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A tribune was an ancient Roman administrative officer. Military tribunes were originally commanders of the tribes. Six were appointed for each legion, being elected from 207 BC by vote of the people. When more than two armies took the field, those which were not commanded by consuls were placed under military tribunes with consular power. Tribunes of the treasury were paymasters of the army.
More important were the tribunes of the people or plebs. When Rome established the republic in 509 BC the plebeians shared in the 'comitia centuriata' or national assembly, but the magistracies, the high offices of state, were confined to the patricians. In 494 BC the plebeians obtained the right to appoint from among themselves two tribunes authorised to intervene for the protection of plebeians against arbitrary actions on the part of the magistrates. The numbers were raised to five and then in 457 to ten. In 287 the exclusively plebeian assembly, the 'comitia tributa', became an independent legislative body, while the tribunes individually had the power of initiating legislation, and of imposing a veto upon the enactment of proposed laws and of prohibiting administrative acts on the part of the magistrates.
The later powers of the tribunate were suddenly developed when Tiberius Gracchus was elected as a tribune in 133. Hitherto democratic legislation had been held in check because the senate could always count on procuring one tribune willing to impose his veto upon obnoxious proposals. But Tiberius Gracchus formally deposed an antagonistic tribune by the vote of the comitia tributa. Sulla's legislation in 81 BC temporarily deprived the tribunate of some of its powers, which were again partially restored in 75 and 70.
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