Comices tributes

The comices tributes are in ancient Rome, as the Concilia plebis , an assembly of the people based on the framework of the territorial tribe S, therefore on the residence of the citizen.

With the difference in the council of the plebs, it is about an assembly of all the populus (populus: the whole of the citizens) Roman, convened (thus with an imperative character) by a magistrate. One uses much the comices tributes after the Années 350 av. J. - C., the procedure of vote being simpler than that of the Comices centuriates.

Roman tribes

For recall, the tribe S are an institution founded by Servius Tullius, which gather the citizens according to their residence. It creates a certain number of districts, 4 urban tribes in Rome, 10 rustic tribes out of the city. They mark the weakening of the bond gentilice like mode of social relations and political power, with that of the Comices curiates. The landowners are registered in the tribe where they reside, the not-owners, traders and craftsmen, in one of the tribes of Rome.

With the Roman expansion, the number of the rustic tribes increases (it passes to 31 in 241 av. J. - C.), that of the urban tribes remains stable.

The representation of the people in the comices tributes

It is not better than in the other Roman assemblies. Although at the beginning, the system seems more balanced, it is distorted many manners:

the urban population is crushed (four tribes out of 35), whereas the population increases significantly more than that of the citizens of the countryside; moreover, all freed from office are registered in the urban tribes, whereas they live scattered in the rustic tribes;
the tribes close to Rome of very reduced size, and are populated little: the relative vote of the citizens living is thus more important there; the remote tribes immense, and are very populated: the vote of the citizens there living does not count relatively;
the landowners are thus favoured, and among them, those which have the means of moving to go to vote;
the customers depend on their owner and vote like only one man on the indications of this last, and can make it possible to guarantee the vote of a whole tribe;
the citizens of the rustic tribes living in Rome sell their vote after the II E.

Attributions of the comices tributes

The comices tributes were especially used to vote the laws. They elect the lower magistrates (curule municipal officials, the Questeurs and the 24 military powerful orators). They also pronounced the fines, in civil jurisdiction.

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