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A tribus, or tribe, was a division of the Ancient Rome people for military, censorial, and voting purposes. When constituted in the comitia tributa, the tribes were the voting units of a legislative assembly of the Roman Republic. Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, " Tribus".
According to tradition, the first three tribes were established by Romulus; each was divided into ten curiae, or wards, which were the voting units of the Curiate Assembly. Although the curiae continued throughout Roman history, the three original tribes that they constituted gradually vanished from history.Livy, x. 6.
Perhaps influenced by the original division of the people into tribes, as well as the number of thirty wards, Servius Tullius established four tribes dividing Rome and various pagi over the countryside, which later became seventeen rural tribes. After the formation of the republic, these tribes were assembled into a popular assembly called the comitia tributa. As the Roman population and its territory grew, fifteen additional tribes were enrolled, the last in 241 BC.
All Roman citizens were enrolled in one of these tribes, through which they were entitled to vote on the election of certain magistrates, religious officials, judicial decisions in certain suits affecting the plebs, and pass resolutions on various proposals made by the tribunes of the plebs and the higher magistrates. Although the comitia tributa lost most of its legislative functions under the Roman Empire, enrollment in a tribe remained an important part of Roman citizenship until at least the third century AD. Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, Second Edition, Harry Thurston Peck, Editor (1897), "Comitia".
Known as the three Romulean tribes, these first tribes have often been supposed to represent the major ethnic groups of early Rome with the Ramnes representing Rome's Latin population, the Tities representing the Sabines, and the Luceres probably representing the Etruscans. Rome lay on the Tiber, the traditional boundary of Etruria with Latium, and may have had a substantial Etruscan population from the beginning; but certainly there was a considerable Etruscan element in the Roman population by the sixth century BC; the fifth and seventh kings of Rome were Etruscan, and many of Rome's cultural institutions were of Etruscan origin. It may be to this period, rather than the time of Romulus, that the institution of the Luceres belongs; and indeed the names, if not the ethnic character, of all three of the Romulean tribes appear to be Etruscan.Robert Maxwell Ogilvie, A Commentary on Livy, Books I–V (1965).
Although the theory that the Romulean tribes represented the city's original ethnic components continues to be represented in modern scholarship, it has never been universally accepted, and this view is rejected by many scholars.Cornell, pp. 114, 115. This is because "the idea that the three tribes were distinct ethnic groups has no support in the ancient sources". Kathryn Lomas, in the 2018 book Rise of Rome, attributes the popularity of the explanation to nationalist politics of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The curiae were said to have been named after thirty of the Sabine Women, but of the nine curiae whose names are known today, several are of geographical origin. The only curiae whose names are now known were: Acculeia, Calabra, Faucia, Foriensis, Rapta, Tifata, Titia, Veliensis, and Velitia.Varro, De Lingua Latina.Livy, ix. 38.Festus. Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, "Curia."C. J. Smith, The Roman Clan, p. 204.
In the past, it was widely believed that membership in the curiae was limited to the patricians, and that statements to the contrary, indicating that clientes were admitted meant no more than that they were passive members with no voting rights. However, Theodor Mommsen argued convincingly that the plebs were included in voting, and this view now appears to have prevailed; the plebeians were included either from the beginning, or at least from an early date; certainly from the earliest years of the Republic.Mommsen, Römische Forschungen i. 140–150.
After the downfall of the Roman monarchy, questions were presented to the comitia curiata by the Roman Senate. However, between 494 and 449 BC, most of its functions were relegated to the comitia tributa and the comitia centuriata. The higher magistrates were elected by the comitia centuriata, which also presided over certain capital trials, and held the power to declare war, and to pass legislation presented by the senate. Lesser magistrates were elected by the comitia tributa, which also elected religious officials, presided over trials affecting the plebeians, and passed resolutions based on legislation proposed by the tribunes of the plebs and various magistrates. The comitia curiata retained the power to confer imperium on magistrates elected by the comitia centuriata, and to confirm alterations in the Roman constitution decided upon by the other two comitia; both of these, however, required the senate to propose them before the comitia could act. The comitia also retained the power to decide whether to admit a non-patrician into that order, and to oversee the process of arrogatio, particularly when a patrician was being adopted into a plebeian family.
By the late republic, each curia was represented by only one lictor, usually under the presidency of the pontifex maximus.
Each tribe was both a territorial and administrative unit, with officials called tribules who counted and facilitated the votes of tribe members. Another group of officials, the divisores coordinated gifts among tribesmen and were regularly implicated in electoral bribery during the late republic.
Further officers included a curator tribuum, who served as the head of the tribe, and tribuni aerarii, or tribunes of the treasury, whose responsibility was for the tribe's financial obligations; they were responsible for collecting the war tax, and distributed pay to the tribe's soldiers.
Membership in a tribe was prima facie proof of Roman citizenship and also formed the basis on which the army was levied. Toward the end of the Republic, the tribe became so important that it became an official part of a Roman's name, usually appearing, in the most formal documents and inscriptions, between a citizen's filiation and any cognomina.
Four more tribes were added in 387 BC: Arniensis, Sabatina, Stellatina, and Tromentina. With the addition of territory in 358 BC, two more tribes were formed, Pomptina and Publilia (also found as Poblilia). In 332, the censors Quintus Publilius Philo and Spurius Postumius Albinus enrolled two more tribes, Maecia (originally Maicia) and Scaptia. Oufentina and Falerina followed in 318, and in 299 Aniensis and Terentina were added. The last two tribes, Quirina and Velina, were established in 241 BC, bringing the number of tribes to its final total of thirty-five.
The names of the various tribes vary, both due to scribal error and changes in Latin orthography. For example, the tribe Maecia must originally have been Maicia due to its abbreviation as Mai; Crustumina and Clustumina are used interchangeably. With their usual abbreviations, the tribes were:
The four urban tribes
The rural tribes
Although the names of the older rural tribes are those of patrician families, the tribes themselves were probably entirely plebeian until 449 BC, after which both patricians and plebeians were enrolled; before this time, many of the powers and responsibilities later held by the comitia tributa still belonged to the comitia curiata. While we know the origin of their names, the location of the territories which defined these tribes is uncertain.
The enrollment of new citizens in particular tribes became a significant political issue during the Roman censor of Appius Claudius Caecus in 312 BC. Those who wished to limit the voting power of the lower social orders, and particularly of freedmen, advocated enrolling them only in the four urban tribes. This effort was largely unsuccessful, except with respect to freedmen, who were nearly always enrolled in one of the urban tribes. A similar attempt to limit the power of newly enfranchised citizens followed the end of the Social War. It was also possible for one of the censors to punish an individual by expelling him from one of the rustic tribes, and assigning him to one of the urban tribes; this was known as tribu movere.
After 241 BC, no further tribes were created. Legislation, passed concurrently by the senate and the people, decreed that citizens created by further territorial annexation would be registered in one of the rural tribes. Before this reform, the tribes had been relatively contiguous units; after it, they became geographically fragmented across Roman territory. After the Social War, which saw the enfranchisement of Rome's Italian allies and a massive increase in the citizen population, there was a vigorous debate at Rome as to whether further tribes should be created, but it was eventually decided to register the new citizens in the existing thirty-five.
In imperial times, the enrollment of citizens in tribes along a geographic basis was resumed; for instance, easterners were typically enrolled in the tribes Collina and Quirina, while in Gallia Narbonensis enrollment in the tribus Voltinia was preferred.
The comitia could pass resolutions proposed by the tribunes of the plebs, or by the higher magistrates, on both domestic and foreign matters, such as the making of treaties or concluding of peace. Proposals had to be published before receiving a vote, and were passed or rejected as a whole, without modification. Although the senate might review these resolutions, it could only reject them if they had been passed without the proper formalities.
The comitia tributa also decided suits instituted by the plebeian tribunes and aediles, for offenses against the plebs or their representatives. In the later Republic, these suits typically involved charges of maladministration; the tribunes and aediles were entitled to levy substantial fines.
After a prayer, unaccompanied by sacrifice, proposals would be read, and the citizens arranged by tribe. The first tribe to vote, known as the principium, was chosen by lot, and the result of its vote announced. The other tribes would then vote simultaneously, and the results of their votes announced in an order also determined by lot, before the final result was proclaimed. Laws passed by the comitia took effect as soon as the results were announced. Although the order of voting was determined by lot, there was also an official order of the tribes, known as the ordo tribuum. The first four tribes were the urban tribes, in the order: Suburana, Palatina, Esquilina, Collina; the rural tribes followed, concluding with Aniensis.
Although the comitia tributa continued to exist until the third century AD, its only remaining functions were symbolic; it took auspices and gave prayer; it conferred the emperor's legislative powers and other authority; and it proclaimed the laws presented to it for approval. But by this time voting was done not by ballot, but by acclamation.
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