Episode 124 – The Military Tribunes with Consular Power

The role of the Military Tribune with Consular Power (tribuni militum consulari potestate) is very particular. It seems to have been created out of the need for a new way forward from the role of the consuls. In our previous episode we encountered them for the first time as part of a patrician plan to placate plebeian discontent in 445 BCE, but our ability to understand this period is complicated by a number of issues: * How much did annalist historians like Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus understand about the early republic? * What sources were they able to consult to verify their research into this unusual feature of Rome’s politics? * And how might their view by further influenced by the ideas they retroject back into the early republic from the Augustan era they are writing under? Both Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus talk a little bit about their sources around this subject. Livy makes specific reference to the writer Licinius Macer while Dionysius makes note of the discrepancies in the various annalist records. Episode 124 - The Military Tribunes with Consular Power As Rome transitions into 444 BCE we find out about our first elected Military Tribunes with Consular Power, but it's not long before ambassadors from Ardea arrive to discuss their ongoing conflict involving Rome... Things to listen out for: * A misplaced assertion of proconsular power * A very special eagle sound effect * Some unfortunate problems with the auspices! Our Players Military Tribunes with Consular Power 444 BCE * Aulus Sempronius A. f. - n. Atratinus * Lucius Atilius -f. -n. Luscus * Titus Cloelius - f. -n. Siculus Suffect consuls of 444 BCE * Lucius Papirius - f. - n. Mugillanus * Lucius Sempronius  A. f. - n. Atratinus Interrex 444 BCE * Titus Quinctius Capitolinus Barbartus (consul many times) Sources * Dr G reads Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, 11.61-62. * Dr Rad reads Livy ab Urbe Condita 4.7. * Broughton, T. R. S., Patterson, M. L. 1951. The Magistrates of the Roman Republic Volume 1: 509 B.C. – 100 B.C. (The American Philological Association) * Cornell, T. J. 1995. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC) (Taylor & Francis) * Forsythe, G. 2006. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War(University of California Press)  Sound Credits Thanks to BBC Sounds (Beta) for sound effects and the wonderful Bettina Joy de Guzman&...