Plebeian tribune in the context of "Iudicium populi"

Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis ("of Utica"; /ˈkeɪtoʊ/, KAY-toe; 95 BC – April 46 BC), also known as Cato the Younger (Latin: Cato Minor), was an influential conservative Roman senator during the late Republic. A staunch advocate for liberty and the preservation of the Republic’s principles, he dedicated himself to protecting the traditional Roman values he believed were in decline. A noted orator and a follower of Stoicism, his scrupulous honesty and professed respect for tradition gave him a political following which he mobilised against powerful generals of his day, including Julius Caesar and Pompey.

Before Caesar's civil war, Cato served in a number of political offices. During his urban quaestorship in 63 BC, he was praised for his honesty and incorruptibility in running Rome's finances. He passed laws during his plebeian tribunate in 62 BC to expand the grain dole and force generals to give up their armies and commands before standing in elections. He also frustrated Pompey's ambitions by opposing a bill brought by Pompey's allies to transfer the military command to Pompey against the Catilinarian conspirators. He opposed, with varying success, Caesar's legislative programme during Caesar's first consulship in 59 BC. Leaving for Cyprus the next year, he was praised for his honest administration and after his return was elected as praetor for 54 BC.

An aedile (English: /ˈiːdʌɪl/ EE-dighl) was a magistrate in the Roman Republic who had responsibilities for the upkeep of the city, such as its buildings, roads, and markets; the availability of grain at reasonable prices; and the holding of games. It also had some judicial functions, being able to issue fines and corporal punishments with an additional right to prosecute crimes before the assemblies, but by the middle republic was mostly an office used for distributing largesse to win the officeholder popular acclaim.

There were two kinds of aediles, plebeian aediles and curule aediles. The former were, according to Roman tradition, the first aediles created (c. 494 BC), initially as assistants to the plebeian tribunes, with the curule aediles created c. 367 BC. The plebeian aediles, even though originally tribunician assistants, assimilated with the curule aediles: by the middle republic, aediles were junior to praetors and senior to quaestors, with the tribunate usually held before an aedilate. The two types of aediles had largely the same duties.

Decimus Laelius Balbus was a Roman senator and delator or informer, active during the Principate. He was suffect consul in the nundinium of July-August 46 as the colleague of Marcus Junius Silanus.

His father has been identified as Decimus Laelius Balbus, consul in 6 BC. Balbus himself first enters history when in AD 37 he accused Acutia, the former wife of Publius Vitellius, of maiestas. Following her conviction, when the Senate voted on his reward, the plebeian tribune Junius Otho interposed with his veto. According to Tacitus, this gave rise to a feud between Vitellius and Otho which ended in Otho's banishment. That same year, Balbus was accused along with Albucilla, "notorious for the number of her lovers", was deprived of his rank as senator and exiled to an island, which was received "with intense satisfaction, as Balbus was noted for his savage eloquence and his eagerness to assail the innocent."

The plebeian council (Latin: concilium plebis) was one of the popular assemblies of ancient Rome. In the standard conception of the classical republican constitution, it was essentially identical to the tribal assembly except that patricians were excluded and it was presided over mainly by plebeian tribunes. The main legislative assembly in the republic, it also elected the plebeian magistrates (tribunes and aediles) and heard some judicial matters.

It is the modern convention to refer to an assembly of the people, organised by tribe and under the presidency of a plebeian tribune, as a concilium plebis. This was, however, not necessarily the case. Ancient Romans did refer to such assemblies also as comitia tributa, suggesting that the common distinction between comitia and concilium as meetings of the whole and a part of the people respectively may be erroneous modern constructions.

Gaius Sempronius Gracchus (c. 154 BC – 121 BC) was a reformist Roman politician and soldier who lived during the 2nd century BC. He is best known for his plebeian tribunates in 123 and 122 BC, during which he proposed a wide set of laws, including laws to establish colonies outside of Italy, engage in further land reform, reform the judicial system and system for provincial assignments, and create a subsidised grain supply for Rome.

The year after his tribunate of 122 BC, he and his political allies were implicated in political unrest and the armed occupation of the Aventine Hill at Rome. His political enemies used this unrest to declare martial law and march on his supporters, leading to his death either by suicide or in battle. After his death, his political allies were convicted in a series of trials, but most of his legislation was undisturbed.

Decimus Laelius Balbus was a Roman senator, who was active during the reign of Augustus. He was consul in 6 BC with Gaius Antistius Vetus as his colleague. Balbus was the grandson of Decimus Laelius, plebeian tribune in 54 BC, and thus a novus homo.

Balbus was one of the Quindecimviri sacris faciundis who organized the Secular Games in 17 BC. Ronald Syme notes his membership in this prestigious Roman priesthood led to Balbus entering the consulate twelve years later. "That fact itself renders this novus homo not a little enigmatic," Syme writes, "but consecrates the value and significance of priesthoods as well as consulships."

The Conflict of the Orders or the Struggle of the Orders was a political struggle between the plebeians (commoners) and patricians (aristocrats) of the ancient Roman Republic lasting from 500 BC to 287 BC in which the plebeians sought political equality with the patricians. It played a major role in the development of the Constitution of the Roman Republic. Shortly after the founding of the Republic, this conflict led to a secession from Rome by the Plebeians to the Sacred Mount at a time of war. The result of this first secession was the creation of the office of plebeian tribune, and with it the first acquisition of real power by the plebeians.

At first, only patricians were allowed to stand for election to political office, but over time these laws were revoked, and eventually all offices were opened to the plebeians. Since most individuals who were elected to political office were given membership in the Roman Senate, this development helped to transform the Senate from a body of patricians into a body of both patrician and plebeian aristocrats. This development occurred at the same time that the plebeian legislative assembly, the Plebeian council, was acquiring additional power. At first, its acts ("plebiscites") applied only to plebeians, although after 339 BC, with the institution of laws by the second plebeian dictator Quintus Publilius Philo, these acts began to apply to both plebeians and patricians. The most fundamental change, however, was the granting of tribunicia potestas (tribunician power) in which tribunes of the plebs could veto unfavorable legislation.