, and one of the family was tribune of the plebs in the time of Cicero.
He says that the heir, if unwilling to take the inheritance, was allowed by the Falcidian law to refuse it on taking a fourth part only. But the Lex Falcidia enacted that at least a fourth of the estate or property of the testator should be secured to the heir named in the testament. The Falcidius mentioned by Cicero in his speech for the Lex Manilia had the praenomen Caius. He had been Tribune of the Plebs and legatus, but in what year is unknown.
Cambridge U. Press: 2007, , p.229 Had Trajan wished it, he could have promoted his protege to patrician rank and its privileges, which included opportunities for a fast track to consulship without prior experience as tribune; he chose not to.Fündling, 335 While Hadrian seems to have been granted the office of Tribune of the Plebs a year or so younger than was customary, he had to leave Dacia, and Trajan, to take up the appointment; Trajan might simply have wanted him out of the way.Gabriele Marasco, ed.
Each assembly was presided over by a single Roman Magistrate, and as such, it was the presiding magistrate who made all decisions on matters of procedure and legality. Ultimately, the presiding magistrate's power over the assembly was nearly absolute. The only check on that power came in the form of vetoes handed down by other magistrates. Any decision made by a presiding magistrate could be vetoed by a tribune of the plebs, or by a higher-ranked magistrate (for example, a consul could veto a praetor).
In 129 BC, Scipio told allies of Gracchus, notably the tribune Gaius Papirius Carbo, that he intended to formally denounce Tiberius Gracchus' reforms, notably the agrarian proposals. Carbo, then a tribune of the plebs, had been a long-time supporter of Tiberius Gracchus, and at that time he was a bitter enemy of Scipio. Scipio returned home and went to bed early, planning to make his crucial speech the next day in the Senate. The following morning, he was found dead in his bed.
Roman forces were divided into two armies commanded each by four decemvirs, in order to fight on two fronts; Appius Claudius Crassus and Spurius Oppius Cornicen remained in Rome in order to assure the defense of the city.Livy, Ab urbe condita, III. 38-42Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, XI. 2 The two Roman armies were kept in check on each front respectively, retreating to Fidenae, Crustumerium, and Tusculum. Meanwhile the soldier Lucius Siccius Dentatus, former tribune of the plebs and staunch opponent of the patricians was murdered.
Lucius Genucius Aventinensis, along with Quintus Servilius Ahala, was one of the two consuls of ancient Rome in 365 BC. Genucius was also the consul of 362 BC again with Quintus Servilius Ahala. He is often confused with the Lucius Genucius who was the tribune of the plebs in 342 BC. The consul Genucius, however, was killed in battle between 362 BC and 358 BC during the Roman conquest of the Hernici, proving he could not have served in public office after 358 BC.
The gens Publilia, sometimes written Poblilia, was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the early decades of the Republic. The lex Publilia passed by Volero Publilius, tribune of the plebs in 471 BC, was an important milestone in the struggle between the patrician and plebeian orders. Although the Publilii appear throughout the history of the Republic, the family faded into obscurity around the time of the Samnite Wars, and never again achieved positions of prominence in the Roman state.
The gens Maenia, occasionally written Mainia, was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned soon after the establishment of the Republic, and occur in history down to the second century BC. Several of them held the position of tribune of the plebs, from which they strenuously advocated on behalf of their order. The most illustrious of the family was Gaius Maenius, consul in 338 BC, and dictator in both 320 and 314.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol.
Gaius Canuleius, according to Livy book 4, was a tribune of the plebs in 445 BC. He introduced a bill proposing that intermarriage between patricians and plebeians be allowed. As well, with his fellow tribunes he proposed another bill allowing one of the two annually elected consuls to be a plebeian. Despite fierce opposition from the patricians, his laws were eventually passed when the plebeians went on a military strike, refusing to defend the city against its attacking neighbors. That law, the Lex Canuleia, bears his name.
Quintus Pompeius (flourished 2nd century BC), was the son to the above and his mother is an unnamed Roman woman. In 133 BC, he was an opponent to politician Tiberius Gracchus. Pompeius stated that he lived near Gracchus and knew a certain wealthy Greek, Eudemus from Pergamon, who gave Gracchus a purple robe and royal treasures including a diadem. Eudemus also promised Gracchus more treasures, when his tribuneship had expired. Pompeius was elected tribune of the plebs in 132 BC and opposed Gracchus’ land reforms.
The gens Spurilia, sometimes spelled Spurillia, was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Hardly any members of this gens are mentioned by ancient writers, for the Spurilius mentioned in some manuscripts of Livy as tribune of the plebs in 422 BC is amended by some authorities to "Spurius Icilius", while it is uncertain whether the moneyer who issued denarii in 139 BC was named Spurius, Spurilius, or Spurinna. Nevertheless, a number of Spurilii are known from inscriptions.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol.
The name Pontius indicates that he belonged to the Pontii family, a well-known family of Samnite origin which produced a number of important individuals in the late Republic and early Empire. Like all but one other governor of Judaea, Pilate was of the equestrian order, a middle rank of the Roman nobility. As one of the attested Pontii, Pontius Aquila, an assassin of Julius Caesar, was a Tribune of the Plebs, the family must have originally been of Plebeian origin. They became ennobled as equestrians.
The brothers were born to a plebeian branch of the old and noble Sempronia family. Their father was the elderly Tiberius Gracchus the Elder (or Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus) who was tribune of the plebs, praetor, consul, and censor. Their mother was Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africanus, himself considered a hero by the Roman people for his part in the war against Carthage. Their parents had 12 children, but only one daughter—who later married Scipio Aemilianus (Scipio Africanus the Younger)—and two sons, Tiberius and Gaius, survived childhood.
Sulla overthrew all populist leaders and his constitutional reforms removed powers (such as those of the tribune of the plebs) that had supported populist approaches. Meanwhile, social and economic stresses continued to build; Rome had become a metropolis with a super-rich aristocracy, debt-ridden aspirants, and a large proletariat often of impoverished farmers. The latter groups supported the Catilinarian conspiracy—a resounding failure, since the consul Marcus Tullius Cicero quickly arrested and executed the main leaders of the conspiracy. Onto this turbulent scene emerged Gaius Julius Caesar, from an aristocratic family of limited wealth.
Arulenus Rusticus was Tribune of the plebs in AD 66, in which year Thrasea was condemned to death by the Roman Senate; he would have placed his veto upon the senatus consultum, had not Thrasea prevented him, as he would only have brought certain destruction upon himself without saving the life of the defendant.Tacitus, Annales, XVI.26 He was praetor in the civil wars after the death of Nero (69 AD), when as one of the senate's ambassadors to the Flavian armies he was wounded by the soldiers of Petilius Cerialis.Tacitus, Historiae, III.
Among other forms of exile, Roman law included the penalty of interdicere aquae et ignis ("to forbid water and fire"). People so penalized were required to leave Roman territory and forfeit their property. If they returned, they were effectively outlaws; providing them the use of fire or water was illegal, and they could be killed at will without legal penalty. Interdicere aquae et ignis was traditionally imposed by the tribune of the plebs, and is attested to have been in use during the First Punic War of the third century BC by Cato the Elder.
Ogilvie, Commentary on Livy, books 1–5, p. 597. That the Hortensii were plebeian, despite Cicero's application of the word nobilis to the family, seems demonstrated by the fact that the first of the Hortensii to appear in history was tribune of the plebs, and the lack of any other evidence of a patrician family. From this it seems more likely that Cicero was referring to the distinguished record of the Hortensii in the service of the Roman state, rather than identifying the gens as patrician.Cicero, Pro Quinctio 22.
Rutilus was again elected consul in 352 BC. At the end of his term, he ran for censor and won, despite patrician opposition. He was also consul in 344 BC and 342 BC, when he led the army in the Samnite Wars. His son of the same name was tribune of the plebs in 311 BC and consul in 310 BC.T.P. Wiseman says that it was not his son, but Marcius Rutilus himself who was consul in 310; see "Satyrs in Rome?" Journal of Roman Studies 78 (1988), p. 4.
The oldest branch of the family, the Minucii Augurini, were originally patrician, but in 439 BC Lucius Minucius Augurinus went over to the plebeians, and was elected tribune of the plebs. His descendants included the consul of 305 BC and several later tribunes of the plebs. The surname was derived from the position of augur, an important priest specializing in divination. The college of augurs was held in high esteem, and membership was restricted to the patricians until 300 BC.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol.
He was a tribune of the plebs in 44 BC, a year in which the people's tribunes were exceptionally numerous and his brother held the praetorship. Along with his fellow tribunes Tiberius Canutius and Decimus Carfulenus, L. Cassius was excluded from the important meeting of the Roman senate held November 28 to reassign several provinces for the following year.Cicero, Philippics 3.23. For more on these provincial assignments, see G. Calvisius Sabinus: Praetor and governor. A bill enabling Caesar to add new families to the patriciateSuetonius, Divus Iulius 41.1; Tacitus, Annales 11.25; Cassius Dio 43.47.3.
Cato was tribune of the plebs in an uncertain year, probably early in the first decade of the first century BC. Broughton assigns his tribunate to 99 BC, in which year the tribunes Cato and Quintus Pompeius Rufus attempted to recall Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus from exile. This bill was opposed by Gaius Marius, a prominent general and rival of Numidicus, and with his support the proposal was vetoed by the tribune Publius Furius. Drumann identifies this Cato as Lucius, the brother of Marcus, but the year of his tribunate is equally uncertain.Broughton, vol.
In reaction to the redundancy of the dictatorship, the senate party were in need of a new emergency power that would not fall under the public rights of provocatio and intercessio (or veto). The populares under Tiberius Gracchus had challenged the power of the senate and began with a program of land reform.Plut. Tib. Gracch. 8. Because he was a Tribune of the Plebs, the senate needed extraordinary power to stop him, since Gracchus was able to appeal his demands directly to the people and bring them into law.
It seemed that they were returning to the rule of the Kings of Rome who had been overthrown only a few decades before. In 451 BC, Appius Claudius began to lust after Verginia, a beautiful plebeian girl and the daughter of Lucius Verginius, a respected centurion. Verginia was betrothed to Lucius Icilius, a former tribune of the plebs, and when she rejected Claudius, Claudius had one of his clients, Marcus Claudius, claim that she was actually his slave. Marcus Claudius then abducted her while she was on her way to school.
The gens Canutia or Cannutia was a plebeian family at Rome. The gens appears toward the end of the Republic, and is best known from two individuals, the orator Publius Canutius, and Tiberius Canutius, tribune of the plebs in 44 B.C., the year of Caesar's assassination. A Gaius Canutius mentioned by Suetonius is probably the same person as Tiberius; the reference to Canutius in Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus may refer to either Publius or Tiberius, or perhaps to a different person altogether.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.
In response, Titus Romilius chose Lucius Siccius for a perilous mission. When Siccius protested regarding the risks of the mission, the consul interrupted and imposed silence. This anecdote, delivered by Dionysius of Halicarnassus but ignored by Livy, allowed Dionysius to illustrate by example the tense relationship between the patricians and the plebeians, the superiority in social status, and the authority of the former over the later.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, X. 45 Lucius Siccius Dentatus survived and was elected tribune of the plebs in 454 BC. The Aequi were defeated near Mount Algidus.
Servilius was the younger son of Gaius Servilius Geminus, praetor about 220 BC, and grandson of Publius Servilius Geminus, consul in 252. The Servilii Gemini were a branch of an old and distinguished patrician family, but either Gaius or his sons went over to the plebeians, for reasons that are not entirely clear. Servilius' elder brother, Gaius, was tribune of the plebs in 211 BC, consul in 203, and dictator in 202. Servilius' additional surname, Pulex, refers to a flea, but the circumstances of this cognomen are not mentioned in any source.
By 290 BC these conflicts largely came to an end when plebeian consuls were introduced. However, patrician/plebeian issues still surfaced from time-to-time in the later Republic. Although the most well-documented example of this conflict arose around the Gracchi (133/123 BC), it is possible that the passage of the lex Claudia may also be an example of this continuing theme. Proposed by a tribune of the plebs and aimed at senators, the lex Claudia may be seen as an example of the plebeian order struggling to get ahead.
But his support of the unpopular lex Claudia was not the first time he came into conflict with the Senate. As a Tribune of the Plebs (232 BC), he apparently fought the Senate a lot in his attempt to pass a law providing needy settlers land in the ager Gallicus.Polybius 2.21 Furthermore when he was Consul, Flaminius was refused a triumph by the Senate after his victory against the Gallic Insubres (223 BC) due to his disregard for unfavourable omens, only for this judgement to be overturned by popular demand.Livy 21.63.2Plut.
He was elected as tribune of the plebs in 102 BC. His wife's name is not known; they had a son Quintus Pompeius Bithynicus. According to Greek Historian Diodorus Siculus, Aulus Pompeius died in 102 BC, apparently as a result of a curse placed upon him by Battaces, a Phrygian Priest. Diodorus recounts that Battaces was visiting Rome as an ambassador from the temple of "The Great Mother of the Gods" in Pessinus. Aulus Pompeius, as Tribune, forbade Battaces to wear a golden crown which formed part of his priestly regalia.
After the passage of lex Ovinia, the censors were also transferred the power from the consuls to control membership in the Senate. Along with the main responsibility of dealing with the census, the censors also dealt with property disputes, public contracts, and the management of public lands. Gaius Gracchus, tribune of the people, presiding over the Plebeian Council, in an artist's impression from 1799. The lower magistrates included the tribune of the plebs, who was elected by the Plebeian Council, and the aediles and quaestors, elected by the Tribal Assembly.
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (163/162–133 BC) was a populist Roman politician best known for his agrarian reform law entailing the transfer of land from the Roman state and wealthy landowners to poorer citizens. Against stiff opposition in the aristocratic Senate, this legislation was carried through during his term as tribune of the plebs in 133 BC. Fears of Tiberius's populist programme, as well as his uncompromising behavior, led to his being killed, along with many supporters, in a riot instigated by his senatorial enemies. A decade later his younger brother Gaius attempted similar legislation and suffered a similar fate.
View of the Porta, from inside the Aurelian Walls, with the white marble of the arch of Augustus indicating the gate. The arch of Augustus bears three inscriptions. On the top, on the Aqua Julia, a 5 BC inscription that reads: :CAESAR DIVI IULI F(ilius) AUGUSTUS PONTIFEX MAXIMUS CO(n)S(ul) XII TRIBUNIC(ia) POTESTAT(e) XIX IMP(erator) XIIII RIVOS AQUARUM OMNIUM REFECIT :Imperator Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Julius, pontifex maximus, consul for the twelfth time, tribune of the plebs for the nineteenth time, imperator for the thirteenth time, restored the channels of all the aqueducts.Roma Segreta site.
Although Cinna strongly disapproved of Caesar’s authoritarian way of governing, he did not become an active participant in the conspiracy that led to his assassination on the Ides of March in 44 BC. The previous day, Cinna had given an inflammatory speech against Caesar, which the people subsequently felt linked him to the plot.Suetonius, "The Life of Caesar", 85. On the day of Caesar's funeral, a tribune of the plebs, likely Helvius Cinna, was murdered when an enraged mob mistook him for Lucius Cornelius Cinna. At the time of the murder, Cinna was walking in Caesar’s funeral procession.
The gens Equitia was a plebeian family at Rome. It is known chiefly from a single individual, Lucius Equitius, said to have been a runaway slave who gave himself out as a son of Tiberius Gracchus, and was in consequence elected tribune of the plebs for 99 BC. While tribune designatus, he took an active part in the designs of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, and was killed with him in 100 BC. Appian says that his death happened on the day on which he entered upon his office.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor.Appianus, Bellum Civile i.
Leges Clodiae ("Clodian Laws") were a series of laws (plebiscites) passed by the Plebeian Council of the Roman Republic under the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher in 58 BC. Clodius was a member of the patrician family ("gens") Claudius; the alternative spelling of his name is sometimes regarded as a political gesture. With the support of Julius Caesar, who held his first consulship in 59 BC, Clodius had himself adopted into a plebeian family in order to qualify for the office of Tribune of the Plebs, which was not open to patricians. Clodius was famously a bitter opponent of Cicero.
Tiberius was elected to the office of Tribune of the Plebs in 133 BC. He immediately began pushing for a programme of land reform, partly by invoking the 240-year-old Sextian- Licinian law that limited the amount of land that could be owned by a single individual. Using the powers of Lex Hortensia, Tiberius established a commission to oversee the redistribution of land holdings from the rich to the unlanded urban poor. The commission consisted of himself, his father-in-law and his brother Gaius. Even liberal senators were agitated by the proposed changes, fearing their own lands would be confiscated.
Of all the offices within the Roman Republic, none granted as much power and authority as the position of dictator, known as the Master of the People. In times of emergency, the Senate would declare that a dictator was required, and the current consuls would appoint a dictator. This was the only decision that could not be vetoed by the Tribune of the Plebs. The dictator was the sole exception to the Roman legal principles of having multiple magistrates in the same office and being legally able to be held to answer for actions in office.
Lintott, 45 If the purpose of the ultimate vote was for an election, no speeches from private citizens were heard, and instead, the candidates for office used the Convention to campaign.Taylor, 16 During the Convention, the bill to be voted upon was read to the assembly by an officer known as a "Herald". A tribune of the plebs could use his veto against pending legislation up until this point, but not after.Lintott, 46 The electors were then told to break up the Convention ("depart to your separate groups", or discedite, quirites), and assemble into their formal century.
41.3-8 Some of Livy's sources also stated that a tribune of the plebs, Lucius Genucius,Otherwise unknown, possibly a relation of the consul for 365 and 362, Lucius Genucius Aventinensis Oakley(1998), p. 385 secured the passage of laws declaring usury illegal, that no one could be reelected to the same office within less than ten years or hold more than one office at the same time, and that both consuls could be elected from the plebs.Livy, vii.42.1-2 In Livy's opinion, the mutiny must have been of considerable strength if they managed to extract all these concessions.
Cornelius, it would seem, were not severely affected by the disgrace and exile of his father, the decemviri, in the aftermath of the fall of the second decemvirate in 449 BC.Livy, iii, 38.1-54Diodorus Siculus, xii, 24-25Dionysius of Halicarnassus, xi, 2-43 Proven by the fact that he succeeded with rising to the consulship. Cornelius was elected consul in 436 BC together with Lucius Papirius Crassus. They lead raids against the Veii and the Falisci. During the consulship the tribune of the plebs, Spurius Maelius, proposed a bill targeting two senators, Gaius Servilius Ahala and Lucius Minucius Esquilinus Augurinus.
The Concilium Plebis (English: Plebeian Council, Plebeian Assembly, People's Assembly or Council of the Plebs) was the principal assembly of the common people of the ancient Roman Republic. It functioned as a legislative/judicial assembly, through which the plebeians (commoners) could pass legislation (called plebiscites), elect plebeian tribunes and plebeian aediles, and try judicial cases. The Plebeian Council was originally organized on the basis of the Curia but in 471 BC adopted an organizational system based on residential districts or tribes. The Plebeian Council usually met in the well of the Comitium and could only be convoked by the Tribune of the Plebs.
Accordingly, each plebeian family belonged to the same curia as did its patrician patron. While the plebeians each belonged to a particular curia, only patricians could actually vote in the Curiate Assembly. The Plebeian Council was originally organized around the office of the Tribunes of the Plebs in 494 BC. Plebeians probably met in their own assembly prior to the establishment of the office of the Tribune of the Plebs, but this assembly would have had no political role. The Offices of the plebeian tribune and plebeian aedile were created in 494 BC following the first plebeian secession.
Leges Genuciae (also Lex Genucia or Lex Genucia de feneratione) were laws passed in 342 BC by Tribune of the Plebs Lucius Genucius. These laws covered several topics: they banned lending that carried interest, which soon was not enforced; they forbade holding two magistracies at the same time or within the next 10 years (until 332 BC); and lastly, they required at least one consul to be a plebeian.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, vii.42Tim Cornell, The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. VII, part 2, The Rise of Rome to 220 B.C., Cambridge University Press, 1989, p. 337.
Marcius Philippus was tribune of the plebs in 104 BC, during which time he brought forward an agrarian law, the details about which we are not informed, but which is chiefly memorable for the statement he made in recommending the measure, that there were not two thousand men in the state who possessed property. He seems to have brought forward this measure chiefly with the view of acquiring popularity, and he quietly dropped it when he found there was no hope of carrying it. In 100 BC, he defended the state along with other distinguished statesmen to protect it from Lucius Appuleius Saturninus.
Gaius Gracchus addressing the Concilium Plebis (drawing from 1799) Following Gaius Gracchus' second term in the office of Tribune of the Plebs, Lucius Opimius, a strict conservative, was elected consul, determined to oppose Gaius' proposals of land reform and the distribution of Roman citizenship to all Latin citizens. When, on the day that Opimius had planned to repeal the laws of Gaius Gracchus, one of his attendants was slain in a scuffle between the opposing camps, this gave the consul the pretext to act. The senate passed the senatus consultum ultimumPlut. C. Gracchus 14; Cic. Phil.
Carbo was soon discovered and arrested by Pompey, who "treated Carbo in his misfortunes with an unnatural insolence", taking Carbo in fetters to a tribunal he presided over, examining him closely "to the distress and vexation of the audience", and finally, sentencing him to death.John Leach, Pompey the Great, pp 28-29; Plutarch, The Life of Pompey, 10.3. Although most notable for his role in the chaotic 80s, Carbo had also made a name for himself prior to that period, particularly during his tenure as Tribune of the Plebs in 92 BC.T. Robert S. Broughton, Magistrates of the Roman Republic Vol. 2, p.
The four time consul Gaius Marcius Rutilus became the first plebeian dictator in 356 and censor in 351. In 342, the tribune of the plebs Lucius Genucius passed his Leges Genuciae, which abolished interest on loans, in a renewed effort to tackle indebtedness, required the election of at least one plebeian consul each year, and prohibited a magistrate from holding the same magistracy for the next ten years or two magistracies in the same year.Livy, vii. 42.Brennan, The Praetorship, pp. 65–67, where he shows that the ten-year rule was only temporary at this time.
Marcus Fulvius Nobilior was a Roman politician. He is not to be confused with his father who was also called Marcus Fulvius Nobilior and who also served as consul. He was tribune of the plebs 171 BC,Livy, "Ab Urbe Condita", book xlii. 32 curule aedile 166 BC, the year in which the Andria of Terence was performed, and consul 159 BC. Of the events of his consulship we have no records, but as the Fasti Triumphales assign him a triumph in the following year over the Eleates, a Ligurian people, he must have carried on war in Liguria.
The plebeian character of this gens is attested by the fact of Marcus Duilius being tribune of the plebs in BC 470, and further by the statement of Dionysius, who expressly says, that the decemvir Caeso Duilius and two of his colleagues were plebeians. In Livius we indeed read, that all of the decemvirs had been patricians; but this must be regarded as a mere hasty assertion which Livius puts into the mouth of the tribune Canuleius, for Livius himself in another passage expressly states, that Gaius Duilius, the military tribune, was a plebeian.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Romaike Archaiologia x. 58.Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita iv.
Agricola was appointed as quaestor for 64, which he served in the province of Asia under the corrupt proconsul Lucius Salvius Otho Titianus. While he was there, his daughter, Julia Agricola, was born, but his son died shortly afterwards. He was tribune of the plebs in 66 and praetor in June 68, during which time he was ordered by the Governor of Spain Galba to take an inventory of the temple treasures. During that same, the emperor Nero was declared a public enemy by the Senate and committed suicide, and the period of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors began.
Lucius Icilius was a Tribune of the Plebs in 456 BC. On his proposal the public land on the Aventine Hill was parcelled out to provide dwellings for the plebs. A few years later, around 451 BC, he was betrothed to one Verginia, daughter of Lucius Verginius. The decemvir Appius Claudius Crassus lusted after her and tried to use his power to take her as his own, possibly as a slave. The ensuing struggle led to the death of Verginia at her father's hand, the arrest of Lucius Icilius and Verginius, and the overthrow of the decemvirs and the reinstatement of the Roman Republic.
In Ancient Rome, the Lex Villia Annalis was a law passed in 180 BC that regulated the minimum age requirements of candidacy for different public offices within the cursus honorum.Allen M. Ward, Fritz M. Heichelheim, and Cedric A. Yeo, History of the Roman People (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016). The law was proposed by Lucius Villius Annalis, a Tribune of the Plebs, after previous debate within the senate pertaining to the age requirements for magistracies. These debates had arisen due to an increase in competition from a rise in new families attempting to gain success and social change within Roman society, which placed pressure on the political sphere.
After Caesar's consulate in 59 BC, he helped Publius Clodius Pulcher into the office of tribune of the plebs before setting off into his provinces.Seut. Caes. 20,4. Plut. Caes. 14,17. Clodius passed a law outlawing people who had executed citizens without trial. Seeing that the consuls were unwilling to help, Cicero did not wait for a trial and fled the city into exile; Clodius then passed another law denying Cicero shelter within 400 miles of the city. Caesar's long set goal to bring the SCU back under the practice of provocatio seemed successful, until Cicero returned at the instigation of Pompey some 15 months later, celebrated by the people.Plut. Cic. 33,8.
Lucius Cassius Longinus was a Roman politician and statesman who served as tribune of the plebs in the year 105 BC. He was of no relation to his identically named contemporary, the consul for 107 BC who died fighting the Tigurini. In the tribunate, he served with colleagues including Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus. In the office, Longinus passed a law stripping persons who had their imperium revoked by the Assembly of their seats in the Senate, which was targeted towards the much-hated general Quintus Servilius Caepio who had lost the Battle of Arausio in 107 BC, and afterwards, was then stripped of his proconsular imperium by the Assembly.
By 63 BC, Nigidius had been admitted to the Senate.Cicero, Pro Sulla 42; Suetonius, Augustus 94.5; Plutarch, Cicero 20.2. He may have been aedile in 60 BC, when Cicero mentions that Nigidius was in a position to cite (compellare) a jury, or a tribune of the plebs in 59.Giovanni Niccolini, I fasti dei tribuni della plebe (Milan 1934), p. 281, based on Cicero, Ad Atticum 2.2.3. He was praetor in 58,Cicero, Ad Quintum fratrem 1.2.16. but no further official capacity is recorded for him until he serves as a legate 52–51 BC in Asia under Quintus Minucius Thermus. He left the Asian province in July 51.
Publius Mucius Scaevola (c. 176 BC115 BC) was a prominent Roman politician and jurist who was consul in 133 BC. In his earlier political career he was tribune of the plebs in 141 BC and praetor in 136 BC. He also held the position of Pontifex Maximus for sixteen years after his consulship and died around 115 BC. Scaevola was consul at the time of Tiberius Gracchus' tribuneship and murder, and was heavily involved in reconciling the senate following Gracchus' death. According to Cicero, Scaevola supported Gracchus' land reforms (Lex Sempronia Agraria), but the extent of his involvement has been debated by some historians.
In 63 BC, Titus Labienus was a tribune of the Plebs with close ties to Pompey. Gaius Julius Caesar was also working closely with Pompey and therefore he and Labienus occasionally cooperated. These interactions were the seed that eventually developed into a friendship between Labienus and Caesar. At Caesar's instigation, Labienus accused Gaius Rabirius of high treason (perduellio) for the murder of the tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus and of his uncle Titus Labienus in 100 BC. The purpose of this trial was to discredit the so-called "final decree of the Senate" (senatus consultum ultimum), an emergency measure of the senate commonly used against the Populares and the Roman assemblies.
The flamen or special priest belonging to Juno Seispes continued to be a Lanuvian, specially nominated by the town to take care of the goddess even though she was housed in her temple at Rome (in the Forum Holitorium). At the time of Cicero, Milo, who served as the city's dictator and highest magistrate in 52 BC (Cic. Mil. 27), and of course was also a Roman citizen (he had been tribune of the plebs in 57 BC), resided in Rome. When he fatally met Clodius near Bovillae (Milo's slaves killed Clodius in that encounter), he was on his way to Lanuvium in order to nominate the flamen of Juno Seispes.
In the wake of their decision, Gaius Veturius and Titus Romilius were taken to court by the plebeian aedile Lucius Alienus and by the tribune of the plebs, Gaius Calvus Cicero, in early 454 BC. The testimony of Lucius Siccius Dentatus implicated Titus Romilius, but Siccius retracted his testimony when the old consul offered to send an ambassador to the Greek cities as a sign of appeasement during political tensions. Nevertheless, Titus Romilius was found guilty and ordered to pay a considerable indemnity of 10,000 asses. This proved impracticable, and so a law was passed allowing the indemnity to be satisfied by an equivalent value in cattle and bronze.
In 103 BC he was elected tribune of the plebs. He entered into an agreement with Gaius Marius, and in order to gain the favour of his soldiers proposed that each of his veterans should receive an allotment of 100 iugera of land in the Roman province of Africa. He was also chiefly instrumental in securing the election of Marius to his fourth consulship (102 BC). An opportunity to retaliate against the Nobiles was afforded him by the arrival (101 BC) of ambassadors from Mithridates VI of Pontus, with large sums of money for bribing the Senate; compromising revelations were made by Saturninus, who insulted the ambassadors.
In 471 BC Titus Quinctius was elected consul with Appius Claudius Sabinus as his colleague. The latter was chosen by the Senate because of his uncompromising character as well as his father's hostility towards the plebs. Appius was expected to lead the fight against the bill proposed by the tribune of the plebs, Volero Publilius, who wanted to introduce the election of the tribunes of the plebs by the Tribal Assembly, tribe by tribe, thus excluding the vote of the patricians and their clients. If the law was ratified, the tribunes would gain greater political independence from the patricians and thus prevent them from influencing their selection and their actions.
Decimus Laelius (born late-90s/early 80s BC)Late-90s as estimated by Michael Charles Alexander, The Case for the Prosecution in the Ciceronian Era (University of Michigan Press, 2002), p. 80 online, but possibly later, given Cicero's use of the term adulescens. was a tribune of the plebs of the Roman Republic in 54 BC. In 59 BC, he was the lead prosecutor in the extortion case against L. Valerius Flaccus, who was defended by Cicero in the speech Pro Flacco. Laelius served under Pompeius Magnus as envoy and naval prefect in 49 and 48 BC, during the civil war against Julius Caesar.
In the wake of their decision, Veturius and Romilius were taken to court by the plebeian aedile Lucius Alienus and by the tribune of the plebs, Gaius Calvus Cicero, in early 454 BC. The testimony of Lucius Siccius Dentatus implicated Titus Romilius, but Siccius retracted his testimony when the old consul offered to send an ambassador to the Greek cities as a sign of appeasement during political tensions. Nevertheless, Romilius and Veturius were found guilty and ordered to pay a considerable indemnity of 10,000 asses. This proved impracticable, and so a law was passed allowing the indemnity to be satisfied by an equivalent value in cattle and bronze.
In 23 BC, Augustus gave the emperorship its legal power. The first was Tribunicia Potestas, or the powers of the tribune of the plebs without actually holding the office (which would have been impossible, since a tribune was by definition a plebeian, whereas Augustus, although born into a plebeian family, had become a patrician when he was adopted into the gens Julia). This endowed the emperor with inviolability (sacrosanctity) of his person, and the ability to pardon any civilian for any act, criminal or otherwise. By holding the powers of the tribune, the emperor could prosecute anyone who interfered with the performance of his duties.
He was the brother-in-law of Brutus, another leader of the conspiracy. He commanded troops with Brutus during the Battle of Philippi against the combined forces of Mark Antony and Octavian, Caesar's former supporters, and committed suicide after being defeated by Mark Antony. Cassius was elected as a Tribune of the Plebs in 49 BC. He opposed Caesar, and eventually he commanded a fleet against him during Caesar's Civil War: after Caesar defeated Pompey in the Battle of Pharsalus, Caesar overtook Cassius and forced him to surrender. After Caesar's death, Cassius fled to the East, where he amassed an army of twelve legions.
During the year of Marius's sixth consulship (100 BC), Lucius Appuleius Saturninus was tribune of the plebs for the second time and advocated reforms like those earlier put forth by the Gracchi. Saturninus, after assassinating one of his political opponents to the tribunate, pushed for bills that would: drive his former commanding officer Metellus Numidicus into exile, lower the price of wheat distributed by the state, and give colonial lands to the veterans of Marius's recent war. Saturninus' bill gave lands to all veterans of the Cimbric wars, including those of Italian allies, which was resented by some of the plebs urbana. Marius, an Italian, was always supportive of the allies' rights, generously granting citizenship for acts of valour.
The Secession of the People to the Mons Sacer, engraving by B. Barloccini, 1849. Beginning in 495 BC, and culminating in 494-493 BC, as a result of concerns about debt and the failure of the senate to provide for plebeian welfare, the plebeians on the advice of Lucius Sicinius Vellutus seceded to the Mons Sacer (the Sacred Mountain). As part of a negotiated resolution, the patricians freed some of the plebs from their debts and conceded some of their power by creating the office of the Tribune of the Plebs. This office was the first government position held by the plebs, since at this time the office of consul was held by patricians solely.
The Scribonii Libones were long associated with a sacred structure in the forum known as the Pueal Scribonianum or Puteal Libonis, frequently depicted on their coins. So called because it resembled a puteal, or wellhead, the structure enclosed a "bidental", a place that had been struck by lightning, or in one tradition the spot where the whetstone of the augur Attius Navius had stood, in the time of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. The Puteal Scribonianum was dedicated by one of the Scribonii Libones, probably either the praetor of 204 BC, or the tribune of the plebs in 149. It was renovated by Lucius Scribonius Libo, either the praetor of 80 BC, or his son, the consul of 34.
Drusus was set up as tribune of the plebs by the Senate in 122 BC to undermine Gaius Gracchus' land reform bills. To do this (according to the record of Appian), he proposed creating twelve colonies with 3,000 settlers each from the poorer classes, and relieving rent on property distributed since 133 BC. He also said the Latin allies should not be mistreated by Roman generals, which was the counteroffer to Gaius' offer of full citizenship. These were known as the Leges Liviae, but they were never enacted, because the Senate simply wanted to draw support away from Gracchus. Their plan was successful, and Drusus had just enough support to veto Gaius' bill.
The gift of meat won him the election of Tribune of the Plebs in 327, despite the fact that he was absent for the election.Titus Livius, viii, 22 The gift of meat could not only have been to honor his mother, but also to show gratitude to the people of Rome who had acquitted him in the trial where he had been charged with adultery.William Smith (Editor), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, p.172 In 323 BC, Flavius brought the Tusculans to trial before the people for advising and assisting the people of Velitrae and Privernum in their rebellion against Rome during the Latin revolt (340-338 BC).
Following the precedent set in 133, several attempts were made by people generally associated with the populares party to protect the public rights of provocatio against executive power. Following the example of the leges Porciae from the beginning of the century, the lex Sempronia de capite civis, initiated by Tiberius' brother Gaius Gracchus following his election to the post of Tribune of the Plebs in 123 BC, made it impossible to carry out capital punishment only ratified by the senate. The lex Sempronia can be seen as a direct reaction to the fate of Tiberius Gracchus and his followers, who were tried and sentenced in a special tribunal with powers of capital punishment.
The gens Sextia was a plebeian family at Rome, from the time of the early Republic and continuing into imperial times. The most famous member of the gens was Lucius Sextius Lateranus, who as tribune of the plebs from 376 to 367 BC, prevented the election of the annual magistrates, until the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia, otherwise known as the "Licinian Rogations," in the latter year. This law, brought forward by Sextius and his colleague, Gaius Licinius Calvus, opened the consulship to the plebeians, and in the following year Sextius was elected the first plebeian consul. Despite the antiquity of the family, only one other member obtained the consulship during the time of the Republic.
Plebeians were the lower-class, often farmers, in Rome who mostly worked the land owned by the Patricians. Some plebeians owned small plots of land, but this was rare until the second century BC. Plebeians were tied to patricians through the clientela system of patronage that saw plebeians assisting their patrician patrons in war, augmenting their social status, and raising dowries or ransoms. In 450 BC, plebeians were barred from marrying patricians, but this law was repealed in 445 BC by a Tribune of the Plebs. In 444 BC, the office of Military Tribune with Consular Powers was created, which enabled plebeians who passed through this office to serve in the Senate once their one-year term was completed.
As one of the triumviri capitalis, Silva was one of three responsible for assisting the judicial magistrates. Next he served as military tribune of Legio IV Scythica around the year 64, when it was stationed in Syria; in 67 or 68 he was quaestor, the first stage of the cursus honorum allowing entry in the Senate; and around the year 70 he served as tribune of the plebs. Next he was appointed legate of the Legio XXI Rapax, which was stationed at Vindonissa, likely for his support of Vespasian in the Year of the Four Emperors. Flavius Silva was patron of his home town Urbs Salvia, where he twice held the honorary position of praetor quinquennalis.
His sisters included Claudia, the wife of Quintus Marcius Rex, Claudia Quadrantaria, the wife of Celer, and Claudia Quinta, the wife of Lucius Licinius Lucullus. Through his family, Clodius was closely connected with a number of prominent Roman politicians. His brother- in-law, Lucullus, was consul in 74 BC, while Celer was consul in 60, and the latter's brother, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, in 57. Mucia Tertia, a half-sister to the Caecilii, was the wife of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, and later Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, praetor in 56 BC; a half-brother, Publius Mucius Scaevola, was a pontifex, while his brother Quintus was an augur, and tribune of the plebs in 54.
On his return from Sicily, where he had been quaestor between 61 BC and 60 BC, Clodius sought election as tribune of the plebs, with the intention of revenging himself on his bitter enemy, Cicero. However, patricians were deliberately excluded from this office, and Clodius was a member of Rome's most aristocratic patrician families. To achieve his goal, Clodius contrived to be adopted into a plebeian gens, and renounced his status as a patrician. Although the adoption of a member of one gens into another was perfectly legal, and a venerable practice in Roman society, the adoption arranged by Clodius was highly irregular, and violated all of the usual conditions and legal requirements of the process.
After Clodius' death, Fulvia married first Gaius Scribonius Curio, tribune of the plebs in 50 BC; and subsequently Marcus Antonius, the triumvir; both marriages produced children. Clodius' son, Publius Claudius Pulcher, was probably born between 62 and 59 BC.Tatum (Patrician Tribune p. 61) points out that in 44 BC, Claudius could still be called a puer, "boy", although categories such as puer, adolescens and iuvenis were somewhat fluid. He achieved little in public life: Valerius Maximus describes him as a lethargic nonentity, who rose to the praetorship only through the influence of the second triumvirate, and died amid scandals of luxurious excess and an obsessive attachment to a common prostitute, probably after 31 BC.Valerius Maximus, iii. 5. 3.
In 59 BC he was tribune of the plebs and allied himself to Gaius Julius Caesar, who was then consul along with Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. Vatinius was a most zealous partisan for Caesar. He brought forward several proposals before the assemblies of the people, including the lex Vatinia, which granted Caesar Cisalpine Gaul and IIlyricum for five years, to which the senate—at the instigation of Pompey and Piso—afterwards added the province of Transalpine Gaul. Cicero accuses him of setting the auspices at defiance, of offering violence to the consul Bibulus, of filling the forum with soldiers, and of crushing the veto of his colleagues in the tribunate by force of arms.
He was probably born between 125 and 123 BC. In 90 BC, during the Social War, Curio was a tribune of the plebs. From 87 BC until 81 BC he served as a legate under Lucius Cornelius Sulla; First in Greece and Asia during Sulla's campaigns against king Mithridates of Pontus then against the Cinna-Marius faction during the Civil War of 83-81 BC. During the First Mithridatic War he besieged the Athenian tyrant Aristion, who had taken position on the Acropolis, during the Siege of Athens.Plutarch, Life of Sulla, 12 In 76 BC, he was elected consul,D. R. Shackleton Bailey trans., Cicero’s Letters to his Friends (Atlanta 1988) p.
Denarius of Publius Licinius CrassusThis Publius Licinius Crassus is probably the father of the triumvir, but has also been conjectured to be his son. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, William Smith, Editor. The gens Licinia was a celebrated plebeian family at Rome, which appears from the earliest days of the Republic until imperial times, and which eventually obtained the imperial dignity. The first of the gens to obtain the consulship was Gaius Licinius Calvus Stolo, who, as tribune of the plebs from 376 to 367 BC, prevented the election of any of the annual magistrates, until the patricians acquiesced to the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia, or Licinian Rogations.
The backlash against Tiberius Gracchus' attempt to secure for himself a second term as tribune of the plebs would lead to his assassination by the then- pontifex maximus Scipio Nasica, acting in his role as a private citizen and against the advice of the consul and jurist Publius Mucius Scaevola. The Senate's violent reaction also served to legitimise the use of violence for political ends. Political violence showed fundamentally that the traditional republican norms that had produced the stability of the middle republic were incapable of resolving conflicts between political actors. As well as inciting revenge killing for previous killings, the repeated episodes also showed the inability of the existing political system to solve pressing matters of the day.
One historian described Sulpicius and the circle of Crassus as supporters of moderate political reform in a way that strengthened the Roman state and at the same time did not remove control of the state from the established oligarchy. They all agreed between themselves on a program of reform which Crassus's disciples would introduce upon consecutively running for the office of tribune of the plebs, Drusus in 91 BC, Cotta in 90 and Sulpicius 89. Drusus's main objective once in office was the transfer of the state courts from the equestrian class to the Senate directly. He also proposed the extension of Roman citizenship to the Republic's long disenfranchised and dissatisfied Italian allies.
A pro-equestrian tribune of the plebs, Varius, took advantage of the situation by establishing a commission to prosecute Drusus's supporters on the charge that they had "incited" the Italians to revolt. Sulpicius's friend, Gaius Cotta, who was supposed to succeed Drusus in the tribunate, was forced into exile to avoid condemnation under Varius's court, spelling another setback to the political agenda of the Crassus group. Sulpicius, for his part, narrowly avoided prosecution under the Varian commission, due to military service in the Italian uprising. He served in the war as legatus (deputy), throughout 90 and 89 BC, which forced him to delay his aspired candidacy to the tribunate to the next year.
Although not part of the Cursus Honorum, upon completing a term as either Praetor or Consul, an officer was required to serve a term as Propraetor and Proconsul, respectively, in one of Rome's many provinces. These Propraetors and Proconsuls held near autocratic authority within their selected province or provinces. Because each governor held equal imperium to the equivalent magistrate, they were escorted by the same number of lictors (12) and could only be vetoed by a reigning Consul or Praetor. Their abilities to govern were only limited by the decrees of the Senate or the people's assemblies, and the Tribune of the Plebs was unable to veto their acts as long as the governor remained at least a mile outside of Rome.
In 67 BC, when tribune of the plebs, Gabinius brought forward the law (Lex Gabinia) which gave Pompey the command in the war against the Pirates of the Mediterranean, with extensive powers that gave him absolute control over the sea and the coasts for 50 miles inland. Through Gabinius' two other measures, loans of money to foreign ambassadors in Rome were made actionable (as a check on the corruption of the Senate) and the Senate was ordered to give audiences to foreign envoys on certain fixed days (February 1-March 1) each year. During the Third Mithridatic War Gabinius served Pompey as a legate. In 65 BC he marched with two legions into Northern Mesopotamia to pressure the Parthian king, Phraates III into a treaty with Pompey.
He mentions this incidentally in his work and therefore the extent to which his account is accurate has been considered suspect. A second view puts the date of enactment at around 200 B.C. On this line of reasoning the Lex was enacted as a response to heavy inflation following the second Punic war, and was thus necessitated by a need to eschew an assessment of damages based on fixed penalties. However it has been suggested that the Romans may well have required the flexible assessment of damages offered by the Lex, or at least the third chapter, before this date. Another suggestion has been at around 259 B.C when there was a consul named Aquillius who was also a tribune of the Plebs.
Lucius Sextius Lateranus was a Roman tribune of the plebs and is noted for having been one of two men (the other being Gaius Licinius Stolo) who passed the Leges Liciniae Sextiae of 368 BC and 367 BC. Originally, these were a set of three laws. One law provided that the interest already paid on debts should be deducted from the principal and that the payment of the rest of the principal should be in three equal annual installments. Another one provided restricted individual ownership of public land in excess of 500 iugeras (300 acres) and forbade the grazing of more than 100 cattle on public land. The most important law provided that one of the two consuls be a plebeian.
Since Crassus, Pompey and Caesar reached an agreement at Luca the previous year, all three are working together to advance Crassus's ambitions, so Clodius (Caesar's man) tells Decius that Crassus will finance his term of office as aedile - which Decius already knows will be ruinously expensive - if he will help convince his family to drop their opposition to the Parthian war. Later, the offer is repeated, by Crassus himself, while Decius and Julia are attending a formal dinner at Milo's house. As tempted as he is, Decius refuses, and is unsettled when Crassus appears personally insulted. The next day, Decius is approached by Gaius Ateius Capito, the tribune of the plebs most vehemently opposed to the war, who heard of Decius' refusals to Crassus and hails him as an ally.
Sisenna was born and raised in Rome being the son of the plebeian general, politician Aulus Gabinius from his wife LolliaGaius Suetonius Tranquillus, De Vita Caesarum, Caesar, 50 from the gens Lollia, perhaps a daughter of Marcus Lollius Palicanus, tribune of the plebs in 71 BC. Sisenna accompanied his father to Syriaarticle of Aulus Gabinius Sisenna at ancient library in 57 BC, when Gabinius served as a Proconsul in that province. Sisenna remained in Syria with a few troops, while Gabinius was involved in restoring the Egyptian Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes to his kingdom.article of Aulus Gabinius Sisenna at ancient library When Gaius Memmius was exciting the people against Gabinius, Sisenna flung himself to the feet of Memmius for his father. Memmius treated Sisenna with indignity and was not softened by his supplicating posture.
Those same historical accounts state that the couple disagreed over Scipio's treatment of his young cousin and former ward Tiberius Gracchus, who had tried to arrange a settlement for Numantia and bring an entire Roman army out of captivity. Scipio denounced the treaty in the Senate, and although Gracchus was saved from punishment, he bore a grudge against Scipio and his allies henceforth. He allied himself with Scipio's political rival Appius Claudius Pulcher, who was Princeps Senatus and censor in 136 BC and other influential men allied to him by marriage, and became tribune of the plebs to implement a radical reform program that threatened to undermine the socio-economic and political order. In 133 BC, Tiberius Gracchus and some of his followers were clubbed to death in Rome.
Curius Dentatus refusing wealth in favour of a turnip, as depicted by Jacopo Amigoni Manius Curius Dentatus (died 270 BC), son of Manius, was a three-time consul and a plebeian hero of the Roman Republic, noted for ending the Samnite War. According to Pliny, he was born with teeth, thus earning the cognomen Dentatus, "Toothed."Pliny, Natural History 7.68, LacusCurtius edition. Dentatus was a tribune of the plebs sometime between 298 and 291 BC. As tribune, he foiled efforts by the interrex Appius Claudius Caecus to keep plebeian candidates out of the consular elections. If his tribunate is dated to 291, his actions advanced his own candidacy, but since Appius served three times as interrex, the earliest date accords better with the timeline of Dentatus's own career.
Publius Licinius Crassus (fl. 176 to 171 BC) was Roman consul for year 171 BC, together with Gaius Cassius Longinus. He was the son of Gaius Licinius Varus, possibly related to the Gaius Licinius Varus who was consul in 236 BC and who was still alive in 219 BC. Crassus's brother (probably his younger brother) was Gaius Licinius Crassus (consul 168 BC), and his nephew was Gaius Licinius Crassus, tribune of the plebs about 145 BC. However, his relationship to the consuls Licinius Varus and the Pontifex Maximus Publius Licinius Crassus are not known. He was elected as praetor for 176 BC and assigned to the province of Hither Spain, but he got himself excused from this duty by swearing an oath that his religious duties did not allow him to go.
Drusus was elected tribune of the Plebs for 91 BC. Hostile propaganda later portrayed him as a demagogue from the outset of his tribunate, but Cicero and others assert that he began with the aim of strengthening senatorial rule and had the backing of the most powerful optimates in the Senate.Cicero, De Officiis 1.108Florus 2.5.1–3 These included the 'father of the senate' (princeps senatus), Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, who had been the colleague of Drusus' father in the censorship of 109 BC; and Lucius Licinius Crassus, the most influential orator of the day.Cicero, De Oratore 3.2-6 In pursuing a 'conservative' tribunate, Drusus was following in the footsteps of his father who, as tribune in 122 BC, had successfully championed the Senate's interests against the famous popularis reformer Gaius Gracchus.
138–161), and Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180), as well as the shorter reign of Marcus Aurelius' first co-Emperor, Lucius Verus (r. 161-169). In the Roman government, Julianus gradually rose in rank through a traditional series of offices. He was successively quaestor to the Emperor Hadrian (with double the usual salary), tribune of the plebs, praetor, praefectus aerarii Saturni, and praefectus aerarii militaris, before assuming the high annual office of Roman consul in 148.H. F. Jolowicz and Barry Nicholas, Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law (Cambridge University 1932 by Jolowicz; 3d ed. 1972 by Nicholas) at 384–385. Julianus also served in the emperor's inner circle, the consilium principis, which functioned something like a modern cabinet, directing new legislation, but also sometimes like a court of law.
He lost in a campaign for the consulship in 93 BC to Marcus Herennius, but did reach the office in 91 BC with Sextus Julius Caesar as his colleague. This was a very turbulent year in Rome for Marcus Livius Drusus, a tribune of the plebs, who brought forward laws concerning the distribution of grain, assignation of public land, and the creation of colonies in Italy and Sicily. It is sufficient to state here that Drusus at first enjoyed the full confidence of the senate, especially as he was passing many laws beneficial to the people, and so endeavoured by his measures to reconcile the people to the senatorial party. Philippus, on the other hand, belonged to the popular party, and he offered a vigorous opposition to the tribune, and thus came into open conflict with the senate.
In 215 BC, at the height of the Second Punic War and at the request of the tribune of the plebs Gaius Oppius, the Oppian Law (Lex Oppia), intended to restrict the luxury and extravagance of women in order to save money for the public treasury, was passed. The law specified that no woman could own more than half an ounce of gold, nor wear a garment of several colours, nor drive a carriage with horses closer than a mile to the city, except to attend public celebrations of religious rites. After Hannibal was defeated and Rome was resplendent with Carthaginian wealth, tribunes Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius proposed to abolish the Oppian law, but tribunes Marcus Junius Brutus and Titus Junius Brutus opposed doing so. This conflict spawned far more interest than the most important state affairs.
In 133 BC, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, the tribune of the plebs, passed a series of laws attempting to reform the agrarian land laws; the laws limited the amount of public land one person could control, reclaimed public lands held in excess of this, and attempted to redistribute the land, for a small rent, to farmers now living in the cities. Further reforms in 122 BC were attempted by Tiberius's brother, Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, including the expansion of the laws' area of influence to all of the colonies in Italy. These reforms, however, were not as successful due to massive unpopularity in the Italian provinces. By 118 BC the sales limits and redistribution efforts had been abolished, and by 111 BC the laws were standardised, confirming the positions of many owners in Italy about their large tracts of land.
C. Sallustius Crispus, more commonly known as Sallust, was a Roman historian of the 1st century BC, born c. 86 BC in the Sabine community of Amiternum. There is some evidence that Sallust's family belonged to a local aristocracy, but we do know that he did not belong to Rome's ruling class. Thus he embarked on a political career as a "novus homo", serving as a military tribune in the 60s BC, quaestor from 55 to 54 BC, and tribune of the plebs in 52 BC. Sallust was expelled from the senate in 50 BC on moral grounds, but quickly revived his career by attaching himself to Julius Caesar. He served as quaestor again in 48 BC, as praetor in 46 BC, and governed the new province in the former Numidian territory until 44 BC., making his fortune in the process.
Both would pursue public careers, like their father and grandfather, and also like Saloninus and his brother, neither were long- lived. Marcus was tribune of the plebs, and a candidate for the praetorship at the time of his death, some time before the outbreak of the Social War, in 91 BC, while Lucius would achieve the consulship in 89 BC, only to fall in the course of the war. By his son Marcus, Salonianus was the grandfather of Cato the Younger, a notable adherent of Stoicism, whose lifestyle emulated that of Cato the Elder. Famed for his conservative views, austerity, and stubbornness, the younger Cato served as praetor, and became a staunch supporter of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus during the Civil War, choosing to take his own life rather than be captured by Caesar, even though he would almost certainly have been pardoned.
Pompeius was a supporter of the Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In 100 BC Pompeius was tribune of the plebs; was praetor in 91 BC and served his consulship with Sulla in 88 BC. When the civil war broke out between Sulla and Gaius Marius, Pompeius was deprived of his consulship and fled to Nola, where Pompeius met up with Sulla and his army. Sulla took the place in the war against Mithridates and left Pompeius in charge of Italy. While Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo was commanding the war against the Marsi tribe, the Optimates gave his army to Pompeius Rufus, the new consul. This caused Pompeius Rufus to be murdered by Strabo’s soldiers. Pompeius had married an unnamed Roman woman and they had a son a younger Quintus Pompeius Rufus, who married Sulla’s first daughter Cornelia Sulla.
During the Late Republic, the spelling Clodius is most prominently associated with Publius Clodius Pulcher, a popularis politician who gave up his patrician status through an order in order to qualify for the office of tribune of the plebs. Clodius positioned himself as a champion of the urban plebs, supporting free grain for the poor and the right of association in guilds (collegia); because of this individual's ideology, Clodius has often been taken as a more "plebeian" spelling and a gesture of political solidarity. Clodius's two elder brothers, the Appius Claudius Pulcher who was consul in 54 BC and the C. Claudius Pulcher who was praetor in 56 BC, conducted more conventional political careers and are referred to in contemporary sources with the traditional spelling. The view that Clodius represents a plebeian or politicized form has been questioned by Clodius's chief modern-era biographer.
Gaius Porcius Cato (1st century BC) was a distant relative, probably a second cousin, of the more famous Marcus Porcius Cato, called Cato the Younger. This Cato was probably the son of Gaius Porcius Cato, the homonymous consul of 114 BC, being then the grandson of Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus and thereby the great-grandson of the famous Cato the Censor, often called Cato the Elder. Gaius Porcius Cato was a client (an adherent) of triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus and was an ally of Clodius (Publius Clodius Pulcher) the infamous Patrician tribune of the plebs, in his street gang war against Milo (Titus Annius Milo). He attacked Publius Cornelius Lentulus Spinther and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) in 59 BC by prosecuting a follower, Gabinius, for ambitus (political corruption) but was thwarted by a Pompeian praetor and was chased from the rostra by an angry crowd.
A homo novus associated with the populares, he was tribune of the plebs in 74 BC and praetor in 67 BC. Quinctius is characterised by Cicero as a man well fitted to speak in public assemblies (Cic. Brut. 62). He distinguished himself by his violent opposition to the constitutional reforms of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and endeavoured to regain for the tribunes the power of which they had been deprived. The unpopularity excited against the judges by the general belief that they had been bribed by Cluentius to condemn Oppianicus, was of service to Quinctius in attacking another of Sulla's measures, by which the judges were taken exclusively from the senatorial order. Quinctius warmly espoused the cause of Oppianicus, constantly asserted his innocence, and raised the flame of popular indignation to such a height, that Junius, who had presided at the trial, was obliged to retire from public life.
Publius Clodius Pulcher (93–52 BC) was a populist Roman politician and street agitator during the time of the First Triumvirate. One of the most colourful personalities of his era, Clodius was descended from the aristocratic Claudian gens, one of Rome's oldest and noblest patrician families, but he contrived to be adopted by an obscure plebeian, so that he could be elected tribune of the plebs. During his term of office, he pushed through an ambitious legislative program, including a grain dole; but he is chiefly remembered for his scandalous lifestyle, which included violating the sanctity of a religious rite reserved solely for women, purportedly with the intention of seducing Caesar's wife; and for his feud with Cicero and Milo, which ended in Clodius' death at the hands of Milo's bodyguards.Tatum, W. Jeffrey, The Patrician Tribune: Publius Clodius Pulcher, University of North Carolina Press, 1999, pp.
Marcus Cispius was a tribune of the plebs in 57 BC, and was among those tribunes who actively supported Cicero in his efforts to overturn the legislation that brought about his exile.Cicero, Post Reditum in Senatu 21; Pro Sestio 76. Earlier, however, Cicero had brought a civil suit in which he spoke against Cispius, his brother, and their father. Sometime after Cispius's tribunate, most likely in early 56, he was defended by Cicero on a charge of electoral corruption (ambitus) and convicted.Michael C. Alexander, Trials in the Late Roman Republic, 149 BC to 50 BC (University of Toronto Press, 1990), pp. 127, 136; W. Jeffrey Tatum, The Patrician Tribune (University of North Caroline Press, 1999), pp. 178 and 318, note 203. Cicero calls him "a man of character and principle."Vir optimus et constantissimus (Pro Sestio 76), as translated by Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939), p. 81.
Its details and workings are unknown; it may have derived from a radical intervention into traditional augural law of a civil Lex Aelia Fufia, proposed by dominant traditionalists in an attempt to block the passing of popular laws and used from around the 130s BC. Legislation by Clodius as Tribune of the plebs in 58 BC was aimed at ending the practice,Beard, M., Price, S., North, J., Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History, illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp 109-10. or at least curtailing its potential for abuse; obnuntiatio had been exploited the previous year as an obstructionist tactic by Julius Caesar's consular colleague Bibulus. That the Clodian law had not deprived all augurs or magistrates of the privilege is indicated by Mark Antony's use of obnuntatio in early 44 BC to halt the consular election.J.P.V.D. Balsdon, "Roman History, 58–56 B.C.: Three Ciceronian Problems", Journal of Roman Studies 47 (1957) 16–16.
Tribunus plebis, rendered in English as tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune, was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of the Roman Senate and magistrates. 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. The tribunes of the plebs were sacrosanct, meaning that any assault on their person was punishable by death. 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.
Afterwards, Saturninus had his revenge when, having been elected tribune of the plebs, he and Marius proposed an agrarian law awarding land to Roman veterans, with an additional clause that obliged every Senator to swear allegiance to the agrarian law, under penalty of expulsion from the Senate and a heavy fine. In the Senate, Marius first declared that he would never take the oath, in which Metellus seconded him; in the event, however, Marius and all other senators but Metellus took the oath. Rather than swear obedience to a law he opposed, Metellus Numidicus resigned his Senate seat and paid the corresponding fine. After leaving the Forum, he said to his friends: ::To do harm is proper of the evil spirits; to do good without taking risks is proper of the ordinary spirits; the man of heart never ever deflects from what is fair and honest, never looking to rewards or to threats.
Publius Sulpicius Rufus probably came from the Roman equestrian class, and was born in 124 BC or perhaps the following year. He had close ties to prominent elements of the Roman senatorial aristocracy, and in his youth was tutored in rhetoric and groomed for public life by Lucius Licinius Crassus, a renowned orator and prominent senator. Under his tutelage Sulpicius became one of the most distinguished orators of the time, and, together with two friends and fellow disciples of Crassus – Marcus Livius Drusus and Gaius Aurelius Cotta – he formed a circle of "talented and energetic" young nobles in whom the senatorial oligarchy (the self-styled "optimates" or boni, "best men") placed significant hope to defend their interests in the near future. The first major event of Sulpicius's public life occurred around 95 BC, when, with support of the boni, he prosecuted a turbulent tribune of the plebs, Gaius Norbanus – unsuccessfully, despite Sulpicius's impressive performance on the occasion.
Gaius Rabirius was a Roman senator who was involved in the death of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus in 100 BC. Titus Labienus, a Tribune of the Plebs whose uncle had lost his life among the followers of Saturninus on that occasion, was urged by fellow Senator and patron Julius Caesar to accuse Rabirius of participating in the murder. Caesar's real objective was to warn the Senate against interference by force with popular movements, to uphold the sovereignty of the people and the inviolability of the person of the tribunes, at the time of the conspiracy of Lucius Sergius Catilina. The obsolete accusation of perduellio was revived, and the case was heard before Caesar and his cousin Lucius Julius Caesar as commissioners specially appointed (duumviri perduellionis). Rabirius was condemned, and the people, to whom the accused had exercised the right of appeal, were on the point of ratifying the decision, when Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer pulled down the military flag from the Janiculum, which was equivalent to the dissolution of the assembly.
US President Bill Clinton signing veto letters in 1993 A veto (Latin for "I forbid") is the power (used by an officer of the state, for example) to unilaterally stop an official action, especially the enactment of legislation. A veto can be absolute, as for instance in the United Nations Security Council, whose permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) can block any resolution, or it can be limited, as in the legislative process of the United States, where a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate will override a Presidential veto of legislation.Article I, Section 7, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution A veto may give power only to stop changes (thus allowing its holder to protect the status quo), like the US legislative veto, or to also adopt them (an "amendatory veto"), like the legislative veto of the Indian President, which allows him to propose amendments to bills returned to Parliament for reconsideration. The concept of a veto body originated with the Roman offices of consul and tribune of the plebs.
Pyramid of Cestius by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (18th century) Pyramid of Cestius and environs by Giuseppe Vasi (18th century) The pyramid was built for Gaius Cestius Epulo, the son of Lucius, of the tribe of Pobilia. The inscription on it mentions that Cestius was a praetor, a tribune of the plebs, and a septemvir of the Epulones. The tomb was completed in 330 days and was one of two pyramid shaped tombs in the city of Rome. The sharply pointed shape of the pyramid is strongly reminiscent of the pyramids of Nubia, in particular of the kingdom of Meroë, which had been attacked by Rome in 23 BC. The similarity suggests that Cestius had possibly served in that campaign and perhaps intended the pyramid to serve as a commemoration. His pyramid was not the only one in Rome; a larger one—the "pyramid of Romulus" — of similar form but unknown origins stood between the Vatican and the Mausoleum of Hadrian but was dismantled in the 16th century by Pope Alexander VI and the marble was used for the steps of St. Peter's Basilica.
Broughton I, pg. 468 Fannius next appears in 141 BC, serving with distinction as a military tribune in Hispania Ulterior under Quintus Fabius Maximus Servilianus in his war against Viriathus.Broughton I, pg. 478 It is assumed that sometime after 139 BC (possibly 137 BC), Fannius was elected as Plebeian Tribune.Cornell, pg. 246 Then probably around 127/6 BC, he was elected to the office of Praetor, during which time he was mentioned in a decree responding to the request for Roman assistance by John Hyrcanus, the ruler of the Hasmonean Kingdom.Broughton I, pg. 509 In 122 BC, with the support of the Tribune of the Plebs Gaius Gracchus, Fannius was elected consul, serving alongside Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus.Smith II, pg. 296 However, once he was in office, he turned against Gracchus, opposing his reforming measures and supporting the traditional senatorial group who were against any reforms which impacted upon their wealth and status.Broughton I, pg. 516 During his consulship he obeyed the Senate's directive and issued a proclamation commanding all of the Italian allies to leave Rome.Smith II, pg. 297 He also spoke against Gracchus' proposal to extend the franchise to the Latins.
The elder, Cornelia Africana Major, married her second cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum (son of the consul of 191 BC who was himself son of Scipio's elder paternal uncle Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus). This son-in-law was a distinguished Roman in his own right. He became consul (abdicating or resigning in 162 BC for religious reasons, then being re- elected in 155 BC), censor in 159 BC, Princeps Senatus, and died as Pontifex Maximus in 141 BC. Scipio Nasica rose to many of the dignities enjoyed by his late father-in-law, and was noted for his staunch (if ultimately futile) opposition to Cato the Censor over the fate of Carthage from about 157 to 149 BC. They had at least one surviving son (of whom more below). The younger daughter was more famous in history; Cornelia Africana Minor, the young wife of the elderly Tiberius Gracchus Major or Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, tribune of the plebs, praetor, then consul 177 (then censor and consul again), became the mother of 12 children, the only surviving sons being the famous Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus.
Publius belonged to the gens Mucia, a noble Plebeian family of Rome, of which the Scaevolae were the main branch. Several Scaevolae appear in Roman magistracies before the appearance of Publius Mucius, including a certain Publius Mucius Scaevola who served as a tribune of the plebs in 486 BC and a Publius Mutius Scaevola—who, while not of the same branch, clearly belongs to the Scaevola clan—who held the Tribunate of the Soldiers in the same year, suggesting the Scaevola family was an entrenched Republican family of senatorial class from at least 486 BC. In legend the Scaevolas draw their name from a Gaius Mucius Scaevola of 508 BC who supposedly attempted to assassinate the Etruscan king of Clusium, Lars Porsena and upon killing his secretary due to a mix up in interpreting Etruscan dress, thrust his arm into a brazier and declared that 300 young men like him would come for Porsena, leading to the king's withdrawal out of fear for his personal safety. Publius Mucius Scaevola had a father of the same name, who was consul in 175 BC with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Scaevola served as Pontifex Maximus following his younger brother Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus’s death.

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