A military tribune (Latin tribunus militum, "tribune of the soldiers", Greek chiliarchos, χιλίαρχος) was an officer of the Roman army who ranked below the legate and above the centurion. Young men of Equestrian rank often served as military tribune as a stepping stone to the Senate.Dio, LXVII, 2. The tribunus militum should not be confused with the elected political office of tribune of the people (tribunus plebis) nor with that of tribunus militum consulari potestate.
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Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 32 (P. Oxy. 32) is a letter to a tribunus militum, written in Latin. It was discovered by Grenfell and Hunt in 1897 in Oxyrhynchus. The fragment is dated to the second century.
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Pulvillus was elected tribunus militum consulari potestate ("military tribune with consular power") in 386 in a college of six members. His colleagues were Marcus Furius Camillus, Servius Cornelius Maluginensis, Quintus Servilius Fidenas, Lucius Quinctius Cicinnatus, and Publius Valerius Potitus Poplicola.Broughton, vol. I, pp.
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The inscription in footnote 1 The Athenians awarded him a statue with an inscription in the Theater of Dionysus (IG II2 3286) offering a detailed account of his cursus honorum thus far.The Athenian inscription confirms and expands the one in Historia Augusta; see John Bodel, ed., Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient History From Inscriptions. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006, , p. 89His career in office up to 112/113 is attested by the Athens inscription, 112 AD: CIL III, 550 = InscrAtt 3 = IG II, 3286 = Dessau 308 = IDRE 2, 365: decemvir stlitibus iudicandis/ sevir turmae equitum Romanorum/ praefectus Urbi feriarum Latinarum/ tribunus militum legionis II Adiutricis Piae Fidelis (95, in Pannonia Inferior)/ tribunus militum legionis V Macedonicae (96, in Moesia Inferior)/ tribunus militum legionis XXII Primigeniae Piae Fidelis (97, in Germania Superior)/ quaestor (101)/ ab actis senatus/ tribunus plebis (105)/ praetor (106)/ legatus legionis I Minerviae Piae Fidelis (106, in Germania Inferior)/ legatus Augusti pro praetore Pannoniae Inferioris (107)/ consul suffectus (108)/ septemvir epulonum (before 112)/ sodalis Augustalis (before 112)/ archon Athenis (112/13).
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Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, c. 122 BC. Most likely a tribunus militum (joint legionary commander). Note the plumed Attic helmet, engraved bronze cuirass, mantle, sash indicating equestrian rank, pteruges. The soldier on the left is wearing an Italian version of the Corinthian helmet, which has the face-guard permanently lifted back off the face, but retains its two eye-holes for decoration.
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Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, 122 BC. Probably a tribunus militum (joint legionary commander), the officer wears a decorated bronze cuirass, pteruges, mantle, and Attic-style helmet with horsehair plume. The sash around his cuirass probably denoted knightly rank. In the republican army, tribuni were elected by the comitia centuriata (main people's assembly) from the members of the equestrian order. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
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Marius as victor over the invading Cimbri. In 104 the Cimbri and the Teutones, two German tribes who had bested the Roman legions on several occacions, seemed to be heading for Italy. As Marius, fresh from his victory over Jugurtha, was considered to be Rome's best military commander at that particular time, the Senate allowed him to lead the campaign against the northern invaders. Sulla, who had served under Marius during the Jugurthine War, joined his old commander as tribunus militum (military tribune).
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During the War of Independence he collaborated with Markos Botsaris and Theodoros Kolokotronis. The majority of his time, however, was spent fighting alongside Georgios Karaiskakis. In 1825 he was awarded the rank of tribunus militum (in Greek χιλίαρχος) in the unit led by Karaiskakis. He had a distinct contribution in the Battle of Arachova. Following the end of the military operations he and his men returned to Eptahori where he continued to run the family’s grinding business and to operate the family-owned watermill.
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So he reverted to guerrilla tactics, retreating before the advancing Romans, then attacking their supply-lines in the rear. The Romans were soon exhausted and frustrated, unable to respond effectively. Eventually, however, the sheer volume of plunder that Tacfarinas had taken forced him to adopt a more stable base, near the Mediterranean coast in the puppet-state of Mauretania. Here he was surprised by a flying column of auxiliary cavalry and special light-armed legionaries under the proconsul's own son, Lucius Apronius Caesianus (presumably the 3rd legion's tribunus militum laticlavius - deputy commander).
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In 67, in Galilee, the city of Sepphoris surrendered peacefully to the Roman army, and later the V Macedonica conquered Mount Gerizim, the chief sanctuary of the Samaritans. In the Year of the Four Emperors, 68, the legion stayed inactive in Emmaus, where several tombstones of soldiers of the V Macedonica remain. After the proclamation of Vespasian as Emperor and the end of the war under his son Titus, the V Macedonica left Iudaea and returned to Oescus (71). In 96, the later emperor Hadrian served the legion as tribunus militum.
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Vipstanus Messalla is presumed to be the son of Gaius Vipstanus Messalla Gallus, suffect consul in 48. The younger Messalla was a tribunus militum in 69, stationed with the legion VII Claudia in Moesia which entered the civil war against the emperor Vitellius. He was temporarily in command of the legion in September and October 69, after the legion's legate was forced to flee for his life;Morgan, Gwyn, 69 A.D.: The Year Of Four Emperors (2006), pp. 282-283 later, Messalla wrote an account of the campaign.
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Cossus donated the captured armour, shield and sword to the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius on the Capitoline Hill, where as late as the reign of Emperor Augustus it could be seen. In 428 BC Cossus was elected consul together with Titus Quinctius Pennus Cincinnatus.Livy, IV, 17-20 Cossus was elected a consular tribune (tribunus militum consulari potestate) in 426 BC. According to Livy, Cossus held the command in the city while the other three tribunes (Gaius Furius Pacilus Fusus, Marcus Postumius and Titus Quinctius Pennus Cincinnatus) led the army to Veii. Due to infighting and divided command they were defeated by the Veientes.
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Under the late Republic, a proconsul on campaign often formed a small personal guard, selected from the troops under his command, known as a cohors praetoria ("commander's cohort"), from praetorium meaning the commander's tent at the centre of a Roman marching-camp (or commander's residence in a legionary fortress). At the Battle of Actium (31 BC), Augustus had five such cohorts around him. After the battle, he retained them in being as a permanent brigade in and around Rome, known as the praetoriani ("soldiers of the imperial palace"). Inscription evidence suggests that Augustus increased the Praetorian establishment to nine cohorts, each under the command of a tribunus militum (military tribune).
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The association with the deity that founded divine order (Fides is associated with Iupiter in his function of guardian of the supreme juridical order) underlines the mutual interconnections among them and of the gods they represented with the supreme heavenly order, whose arcane character was represented symbolically in the hidden character of the forms of the cult. The spolia opima were dedicated by the person who had killed the king or chief of the enemy in battle. They were dedicated to Jupiter in case the Roman was a king or his equivalent (consul, dictator or tribunus militum consulari potestate), to Mars in case he was an officer and to Quirinus in case he was common soldier.Festus s.v.
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E. Fraenkel, Horace, 8–9 Rome's troubles following the assassination of Julius Caesar were soon to catch up with him. Marcus Junius Brutus came to Athens seeking support for the republican cause. Brutus was fêted around town in grand receptions and he made a point of attending academic lectures, all the while recruiting supporters among the young men studying there, including Horace.E. Fraenkel, Horace, 9–10 An educated young Roman could begin military service high in the ranks and Horace was made tribunus militum (one of six senior officers of a typical legion), a post usually reserved for men of senatorial or equestrian rank and which seems to have inspired jealousy among his well-born confederates.
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Penguin Caesar Appendix II 242 This was provided by Augustus, who appointed a legatus to command each legion with a term of office of several years. The ranking senatorial military tribune (tribunus militum laticlavius) was designated deputy commander, while the remaining five equestrian tribunes served as the legatus' staff officers. In addition, Augustus established a new post of praefectus castrorum (literally "prefect of the camp"), to be filled by a Roman knight (often an outgoing centurio primus pilus, a legion's chief centurion, who was usually elevated to equestrian rank on completion of his single-year term of office). Technically, this officer ranked below the senatorial tribune, but his long operational experience made him the legion commander's de facto executive officer.
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The standard equestrian officer progression was known as the "tres militiae" ("three services"): praefectus of a cohors (auxiliary infantry regiment), followed by tribunus militum in a legion, and finally praefectus of an ala (auxiliary cavalry regiment). From the time of Hadrian, a fourth militia was added for exceptionally gifted officers, commander of an ala milliaria (double-strength ala). Each post was held for three to four years.Goldsworthy (2003) 65 Most of the top posts in the imperial administration were reserved for senators, who provided the governors of the larger provinces (except Egypt), the legati legionis (legion commanders) of all legions outside Egypt, and the praefectus urbi (prefect of the city of Rome), who controlled the Cohortes Urbanae (public order battalions), the only fully armed force in the city apart from the Praetorian Guard.
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In public service, equites equo publico had their own version of the senatorial cursus honorum, or conventional career-path, which typically combined military and administrative posts. After an initial period of a few years in local government in their home regions as administrators (local aediles or duumviri) or as priests (augures), equites were required to serve as military officers for about 10 years before they would be appointed to senior administrative or military posts.Talbert (1996) 340 Tombstone of the knight Titus Cornasidius Sabinus, detailing a typical equestrian career in the imperial period. Sabinus initially held posts in the local government of Lavinium, a town in Latium, then served as a military officer, first as praefectus (commander) of cohors I Montanorum (in Pannonia), then tribunus militum of legio II Augusta (in Britannia), and finally praefectus of ala veterana Gallorum (in Aegyptus).
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The Historia Augusta, whose testimony is not to be trusted unreservedly, paints Pupienus as an example of advancement through the cursus honorum due to military success. It claims he was the son of a blacksmith, was adopted by one Pescennia Marcellina (otherwise unknown), and who started his career as a Centurio primus pilus before becoming a Tribunus Militum, and then a Praetor. Pupienus's career was allegedly impressive, serving a number of important posts during the reign of the Severan dynasty throughout the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries. This included assignment as Proconsul of the senatorial propraetorial provinces of Bithynia et Pontus, Achaea, and Gallia Narbonensis.Historia Augusta, Maximus and Balbinus, 5:1-8 In fact Pupienus was part of the aristocracy, albeit a minor member, and his family had possibly been elevated only recently.John Drinkwater, Maximinus to Diocletian and the crisis, in The Cambridge ancient history: The crisis of empire, A.D. 193-337 (ed.
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As regards the military, members of the senatorial order (senatorii) exclusively filled the following posts: :(a) legatus Augusti pro praetore (provincial governor of a border province, who was commander-in-chief of the military forces deployed there as well as heading the civil administration) :(b) legatus legionis (legion commander) :(c) tribunus militum laticlavius (legion deputy commander).Goldsworthy (2003) 60 The equites provided: :(a) the governors (procuratores) of Egypt and of a few minor provinces :(b) the two praefecti praetorio (commanders of the Praetorian Guard) :(c) a legion's praefectus castrorum (3rd-in-command) and its remaining five tribuni militum (senior staff officers) :(d) the praefecti (commanders) of the auxiliary regiments.Goldsworthy (2003) 64–5 By the late 1st century, a distinct equestrian group, non-Italian and military in character, became established. This was a result of the established custom whereby the emperor elevated the primuspilus (chief centurion) of each legion to equestrian rank on completion of his year in office.
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The unit's origin is uncertain but it appears that they existed during the reign of Trajan 98-117 AD. The unit is documented on Trajan's Column as active in the Dacian Wars (101-AD).Rankov (1994) 13 It has been suggested that they were formed of Trajan's personal horseguards during his governorship of Germania Superior. Although designated in inscriptions as a numerus, it appears to have been structured as a regular milliary (i.e. double-strength) ala of the Auxilia, under the command of a tribunus militum, who probably reported to the Praefectus Praetorio, the commandant of the Guard.Rankov (1994) 13 Initially, it probably contained 720 horsemen, divided into 24 turmae, or squadrons, of 30 men each. Numbers rose to around 1,000 under Hadrian (r. 117-38) and the regiment was expanded to some 2,000 horse in the early 3rd century by the emperor Septimius Severus (ruled AD 197-211).Tomlin (1988) 107 Their home-base was in Rome, and their permanent camp was on the Caelian Hill.
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