Roman tribe

Grouping of Roman citizens

A tribus, or tribe, was a division of the Roman 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. 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 comitia curiata. Although the curiae continued throughout Roman history, the three original tribes that they constituted gradually vanished from history. There is no evidence that the Romulean tribes were ever formally abolished, although they are seldom mentioned in the time of the Republic. However, Livy implies that they still existed, and that members of the college of augurs were traditionally assigned in threes, so that each tribe would be represented by one or more augurs. 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.

According to the ancient Roman tradition, shortly after the founding of Rome, Romulus created the first three tribes: the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres. The etymology of the Latin word tribus is unclear: it may relate to the word for three (tres) or a cognate in the Iguvine Tablets referring to the community as a whole. Others say the word instead is derived from tribuere, referring to divisions and distributions.

Livy relates that after the Rape of the Sabine Women, the Sabines under Titus Tatius attacked Rome, and successfully entered the city. After fierce fighting, the Sabine women themselves interceded, stepping between their husbands and their fathers to prevent further bloodshed. Peace was concluded, with Romulus and Tatius ruling jointly, and a large Sabine population relocating to Rome. The nascent city was thus evenly divided between Latins and Sabines. After this, traditionally dated to 750 BC, Romulus created the tribes. 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. 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. 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.

These three tribes were in turn divided into thirty curiae, or wards, the organization of which is unclear. The etymology of the word may derive from co viria – a gathering of men – with each group electing a leader, known as a curio. Among the curiones, one was selected as head of all the curiae, with the title curio maximus. The members of the curiae were known as curiales. Each curia was attended by a priest, or curio, who assisted by another priest, known as the flamen curialis, undertook the religious obligations of the ward. Each also had its own place of meeting, also known as a curia. 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, Mommsen argued convincingly that the plebeians 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.

When the various curiae were assembled for voting, they formed the comitia curiata. It was founded under the kings and survived through to the end of the republic. One of the curiones was appointed or elected curio maximus, and presided over the assembly. Under the kings, the comitia curiata was summoned by the king or by an interrex, who would present questions upon which the comitia might vote. These included the election of a new king, as proposed by the interrex; the passing of a law conferring imperium on the king, known as a lex curiata de imperio; whether to declare war; rulings on appeals; matters relating to arrogatio;Arrogatio, or arrogation, was a particular type of adoption specific to Roman culture. It was a means of ensuring that a particular family line did not become extinct, merely because a man had no children of his own. In order to qualify, the adoptor had to be both childless and incapable of having children, while the adoptee had to be an adult. This process was of particular interest to the patricians, who formed an increasingly small minority of the Roman populus as time passed; normally, the adoptee would receive the status of his adopted father, and thus a patrician adopted into a plebeian gens would normally lose his patrician status; this principle was used by Publius Clodius Pulcher to pass over to the plebeians, and become eligible to hold office as tribune of the plebs, although in his case the adoption was technically illegal, as his adoptive father was a young man, presumably capable of having children. On the other hand, a plebeian might obtain patrician status by being adopted into a patrician gens, and this would also have been of concern to the patricians. There may have been exceptions to the usual rule; a family of the Junii Silani descended from the patrician Manlia gens seems to have retained their patrician status, although adopted into the plebeian Junii; Gaius Junius Silanus was Flamen Martialis, a priestly office restricted to the patricians. and whether to allow foreigners to be received among the patricians. Under Servius Tullius, the rights to declare war and to decide appeals were transferred to the comitia centuriata, another legislative assembly. usually under the presidency of the pontifex maximus.

According to the Roman tradition, Servius Tullius, the sixth king (traditionally ), abolished the Romulean tribes (though not the curiae) and re divided the city into four urban tribes and twenty six pagi which coalesced into seventeen rural tribes. The names of the four urban tribes were based on the four regions of the city that they represented, while those of the rural tribes were likely based on the names of families that owned considerable tracts of land in those areas. Four more tribes were added in 387 BC: Arniensis, Sabatina, Stellatina, and Tromentina.

In the final years of the Republic, participation in the comitia was quite low, and its acts increasingly the result of corruption. Caesar deprived the comitia tributa of the power to declare war or conclude peace; the early emperors further curtailed its power. Augustus removed the comitia's judicial function, and preserved its power to pass legislation only in form. He filled half of the available magistracies with his own candidates, and Tiberius transferred the comitia's remaining electoral authority to the senate. Although the emperors received many of their powers from the comitia tributa, this was only a formality. 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 acclamatio.