Plebeian council

Politics of the Roman Republic
509 – 27 BC
Constitution and development
Republican origins Sullan reforms Conflict of the Orders Augustan reforms
Magistrates and officials
Classical magistrates Censor Consul Praetor Aedile Plebeian tribune Quaestor Promagistrate Legate Extraordinary magistrates Interrex Dictator Magister equitum Triumvir Religious officials Rex sacrorum Pontifex maximus Flamines Pontifices Augures Epulones Quindecimviri Early magistrates Consular tribune Decemvir Junior positions Decemviri stlitibus judicandis Tresviri capitales Trimuviri monetales
Senate
Princeps senatus Senatus consultum Senatus consultum ultimum
Assemblies
Curiate Centuriate Tribal Plebeian Elections Contiones
Public law and norms
Courts Iudicium populi Quaestio perpetua Concepts Auctoritas Collegiality Cursus honorum Imperium Ius Mos maiorum Potestas Provocatio Provincial administration Governor Province
Other countries
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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 be 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,^[1] 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.^[2]

The Romans believed that the council emerged from the Conflict of the Orders, created during a first secession of the plebs traditionally dated to 494 BC. Prior to 471, is not clear how the council was organised. It may have been organised by curiae, if ancient sources are to be believed, but it is more likely that it was undifferentiated, voting instead by head.^[3] Throughout the conflict, the plebeian magistrates are said to have fought with the patricians for political equality and the applicability of the plebeian council's decrees (plebiscita) to all Romans. At the close of this process, with the lex Hortensia in 287 BC, it had achieved both.