List of Roman tribes

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Voter casting ballot on a Roman denarius of 63 BC

Voters in ancient Rome were organized into tribes (Latin tribus), with each tribe having an equal vote in the Tribal Assembly.

Original tribes

Latin tribus derives from trēs ("three", dative and ablative plural tribus). In the earliest period of Roman history, in the legendary time of Romulus, there were only three tribes:[1]

  • Ramnes
  • Tities
  • Luceres

Livy records that in 495 BC, the number of tribes was increased to 21.[2]

Tribes as of 242 BC

In 242 BC, the official number of tribes was set at 35:

Urban tribes

People of the city of Rome itself, typically belonged to the four urban tribes,[3] which were the largest and had the least political power. These tribes were named for districts of the city.

  • Collina
  • Esquilina
  • Palatina
  • Suburana

Rural tribes

Inscription (CIL 13.1029) from the Narbonensis recording the enrollment of Gaius Otacilius in the tribus Voltinia (abbreviated VOL), into which Gallic citizens were frequently placed

Landowners and aristocracy traditionally belonged to the 31 smaller rural tribes. Many rural tribes derive from prominent Roman gentes, or family names, such as Cornelia or Fabia.

  • Aemilia
  • Aniensis
  • Arniensis
  • Camilia
  • Claudia
  • Clustumina
  • Cornelia
  • Fabia
  • Falerna/Falerina
  • Galeria
  • Horatia
  • Lemonia
  • Maecia
  • Menenia
  • Oufentina/Oufetina
  • Papiria
  • Poblilia
  • Pollia
  • Pomptina/Pontina
  • Quirina
  • Romilia
  • Sabatia/Sabatina
  • Scaptia
  • Sergia
  • Stellatina
  • Teretina
  • Tromentina
  • Velina
  • Voltinia/Votinia
  • Voturia

Two of the tribes are unclear; the thirty-fifth tribe has been found listed as both Succusana and Pupinia.

The official order of the tribes

There was an official order of the tribes. Literature and archeological documentation show that the urban tribes are enumerated according a counter-clockwise circuit of the city. On the basis of that Lily Ross Taylor[4] suggested that the same holds for rural tribes. Archeological findings of tesserae allowed Michael Crawford[5] to suggest that the tribes are ordered according the principal roads (Ostiensis, Appia, Latina, Praenestina, Valeria, Salaria, Flaminia, Clodia) leading from Rome still counter-clockwise listed

Abbreviation of the tribe Name of the tribe[4][6] Character of the tribe[4] Date of establishment[4] #[5][7]
AEM Aemilia oldest[8] rural tribe IIX
ANI Aniensis later rural tribe 299 XXIV
ARN Arnensis later rural tribe 387 XXXV
CAM Camilia oldest rural tribe XXIII
CLA Claudia oldest rural tribes 504 XXII
CLU Clustumina oldest rural tribe 495 XXIIX
COL Collina urban tribe IV
COR Cornelia oldest rural tribe XXI
ESQ Esquilina urban tribe III
FAB Fabia oldest rural tribe XXV
FAL Falerna later rural tribe 318 XIII
GAL Galeria oldest rural tribe XXXIII
HOR Horatia oldest rural tribe IX
LEM Lemonia oldest rural tribe XIV
MAE Maecia later rural tribe 332 X
MEN Menenia oldest rural tribe XIX
OVF Oufentina later rural tribe 318 XVI
PAL Palatina urban tribe II
PAP Papiria oldest rural tribe XV
POB Poblilia[9] later rural tribe 358 XX
POL Pollia oldest rural tribe XXVI
POM Pomptina later rural tribe 358 XII
PVP Pupinia oldest rural tribe XIIX
QVI Quirina later rural tribe 241 XXIX
ROM Romilia oldest rural tribe V
SAB Sabatina later rural tribe 387 XXXIV
SCA Scaptia later rural tribe 332 XI
SER Sergia oldest rural tribe XXVII
STE Stellatina later rural tribe 387 XXXI
SVB Suburana urban tribe I
TER Teretina later rural tribe 299 XVII
TRO Tromentina later rural tribe 387 XXXII
VEL Velina later rural tribe 241 XXX
VOL Voltinia oldest rural tribe VI
VOT Voturia oldest rural tribe VII

References

  1. ↑ About.com: 35 Tribes of Rome, accessed 2 October 2010, 4:15 am (GMT)
  2. ↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita, 2.21
  3. ↑ About.com: Names of the 35 Tribes of Rome, accessed 2 October 2010, 4:25 am (GMT)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Taylor, Lily Ross (2013). The Votng Districts of the Roman Republic. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Crawford, M.H. (2002). "Tribus,tesseres et regions". CRAI 146: 1125–35. 
  6. ↑ Italicized the rural tribes derived from Roman gentes
  7. ↑ In bold the number documented by literature and archeological evidence
  8. ↑ before 495
  9. ↑ the only one of the later rural tribes with a gens name, but, unlike the old patricial tribal names, Poblilia was a well-known plebeian nomen

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