Tribunes sometimes could do good, but at the same times could be loose cannons and be very destructive. Sulla sensing how influential tribunes could be, he sought to strengthen the aristocracy and thus the senate while he crippled the power of the tribunes in order to make the constitution more stable. Velleius concludes that ‘Sulla left the tribunitian power a shadow without a substance’, ‘an empty semblance of a magistracy’ as Macer adds. He revoked their power to veto acts of the senate or initiate legislations and he prohibited ex tribunes from ever holding any other office. Consequently, ambitious individuals could no longer seek tribune election since it became a dead-end career.
Sulla’s aim to strengthen the Senate failed when in 70 BC his own lieutenants Pompey and Crassus reinstated the powers of the tribunes in their joined consulship — being the initiators of tribunitian power as predicted by Macer in his speech. This proved how popular the tribunes could be with the people as this act brought popularity to the two consuls.
Tribunes could be used to undermine the traditional powers of the senate, often exploited by politically ambitious men to promote their own political careers. In essence, a clever consul or an ambitious individual could buy them though bribery to impose his policies as they preferred ‘committing wrong for payment than do right for nothing’ (Macer’s speech). Both Pompey and Caesar used tribunes to acquire authority. As Suetonius informs us Gabinius passed for Pompey his lex gabinia so that he was given command against the pirates (despite the opposition that Cssius Dio says Gabinius faced) and Manilius proposed that Pompey should be given command against Mithridates. The tribunes’ accomplishments are significant since both tasks brought Pompey enormous glory. Vatinius ‘though not coming cheap’ passed Caesar’s legislations through the assembly by bypassing the senate.
One of the most important tribunes was Clodius ‘who recognized no limits’ (Velleius). He was a patrician who underwent adoption in order to become plebeian (Suetonius 20) so as to manage to be elected tribune — such was the importance of the office! He played such a significant part at the politics of the time that caused a reign of terror, his activities being used by Caesar and Crassus against Pompey and Cicero. Many of these are seen through Cicero letters, Clodius’ archenemy, thus can be one sided.
Velleius tells us that when elected tribune, Clodius introduced a bill to banish any magistrate who had put to death a citizen without fair trial — not mentioned by name this was aimed at Cicero. Cicero himself wrote that he regarded Publius Clodius as ‘threatening him, most hostile’ and regarded the current situation as a ‘political crisis’. As Plutarch notes, when exiled Cicero ‘put on mourning attire and with his hair unkempt, went about the city approaching the people as a suppliant. However, he could not enter a single street without being accosted by Clodius with a band of insolent ruffians around him’. Clodius even confiscated Cicero’s property and burned down his house. In exile Cicero ‘remained miserable…like a distressed lover of Italy’ because of the greatest shame and disaster that befallen him, all due to a tribune. Clodius, additionally, managed to ‘send Cato to Cyprus on the pretext of military commission’ (Plutarch), therefore eliminating a person that provided strong opposition. Pompey also suffered a series of public humiliations because of Clodius use of gang violence, though he answered by using gang warfare through +another tribune, Milo. Clodius brought ‘Magnus to his knees’ and his actions are to be held responsible for a ‘disgraceful and odious’ regime that contributed to the ‘Republic [being] done for’ as Cicero phrased it.
Another tribune raised by Caesar’s influence to the office of the tribune of the plebeians in 50 BC was Mark Antony, as well as Curio. During their term in office they tried to block a Senatorial degree which would have deprived Caesar of his pro-consular imperium, rendering him a private citizen and thus liable for prosecution for his actions. On the other hand, Mark Antony’s importance in the Roman Politics did not occur while he was a tribune but later on when he was part of the 2nd Triumvirate. As a result, the tribunes could after the course of events, but other offices or positions of power (e.g. consul/dictator) could be more effective.
Suetonius, additionally, informs us that upon Caesar’s death Octavian ‘felt it his duty to avenge Caesar and keep his decrees in force’. ‘Stronger authority was needed to implement his plans [thus he] announced his candidature for a tribune ship…although he was a patrician and not yet a Senator,’ therefore Octavian considered the tribunes a way to affect Roman politics. Due to that, in 23 BC Augustus received tribunitian sacrosanctity which gave him civil authority and all the power of the tribunes without actually holding the office, being his constitutional basis for the Principate.
The very fact the existence and power of the tribunes was an issue of contention shows their importance. However, the tribunate died a death along with a lot of other positions of authority after Julius Caesar’s death in 44 BC. The concentration of power into the hand of tribunes like Clodius is what eventually led to the collapse of the republic and all their powers being given to the first Roman Emperor, Augustus.
