Cursus Honorum - Tribune of The Plebs

Tribune of The Plebs

The office of Tribune of the Plebs was an important step in the political career of plebeians. 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. Those who held the office were granted sacrosanctity (the right to be legally protected from any physical harm), the power to rescue any plebeian from the hands of a patrician magistrate, and the right to veto any act or proposal of any magistrate, including another tribune of the people and the consuls. The tribune also had the power to exercise capital punishment against any person who interfered in the performance of his duties. The tribunes could even convene a Senate meeting and lay legislation before it and arrest magistrates. Their houses had to remain open for visitors even during the night, and they were not allowed to be more than a day's journey from Rome. 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.