Tribal Assembly

The Tribal Assembly (comitia tributa) of the Roman Republic was the democratic assembly of Roman citizens. During the years of the Roman Republic, citizens were organized on the basis of 35 tribes: 4 tribes (the "urban tribes") encompassed citizens inside the city of Rome, while the other 31 tribes (the "rural tribes") encompassed citizens outside the city. The tribes gathered into the Tribal Assembly for legislative, electoral, and judicial purposes. In any tribe, decisions were made by majority vote. Each tribe received one vote, regardless of how many electors each tribe held. Once a majority of tribes voted in the same way on a given measure, the voting ended, and the matter was decided. The president of the Tribal Assembly was usually either a "consul" (the highest ranking Roman magistrate) or a "praetor" (the second-highest ranking Roman magistrate). The Tribal Assembly elected three different magistrates: "quaestors", "curule aediles", and "consular tribunes". The Tribal Assembly also had the power to try judicial cases. However, after the reforms of the Roman Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 82 BC, the power to try cases was reassigned to special jury courts (quaestiones perpetuae).