Roman tribe
A Roman tribe decided what a man owed in taxes, how he was conscripted into the army, and where his vote was counted. In the most formal inscriptions, a citizen's tribal name appeared between his family lineage and his personal cognomina. That placement was no accident. Where did those tribes come from? How did the assembly they formed become the Republic's most democratic institution? And why did an assembly that survived into the third century AD end up doing nothing more than cheer?
Romulus, by Roman tradition, created the first tribes in the immediate aftermath of peace. The conflict that preceded them had shaken the young city to its foundations. Sabine forces under Titus Tatius had broken into Rome following the Rape of the Sabine Women. The fighting grew fierce enough that the abducted women stepped between their Roman husbands and their Sabine fathers to stop the bloodshed. Romulus and Tatius agreed to rule jointly, and a large Sabine population relocated to Rome. The settlement is traditionally dated to 750 BC, and Roman tradition places the creation of the tribes immediately after it.
The three tribes were called the Ramnes, the Tities, and the Luceres. For generations, scholars argued these names preserved the city's ethnic origins: Ramnes for the Latins, Tities for the Sabines, and Luceres for the Etruscans. Rome stood on the Tiber, the old boundary between Etruria and Latium. The fifth and seventh kings of Rome were Etruscan. Many of the city's cultural institutions traced their roots to Etruscan models.
Kathryn Lomas, in her 2018 book Rise of Rome, attributed the theory's popularity to nationalist politics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Ancient sources give no support to the idea that the three tribes represented distinct ethnic populations. Even the names of all three Romulean tribes appear to be Etruscan in origin, complicating any neat ethnic reading.
The Latin tres, meaning three, offers one possible root of the word tribus. Others trace it to a cognate in the Iguvine Tablets, which used a similar term for the community as a whole. A third possibility connects tribus to tribuere, a word for dividing and distributing.
Each of the three tribes was subdivided into ten curiae, creating a ward system that would provide Rome's earliest venue for collective decision-making.
Thirty Sabine Women gave the curiae their names, according to Roman tradition. The curiae were the wards into which each tribe was divided, and they elected their own leaders, called curiones. From among all the curiones, one was chosen as curio maximus, presiding over the assembly of all thirty. A priest handled each ward's religious obligations, assisted by a subordinate called the flamen curialis. Each curia also maintained its own meeting place.
Of the thirty original names, only nine survive today: Acculeia, Calabra, Faucia, Foriensis, Rapta, Tifata, Titia, Veliensis, and Velitia. Several of these are geographical rather than personal names, casting doubt on the Sabine Women story. Membership in the curiae was disputed for centuries. A long tradition held that only patricians could vote. The historian Mommsen argued convincingly that plebeians were included from the beginning, or at least from the Republic's earliest years, and that view now prevails.
When the curiae convened for votes, they formed the comitia curiata, an assembly founded under the kings. The king or an interrex summoned it to consider the election of a new king, declarations of war, and appeals. The passage of a lex curiata de imperio conferred formal authority on the ruler. Admission of foreigners into the patrician order also came before the assembly. Under Servius Tullius, the rights to declare war and hear appeals passed to a separate body, the comitia centuriata. After the monarchy ended, most remaining functions transferred away. Between 494 and 449 BC, the comitia curiata lost the bulk of its powers to the comitia tributa and the comitia centuriata.
The comitia curiata retained the formal power to confer imperium on elected magistrates. Constitutional changes also required its approval, though both acts depended on the senate first proposing the matter. The assembly also presided over arrogatio, particularly when a patrician was being adopted into a plebeian family. By the late Republic, each curia sent only one lictor to represent it, and the assembly gathered under the presidency of the pontifex maximus. All these functions had become largely ceremonial.
The three Romulean tribes that had generated the curiae gradually vanished from history. What replaced them was the work of Rome's sixth king.
Servius Tullius, Rome's sixth king, abolished the three Romulean tribes while leaving their curiae intact. In their place he divided the city into four urban tribes. He also organized the surrounding countryside into twenty-six districts called pagi, which eventually coalesced into seventeen rural tribes.
Collina, Esquilina, Palatina, and Suburana were the four urban tribes, their names drawn from the city's regions. The rural tribes were most likely named after the prominent patrician families that had once controlled large tracts of land in those territories. Each tribe was both a territorial and administrative unit. Officials called tribules counted and facilitated members' votes. Divisores coordinated gifts among tribesmen and were regularly implicated in electoral bribery during the late Republic. A curator tribuum headed each tribe overall, while tribuni aerarii, tribunes of the treasury, collected the war tax and distributed soldiers' pay.
Tribal membership constituted prima facie proof of Roman citizenship. The army was also levied through the tribal rolls, connecting citizenship to military obligation.
As Rome's territory expanded and its citizen body grew, the Servian tribes would prove too few to hold the new population.
In 504 BC, the Sabine aristocrat Appius Claudius brought his followers to Rome. He was admitted to the patriciate and received land near the mouth of the Anio. The tribus Claudia grew from those settlers. It was formally admitted in 495 BC during Claudius's own consulship, alongside the tribus Crustumina.
Four more tribes were added in 387 BC: Arniensis, Sabatina, Stellatina, and Tromentina. Absorption of Volscian territory in 358 BC brought two more, Pomptina and Publilia. In 332 BC, the censors Quintus Publilius Philo and Spurius Postumius Albinus enrolled Maecia and Scaptia. Oufentina and Falerina followed in 318 BC. Aniensis and Terentina came in 299 BC. The final two, Quirina and Velina, completed the total at thirty-five.
Enrollment became a political battleground in 312 BC, during the censorship of Appius Claudius Caecus. Those who wanted to limit the voting power of freedmen and citizens of lower social standing argued for confining them to the four urban tribes. The effort largely failed for the general lower classes. With freedmen, it succeeded. They were nearly always enrolled in one of the four urban tribes afterward. This kept the rural tribes effectively beyond the reach of freed slaves.
The Social War brought a fresh crisis. Rome's Italian allies won citizenship in its aftermath, swelling the citizen rolls enormously. A vigorous debate followed over whether to create further tribes. Rome chose instead to absorb the new citizens into the existing thirty-five. Legislation decreed that future territorial annexation would register new citizens in existing rural tribes. The tribes that had once been geographically coherent units became scattered across an expanding empire.
The thirty-five tribes were now complete, and the assembly they constituted had become Rome's most closely watched political institution.
A law of 449 BC made the resolutions of the comitia tributa binding on all Romans, not merely the plebs. The senate did not formally ratify this until 286 BC. But even before ratification, those resolutions, known as plebi scita or plebiscites, were treated as binding on the plebeian population.
The comitia tributa stood apart from Rome's other assemblies by offering every citizen an equal vote, regardless of wealth. By the Republic's end, the plebs vastly outnumbered the patricians. The tribal assembly was where the collective will of ordinary Romans could actually be felt.
Tribunes of the plebs, military tribunes, and both the plebeian and curule aediles were elected through the comitia tributa. A committee of seventeen tribes, chosen by lot, nominated the Pontifex Maximus and co-opted members of the priestly colleges. Proposals from the tribunes and higher magistrates, covering everything from domestic legislation to treaties and declarations of peace, came before the assembly for approval. Each proposal had to be published before a vote could take place. Proposals were accepted or rejected whole, without modification. The senate could review the results, but could only strike them down on procedural grounds.
Plebeian aediles and tribunes could also bring suits before the comitia for offenses against the plebs or their representatives. By the late Republic, such suits typically targeted officials accused of misconduct. The tribunes and aediles were entitled to levy substantial fines.
Seventeen days was the minimum notice required before any meeting. A herald called the praeco made the summons. The auspices had to be taken and found favorable before business could begin. Tribes convened at daybreak and adjourned at sunset. If summoned by a tribune, the meeting had to be held within the city or within one mile of its boundary. If a magistrate called the assembly, the Campus Martius was the usual site.
A tribe chosen by lot, called the principium, cast the first vote, and its result was announced before the others proceeded. All other tribes voted simultaneously, with their results announced in an order also determined by lot. Laws took effect the moment the final result was proclaimed. The ordo tribuum, the official order of the tribes, placed the four urban tribes first, in the sequence Suburana, Palatina, Esquilina, and then Collina. The rural tribes followed, concluding with Aniensis.
The assembly that codified these democratic procedures would not survive the transition from Republic to Empire with its powers intact.
Julius Caesar deprived the comitia tributa of the power to declare war or conclude peace. The early emperors then accelerated the dismantling. Augustus removed the assembly's judicial function and preserved its power to pass legislation only as a formality. He filled half of the available magistracies with his own candidates. Tiberius transferred whatever electoral authority remained to the senate.
Until the third century AD, the comitia tributa continued to exist. Its surviving functions were purely symbolic: taking auspices, offering prayers, and formally proclaiming approved laws. Voting had changed as well. Citizens no longer cast individual ballots but voted by acclamation.
Collina and Quirina were the tribes typically assigned to new citizens from the eastern provinces. In Gallia Narbonensis, enrollment in the tribus Voltinia was customary. Tribal registration continued to carry administrative meaning long after the assembly's votes had become ceremonial.
The thirty-five tribes, last expanded in 241 BC, outlasted the Republic itself. They carried the names of patrician families into an age when their assembly could do no more than cheer.
Common questions
How many Roman tribes were there in total?
There were thirty-five Roman tribes in total. The final two, Quirina and Velina, were admitted in 241 BC, after which no further tribes were created. Legislation required all new citizens from territorial expansion to be registered in existing rural tribes rather than new ones.
Who created the first Roman tribes?
The first three Roman tribes, the Ramnes, the Tities, and the Luceres, were created by Romulus, according to Roman tradition. Their establishment is traditionally dated to around 750 BC, following the peace between Rome and the Sabines under Titus Tatius.
What was the purpose of the Roman tribal assembly, the comitia tributa?
The comitia tributa elected lower magistrates, passed legislation, and decided suits brought against those who harmed the plebs. A law of 449 BC made its resolutions binding on all Romans. Because every citizen cast the same vote regardless of wealth, it was the Republic's most democratic institution.
What were the four urban Roman tribes?
The four urban Roman tribes were the Collina, Esquilina, Palatina, and Suburana, each named for a district of the city. Freedmen were nearly always enrolled in one of these four tribes, limiting their influence in the larger rural majority.
When did the Roman tribal assembly lose its power?
The Roman tribal assembly, the comitia tributa, was stripped of authority progressively from the late Republic onward. Julius Caesar removed its power over war and peace; Augustus eliminated its judicial function; and Tiberius transferred its electoral authority to the senate. By the third century AD, voting had been replaced by acclamation.
What were the curiae in the Roman tribal system?
The curiae were the thirty wards into which Rome's first three tribes were divided, each led by an official called a curio. One curio was elevated as curio maximus to preside over all thirty; together they formed the comitia curiata, Rome's earliest popular assembly. Only nine of the original curia names survive: Acculeia, Calabra, Faucia, Foriensis, Rapta, Tifata, Titia, Veliensis, and Velitia.
All sources
5 references cited across the entry
- 2Momigliano, Cornell, 2012c
- 3Lomas (2018) p. 353 n. 5Lomas — 2018
- 4Momigliano, Cornell, 2012a p. s.v. "Comitia curiata"Momigliano, Cornell, 2012a
- 5BookThe voting districts of the Roman Republic: the thirty-five urban and rural tribesLily Ross Taylor — University of Michigan Press — 2013