Tribune

A junior officer of the Roman legion, six tribunes per legion, often young aristocrats learning command.

Overview

The military tribunes, tribuni militum, numbered six per legion in the republic and early empire: five junior, one senior, the tribunus laticlavius, a young senator marked for high office who served as the legate deputy. Many tribunes were in their early twenties, holding the post as a career step on the Roman cursus honorum, the ladder of offices, and did most of the administrative work: rosters, watch schedules, logistics. Marcus Aurelius and his peers passed through tribunates. In the later empire tribune became a generic commander title across the field armies, surviving in the Byzantine and medieval terminology of the tithings and troops.