Roman Tribes

[Anonymous]

Upon my various readings I come across the mention of the various roman tribes that have to do with voting and classification. What are the tribes and what was their ultimate purpose. <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

The origins of the tribes are obscure, but by 241 BC there were 35; they had originally been divisions of the citizen body for military purposes. All new citizens, wherever located geographically, were added to these tribes. The tribes were used in voting, for army recruitment (I'm sure an expert can expand on that) and for tax/census purposes. Abbreviations of a person's tribe are often found in inscriptions as part of their name.<br>
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Try this link for a fuller explanation (skip past the Greek stuff):<br>
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www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi...loc=tribus<br>
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Hope this helps.<br>
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Shaun <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p200.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=shaunhullis>ShaunHullis</A> at: 5/22/04 1:19 pm<br></i>

[hansvl]

Hi,<br>
<br>
For the study of army recruitment during the Principate, one of the more intrigueing tribes is the tribus Pollia, certainly when it's accompanied with the origo 'castris' in the name of the soldier. The tribus Pollia is a well known tribus for the Italian regions 1, 8 and 9 (In the principate, Italia was divided into 11 regions, if I recall my university courses well). Outside Italia not one Roman town was enlisted in this tribus. But from the time of Augustus on, we see several legionairs, when they give their full name (praenomen, gentilicium, patronymicon, tribus, cognomen and origo) also state the origo 'castris'. This would mean, if taken litteraly, they were born in the armycamp. Of course this really can't have been the case. The origo 'castris', when completed with a tribus, is always associated with the tribus Pollia. Several historians tried to explain this strange origo. Because of the fact that legionairs weren't allowed to marry, the children born from an relationship between a legionair and a civis romana or peregrina would be illegitimate. In the latter case the child wouldn't even be a roman citizen. If a son from such a relationship would like to enlist into a legion, he would have lots of problems (lacking roman citizenship if his mother was a peregrina, or being without a proper origo if his mother was a civis from the canabae). The solution would be to give the tiro the surrogate origo 'castris' and enlist him into a decent tribus, in casu the tribus Pollia.<br>
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The origo 'castris' and the tribus Pollia in soldier's names are therefore an indication of the fact that soldiership became a hereditary profession.<br>
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Could anyone follow this train of thought? I lost myself at one point.<br>
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Hans<br>
<p></p><i></i>