Tribus
（
φῦλον, φυλή), a tribe. I.
Greek.—In the earliest times of Greek history mention is made of people being
divided into tribes and clans. Homer speaks of such divisions in terms which seem to imply
that they were elements that entered into the composition of every community. A person not
included in any clan (
ἀφρήτωρ) was regarded as a vagrant or
outlaw. These divisions were rather natural than political, depending on family connection,
and arising out of those times when each head of a family exercised a patriarchal sway over
its members. The bond was cemented by religious communion, sacrifices, and festivals, which
all the family or clansmen attended, and at which the chief usually presided.
Of the Dorian race there were originally three tribes, traces of which are found in all the
countries which they colonized. Hence they are called by Homer
Δωριέες
τριχάϊκες. These tribes were the Hylleis (
Ὑλλεῖς), Pamphyli (
Πάμφυλοι), and Dymanatae or
Dymanes (
Δυμανάται or
Δυμᾶνες). The first derived their name from Hyllus, son of Heracles, the two last
from Pamphylus and Dymas, who are said to have fallen in the last expedition when the Dorians
took possession of the Peloponnesus. The Hyllean tribe was perhaps the one of highest dignity;
but at Sparta there does not appear to have been much distinction, for all the freemen there
were by the constitution of Lycurgus on a footing of equality. To these three tribes others
were added in different places, either when the Dorians were joined by other foreign allies,
or when some of the old inhabitants were admitted to the rank of citizenship or equal
privileges. Thus the Cadmean Aegeids are said by Herodotus to have been a great tribe at
Sparta, descended (as he says) from Aegeus, grandson of Theras, though others have thought
they were incorporated with the three Doric tribes. The subdivision of tribes into
phratriae (
φρατρίαι) or
patrae (
πάτραι),
gené (
γένη),
trittyes
(
τρίττυες), etc., appears to have prevailed in various
places. At Sparta each tribe contained ten
obae (
ὠβαί), a word denoting a local division or district; each
obé contained ten
triacades (
τριακάδες), communities containing thirty families. But very little appears to be
known of these divisions, how far they were local, or how far genealogical. After the time of
Cleomenes the old system of tribes was changed; new ones were created corresponding to the
different quarters of the town, and they seem to have been five in number. The first Attic
tribes that we read of are said to have existed in the reign, or soon after the reign, of
Cecrops, and were called Cecropis (
Κεκροπίς), Autochthon
(
Αὐτόχθων), Actaea (
Ἀκταία), and Paralia (
Παραλία). In the reign
of a subsequent king, Cranaüs, these names were changed to Cranaïs (
Κραναΐς), Atthis (
Ἀτθίς),
Mesogaea (
Μεσόγαια), and Diacris (
Διακρίς). Afterwards we find a new set of names: Dias (
Διάς), Athenaïs (
Ἀθηναΐς),
Poseidonias (
Ποσειδωνιάς), and
Hephaestias (
Ἡφαιστιάς), evidently derived from the deities
who were worshipped in the country. Some of those secondly mentioned, if not all of them, seem
to have been geographical divisions; and it is not improbable that, if not independent
communities, they were at least connected by a very weak bond of union. But all these tribes
were superseded by four others, which were probably founded soon after the Ionic settlement in
Attica, and seem to have been adopted by other Ionic colonies out of Greece. The names
Geleontes (
Γελέοντες), Hopletes (
Ὅπλητες), Argades (
Ἀργάδεις), Aegicores
(
Αἰγικορεῖς), are said by Herodotus to have been derived
from the sons of Ion, son of Xuthus. Upon this, however, many doubts have been thrown by
modern writers. The etymology of the last three names would seem to suggest that the tribes
were so called from the occupations which their respective members followed; the Hopletes
being the armed men, or warriors; the Argades, labourers or husbandmen; the Aegicores,
goatherds or shepherds. But whatever be the truth with respect to the origin of these tribes,
one thing is certain, that before the time of Theseus, whom historians agree in representing
as the great founder of the Attic commonwealth, the various people who inhabited the country
continued to be disunited and split into factions.
Theseus (q.v.) is said to have changed the relations of the tribes to each other, by
introducing a gradation of ranks in each; dividing the people into Eupatridae (
Εὐπατρίδαι), Geomori (
Γεωμόροι),
and Demiurgi (
Δημιουργοί), of whom the first were nobles,
the second agriculturists or yeomen, the third labourers and mechanics. At the same time, in
order to consolidate the national unity, he enlarged the city of Athens, in which he
incorporated several smaller towns, made it the seat of government, encouraged the nobles to
reside there, and surrendered a part of the royal prerogative in their favour. The tribes or
phylae were divided, either in the age of Theseus or soon after, each into three
phratriae (
φρατρίαι, a term equivalent to
fraternities, and analogous in its political relation to the Roman
curiae), and each
phratria into thirty
gené (
γένη, equivalent to the Roman
gentes), the members of a
genos (
γένος) being called
gennetae (
γεννῆται) or
homogalactes (
ὁμογαλάκτες). Each
genos was distinguished by a particular
name of a patronymic form, which was derived from some hero or mythic ancestor. These
divisions, though the names seem to import family connection, were in fact artificial; which
shows that some advance had now been made towards the establishment of a closer political
union. The members of the
phratriae and
gené had their respective religious rites and festivals, which were
preserved long after these communities had lost their political importance, and perhaps
prevented them from being altogether dissolved. After the age of Theseus, the monarchy having
been first limited and afterwards abolished, the whole power of the State fell into the hands
of the Eupatridae or nobles, who held all civil offices, and had besides the management of
religious affairs and the interpretation of the laws. Attica became agitated by feuds, and we
find the people, shortly before the legislation of Solon, divided into three
parties—Pediaei (
Πεδιαῖοι) or lowlanders, Diacrii
(
Διάκριοι) or highlanders, and Parali (
Πάραλοι) or people of the sea-coast. The first two remind one of the
ancient division of tribes, Mesogaea and Diacris; and the three parties appear in some
measure to represent the classes established by Theseus, the first being the nobles, whose
property lay in the champaign and most fertile part of the country; the second, the smaller
land-owners and shepherds; the third, the trading and mining class, who had by this time risen
in wealth and importance. To appease their discords, Solon was called in; and thereupon framed
his celebrated constitution and code of laws. Here we have only to notice that he retained the
four tribes as he found them, but abolished the existing distinctions of rank, or at all
events greatly diminished their importance, by introducing his property qualification, or
division of the people into Pentacosiomedimni (
Πεντακοσιομέδιμνοι), Hippeis (
Ἱππεῖς),
Zeugitae (
Ζευγῖται), and Thetes (
Θῆτες). (See
Solon.) The enactments of
Solon continued to be the law at Athens, though in great measure suspended by the tyranny,
until the democratic reform effected by Clisthenes. He abolished the old tribes, and created
ten new ones, according to a geographical division of Attica, and named after ten of the
ancient heroes: Erechtheïs, Aegeïs, Pandionis, Leontis, Acamantis,
Oeneïs, Cecropis, Hippothoöntis, Aeantis, Antiochis. These tribes were
divided each into ten
demi (
δῆμοι), the
number of which was afterwards increased by subdivision; but the arrangement was so made that
several demes not contiguous or near to one another were joined to make up a tribe. (See
Demus.) The object of this arrangement was that, by the
breaking of old associations, a perfect and lasting revolution might be effected in the habits
and feelings as well as the political organization of the people. Solon allowed the ancient
phratriae to exist, but they were deprived of all political
importance. All foreigners admitted to the citizenship were registered in a phyle and demus,
but not in a phratria or genos. The functions which had been discharged by the old tribes were
now mostly transferred to the
demi. Among others, we may notice that of
the forty-eight
naucrariae into which the old tribes had been divided
for the purpose of taxation, but which now became useless, the taxes being collected on a
different system. The reforms of
Clisthenes
(q.v.) were destined to be permanent. They continued to be in force (with some few
interruptions) until the downfall of Athenian independence. The ten tribes were blended with
the whole machinery of the constitution. Of the Senate of Five Hundred, fifty were chosen from
each tribe. (See
Boulé.) The allotment of
dicasts was according to tribes; and the same system of election may be observed in most of
the principal offices of State, judicial and magisterial, civil and military, etc. In B.C.
307, Demetrius Poliorcetes increased the number of tribes to twelve by creating two new
ones—namely, Antigonias and Demetrias, which afterwards received the names of
Ptolemaïs and Attalis; and a thirteenth was subsequently added by Hadrian, bearing
his own name.
See Busolt,
Griechische Geschichte, i. pp. 390 foll.; Schömann,
Antiq. of Greece, Eng. trans. pt. ii. ch. 4; pt. iii. ch. 3; Fustel de
Coulanges,
La Cité Antique, pp. 131 foll., 10th ed.
(1883); and Gilbert,
Greek Constitutional Antiq. pp. 103 foll.,
Eng. trans.
(1895).
II. Roman.—The three ancient Romulian tribes, the
Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres, or the Ramnenses, Titienses, and Lucerenses, to which the
patricians alone belonged, must be distinguished from the thirty plebeian
tribes of Servius Tullius, which were entirely local—four for the city, and
twenty-six for the country around Rome. The history and organization of the three ancient
tribes are mentioned under
Patricii. They continued
of political importance almost down to the period of the decemviral legislation; but after
this time they no longer occur in the history of Rome, except as an obsolete institution. The
institution and organization of the thirty plebeian tribes, and their subsequent reduction to
twenty by the conquests of Porsena, are mentioned under Plebes. The
four city tribes were called by the same names as the regions which they occupied, viz.,
Suburana, Esquilina, Collina, and Palatina. The names of the sixteen country tribes which
continued to belong to Rome after the conquest of Porsena are in their alphabetical order as
follows: Aemilia, Camilia, Cornelia, Fabia, Galeria, Horatia, Lemonia, Menemia, Papiria,
Pollia, Popillia, Pupinia, Romilia, Sergia, Veturia, and Voltinia. As Rome gradually acquired
possession of more of the surrounding territory, the number of tribes also was gradually
increased. When Appius Claudius, with his numerous train of clients, emigrated to Rome, lands
were assigned to them in the district where the Anio flows into the Tiber, and a new tribe,
the
tribus Claudia, was formed. This tribe was subsequently enlarged, and was
then designated by the name Crustumina or Clustumina. This name is the first instance of a
country tribe being named after a place, for the sixteen older ones all derived their name
from persons or heroes. In B.C. 387, the number of tribes was increased to twenty-five by the
addition of four new ones—viz., the Stellatina, Tromentina, Sabatina, and Arniensis.
In B.C. 358 two more, the Pomptina and Publilia, were formed of Volscians. In B.C. 332, the
censors Q. Publilius Philo and Sp. Postumius increased the number of tribes to twenty-nine, by
the addition of the Maecia and Scaptia. In B.C. 318 the Ufentina and Falerina were added. In
B.C. 299 two others, the Aniensis and Terentina, were added by the censors, and at last, in
B.C. 241, the number of tribes was augmented to thirty-five, by the addition of the Quirina
and Velina. Eight new tribes were added upon the termination of the Social War, to include the
Socii, who then obtained the Roman franchise; but they were afterwards incorporated among the
old thirty-five tribes, which continued to be the number of the tribes to the end of the
Republic. When the tribes, in their assemblies, transacted any business, a certain order (
ordo tribuum) was observed, in which they were called upon to give their
votes. The first in the order of succession was the Suburana, and the last the Arniensis. Any
person belonging to a tribe had in important documents to add to his own name that of his
tribe, in the ablative case. Whether the local tribes, as they were established by the
constitution of Servius Tullius, contained only the plebeians, or included the patricians
also, is a point on which the opinions of modern scholars are divided: but it appears most
probable that down to the decemviral legislation the tribes and their assemblies were entirely
plebeian. From the time of the decemviral legislation, the patricians and their clients were
undoubtedly incorporated in the tribes. Respecting the assembly of the tribes, see
Comitia.
See
Grotefend, Imperium Romanum Tributim Descriptum (1863);
Kubitschek, Imperium Romanum Tributim Descriptum (1889); and
Mommsen,
Die römischen Tribus (Altona, 1844).
