Page:Dio's Roman History, tr. Cary - Volume 1.djvu/159

Rh have a helper and avenger. And this they did not once only, but the idea now conceived in this form kept growing, and they appointed their representative for a year, as to some office. The men were called in the tongue of the Latins tribuni, — the same name that was given to the commanders of a thousand, — but were styled démarchoi [leaders of the people] in the Greek language. In order, however, to distinguish between the titles of the tribunes, they added in the one case the phrase "of the soldiers," and in the other the phrase "of the people." Now these tribunes of the people (or démarchoi) became responsible for great evils that befell Rome. For though they did not immediately secure the title of magistrates, they gained power beyond all the others, defending every one who begged protection and rescuing every one who called upon them not only from private individuals, but from the very magistrates, except the dictators. If any one ever invoked them when absent, he, too, was released from the person holding him prisoner and was either brought before the populace by them or was set free. And if ever they saw fit that anything should not be done, they prevented it, whether the person acting were a private citizen or a magistrate; and if the populace or the senate was about to do or vote anything and a single tribune opposed it, the action or the vote became null and void. As time went on, they were allowed, or allowed themselves, to summon the senate, to punish anybody who disobeyed them, to practise divination, and to hold court. And in the case of anything