Tribal assembly

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 tribal assembly (Latin: comitia tributa) was one of the popular assemblies of ancient Rome, responsible, along with the plebeian council, for the passage of most Roman laws in the middle and late republics. They were also responsible for the elections of a number of junior magistracies: aediles and quaestors especially.

It organised citizens, by the middle republic, into thirty-five artificial tribes which were assigned by geography. The composition of the tribes packed the urban poor into four tribes out of the thirty-five. The requirement that citizens vote in person also discriminated against the rural poor who were not able to travel to Rome.

Each tribe possessed an internal structure and a single vote in the assembly, regardless of the number of citizens belonging to that tribe, which was determined by a majority of the citizens of that tribe present at a vote. Legislative proposals in the assembly as a whole passed when a majority of tribes voted in favour; elections similarly continued until a majority of tribes approved of sufficient candidates that all posts were filled.

The tribal assembly and the plebeian council were organised identically. What differed between them was the presiding magistrate, with the tribal assembly convened by consuls, praetors, or aediles and the plebeian council convened by plebeian tribunes. After the lex Hortensia in 287 BC endowed the plebeian council with full legislative powers, the two assemblies became practically identical.^[1]