Tribuni militum consulari potestate
The tribuni militum consulari potestate, in English commonly also Consular Tribunes, were tribunes elected with consular power during the so-called "Conflict of the Orders" in the Roman Republic, starting in 444 BC and then continuously from 408 BC to 394 BC and again from 391 BC to 367 BC.
Origin and dissolution of the office
According to the histories of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the magistracy of the tribuni militum consulari potestate was created during the Conflict of the Orders, along with the magistracy of the censor, in order to give the Plebeian order access to higher levels of government without having to reform the office of consul; plebeians could be elected to the office of Consular Tribune.The choice whether a collegium of Consular Tribunes or consuls were to be elected for a given year was made by senatus consultum, thereby accounting for the periods of either office interspersed with the other. The number of Consular Tribunes varied from 2 to 6, and because they were considered colleagues of the two censors, there is sometimes mention of the "eight tribunes".
Modern scholars now believe, however, that the creation of the consular tribunes was due to the changing military and administrative requirements of the expanding Roman state. In the beginning during the 440s, the consular tribunes, elected from the three ancient tribes of the Titienses, Ramnenses, and Luceres, were part of an overall redesign of the military structure of the Roman state to maximise military efficiency, which included the creation of the Censorship and the Quaestorship. Originally patrician office holders, they were referred to as "military tribunes", and were responsible for leading the armies into battle. It was only much later that they were given the anachronistic addition of "with consular power", in an attempt to distinguish them from the Military tribunes who were the legionary officers of the middle and late Republic.
The tribunes, like their consular predecessors, exercised consular potestas, indicating they must have been elected by the comitia centuriata, and that the current needs of the state could not be served by the previous consular system. From their initial number of three, the consular tribunes were increased to four for the first time in 426 BC in response to the military situation which saw the Roman state capture and annex Fidenae.
Then in 405 BC, the number of consular tribunes was increased to six for the first time; and after that, apart from the very occasional year in which eight or ten consular tribunes are recorded, the Roman state was led by six consular tribunes for almost every year down to the dissolution of the office and the reintroduction of the consulship in 366 BC. The increase was due to the need for the consular tribunes to not only handle the military affairs of Rome, but also the administrative needs of the city as well.
According to Livy, the practice of electing consular tribunes came to a definitive end in 366 BC, when the Lex Licinia Sextia took effect, allowing the Plebeian order access to the office of consul. Modern understanding of this process interprets the change to one where Rome’s position in Latium had become sufficiently secure to allow the urban duties of the consular tribunes to be discharged by other office holders with different levels of competencies and powers, including imperium in the case of the Praetor. Thus the reorganization of the Roman state in 367/6 BC. saw the replacement of the six consular tribunes with five officials with distinct functions: the head of state became the two consuls, who would wage Rome’s wars and lead the Senate's deliberations. In addition there was one praetor who would oversee lawsuits in the city, while two curule aediles would undertake all other administrative duties within the city, such as the organization and holding of public games and overseeing and controlling the markets in Rome.
Consular Tribunes by year
Presented by Varronian chronology. For more information on deciphering early Roman names, see Roman names.| Year | Tribunes |
| 444 BC |
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| 438 BC | |
| 434 BC | |
| 433 BC | |
| 432 BC | |
| 426 BC | |
| 425 BC | |
| 424 BC | |
| 422 BC | |
| 420 BC | |
| 419 BC | |
| 418 BC | |
| 417 BC | |
| 416 BC | * A. Sempronius Atratinus |
| 415 BC | |
| 414 BC | |
| 408 BC | |
| 407 BC | |
| 406 BC | |
| 405 BC | |
| 404 BC | |
| 403 BC | |
| 402 BC | |
| 401 BC | |
| 400 BC | |
| 399 BC | |
| 398 BC | |
| 397 BC | |
| 396 BC | |
| 395 BC | |
| 394 BC | |
| 391 BC | |
| 390 BC | |
| 389 BC | |
| 388 BC | |
| 387 BC | |
| 386 BC | |
| 385 BC | |
| 384 BC | |
| 383 BC | |
| 382 BC | |
| 381 BC | |
| 380 BC | |
| 379 BC | |
| 378 BC | |
| 377 BC | |
| 376 BC | |
| 370 BC | |
| 369 BC | |
| 368 BC | |
| 367 BC |