Tribune of the People

(Latin, tribunus plebis), in ancient Rome beginning in 494 B.C., a high official chosen from among the plebeians. Tribunes of the people possessed the right to intervene in the activities of patrician magistrates and the Senate and to veto their decisions. Originally the tribunes, who were elected annually by the plebeian assembly, numbered between two and five but were later increased to ten. Their persons were deemed sacrosanct and therefore inviolable. As representatives of the people, they often initiated agrarian laws and democratic reforms, such as those of Gaius Flaminius and Lucius Appuleius Saturninus. Indeed, the greatest advances in the democratic movement in Rome resulted from the efforts of two tribunes of the people, Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus.

Under the empire, the institution of tribunes of the people was retained, but the tribunes lost their real importance. Tribunician power was assumed by the emperors, who followed the precedent set by Julius Caesar.