the TRIBUNICIAN

I. What is the Tribunician?

The Tribunician is a Colorado-based, worker-owned media co-op, a political opinion and commentary website that has been built with the intent to create a forum to share observations, thoughts, and opinions on the current state of the American republic. In some articles the American republic is compared with the Roman republic, often through the lens of The Federalist Papers.

II. Why are we doing this?

The idea for the Tribunician was borne during the election season of the 2020 American Presidential election. Starting in 2019, we noticed there was an observable, significant increase in the number of articles published by the mainstream media discussing, referencing, and featuring the topic of the possibility of a second American civil war. The frequency and the quality of the pieces made us feel like the media was beating the war drum by design.

As the divisions in our republic became more apparent to us every day, and the number of speculative articles about the possibility of a second American civil war seemed to be increasing, we wondered how we might attempt to redirect or even quell these perfunctory prognostications of neighbor killing neighbor. Our nation has been polarized before but never in our lifetimes to the extent that we were and are experiencing. We searched for a time in our past where we might find a model for action. It wasn't long before we turned to The Federalist Papers.

III. Why did we choose The Federalist Papers?

Not long after the United States won their war for independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain it became painfully apparent that the Founders' legal compact and reference for their version of the rule of law, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was woefully ill-equipped to be used to effectively govern and keep the peace between the States.

The Articles had many flaws, first among them that they failed to create a formal national judiciary. Each State's judiciary was seen as equal and had no formal means or process to adjudicate disputes or inconsistencies between themselves. The Articles also failed to create a national executive. There was a "President of the United States in Congress Assembled" (John Hancock being the most famous man to hold this office), but this was effectively just a role like our country's current Vice President. These "Presidents" merely presided over the Confederation Congress, and were very weak, by design. The Articles also failed to create the means to regulate commerce, collect taxes, levy troops, or the ability to impel the States to comply with treaties. Finally, the Articles could only be amended by a unanimous vote of all the States. This was nearly impossible in theory, and the document was indeed never amended. Ultimately the Articles of Confederation were weak because their authority was derived from the States, and not from the People.

The Annapolis Convention was the first attempt to convene a meeting of the States with the specific intent of revising and updating the Articles. The attendees arrived at the convention in Annapolis, Maryland in the fall of 1786. Only five of the States had delegates present, with four other States' delegates failing to arrive on time, and the other four States did not even send delegates. This first attempt at revising and updating the Articles failed to reach a quorum so another convention was planned for the near future in Philadelphia.

Shays's Rebellion was an armed revolt of Revolutionary war veterans in western Massachusetts during the late fall and winter of 1786-1787. Most of the veterans were farmers and had still not been paid completely for their service in the war. They were in debt and eastern Massachusetts bankers foreclosed on their farms. Daniel Shays was a former officer in the Continental Army, and he led the farmer-veterans in their resistance to the moneyed interests of the Massachusetts coastal elites. The United States national government failed to respond due to the limitations of the Articles of Confederation. Courthouses were burned and bankers threatened and debt collectors harassed but thankfully there were less than ten casualties combined from both sides. A Massachusetts militia officer successfully led a force of militiamen to end the revolt by ambushing the rebels during a blizzard. Shays escaped to Vermont and was pardoned much later. Arguably the entire event was caused by the failures of the Articles to allow American national leaders to effectively manage this new union of States.

Shays's Rebellion created a fear among the political elites in the former colonies and a general acknowledgment that the Articles lacked the necessary structure, capability, and flexibility to effectively govern the United States. This consensus precipitated the Philadelphia Convention, the second attempt to convene a meeting of the States with the specific intent to revise and update the Articles. In the summer of 1787, the convention reached quorum size culminating in the first (and as of now, only) American constitutional convention. Instead of revising and updating the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union the convention delegates chose to create a new document. This new document was the Constitution of the United States of America. The delegates adjourned in September and most brought the Constitution back to their respective States for review and possible ratification.

Into this environment, entered The Federalist Papers. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay shared a pseudonym and deluged the new nation-state with their appeals to logic, authority, and emotion in support of the ratification of this new Constitution. Their Federalist Papers, released semi-daily over a period of several months in a pamphlet format proved successful (along with promises of a Bill of Rights) in convincing a majority of the post-Revolutionary American political elites to ratify the Constitution as the new framework of government for the young United States of America.

The authors of The Federalist Papers were conflicted and imperfect, just as much as any of their other Founder contemporaries. We admire them, though, for their informed intellectual devotion to the concept of representational democracy. They used the lens of the history of the Roman republic to look at, debate, and promote the merits of their positions as to the functions and powers of the possible new branches of their own nascent American republic. Their ideas and decisions were informed by Edward Gibbon's recently published The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This book astutely reminded them of the historical fact that the Roman republic, the primary historical model for their own new republic, had declined into the authoritarian dictatorship and eventual monarchy known as the Roman Empire.

The Federalist Papers are the inspiration for this forum, and it's intended role as a market of ideas for an improved American republic that treats its citizens more equitably, justly, and respectfully. In the pieces that use comparisons from the Roman republic we will also attempt to use an analogous Federalist paper that addresses the same or a similar issue that the leaders of the early American republic debated.

IV. Why "the Tribunician"?

The Kingdom of Rome was founded in 753 BC among seven hills along the east bank of the Tiber River. The Roman Rex, or king, was assisted and served by the Senate, a consultative body composed of representatives from the hundred most wealthy families of Rome, the Patricii (henceforth Patricians). Rome's first king, the titular Romulus, initially divided the population of the new city-state into three tribus (henceforth tribes) based on their ethnic backgrounds. Rome was multicultural at it's inception, composed of the Latins, the Sabines, and the Etruscans. These people were organized into tribes along those ethnic lines as the Ramnes, Tities, and the Lucenes, respectively. Each of these were divided into curiae, blocks or neighborhoods, like the wards in many modern American cities.

The kingdom stood for over 240 years, despite the continually worsening quality of their monarchs. In 509 BC the Patrician Lucius Junius Brutus led the Senate to overthrow the seventh and final king of Rome, the tyrant Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. The Senate then established a republic to replace the monarchy. Retaining their consultative role and focusing on foreign affairs and military management, the Senate and its Patrician members created the Roman assemblies. These assemblies were representative legislative bodies created to manage civil affairs and were composed of the citizens of Rome. The Comitia Curiata was Rome's first citizen assembly, a tribal assembly. Over the centuries as new tribes and peoples were added to the Republic the number of assemblies increased, and the number of tribes grew, and the methodology of their taxonomy evolved from one based on ethnicity to one based on geography.

Advised by the Senate, the assemblies began to hold annual elections for various magistrates who were to assume the duties of the deposed king. The magistrates were granted civil and military powers of varying authority by the Senatus Populus Que Roma (SPQR), the Senate and People of Rome. These powers in descending order of prevalence were called imperium, auctoritas, and potestas. The powers were specific to different executive, judicial, or administrative functions and portfolios and eventually regions, as well. The highest ranking regularly elected magistrate was eventually called a Consul. There were always meant to be two elected Consuls that rotated monthly for the year. Consuls held imperium, as did the more numerous Praetors, Proconsuls, and Propraetors. In times of dire emergency to the state, a single Consul could be elected to be Dictator with almost absolute military and civil imperium and auctoritas for a temporary term of six months. Until the mid to late Republic only Patricians could be magistrates.

The Patricians were an aristocratic oligarchy of extended Roman families who had massive amounts of inherited wealth, derived mostly from farming and real estate holdings. Initially only Patricians could be members of the Senate. The Plebeii (henceforth Plebeians) were the working class of ancient Rome (although centuries later by the time of the mid Roman republic this had changed and some Plebeian families had become wealthier than Patricians due to legal restrictions on Patricians owning businesses). The Plebeians at the time were the majority of the population who also did the majority of the labor and work of the Roman republic. Plebeians and Patricians alike were members of the assemblies, but the structure and voting methods of the assemblies heavily favored the Patricians and their interests. The Patricians had a near monopoly of political power.

The Secession of the Plebs was a series of society-wide labor strikes and evacuations of the city of Rome. The first Secession was the beginning of the Conflict of the Orders, an extended period of centuries of civil unrest and conflict between the Plebeians and Patricians. The first Secession occurred in 494 BC, only 15 years after the founding of the Roman republic. This initial secession culminated with the Patricians ceding some of their political power to the Plebeians to have the Plebeians return to Rome and resume their labor and commercial functions within the city-state. It directly resulted in multiple structural and procedural changes to the government of the Republic. One of these changes was the creation of the position of the Tribunis Plebis, the Tribune of the Plebeians.

The Plebeian Tribune was a magistrate-like position without imperium that was created out of a compromise between the leaders of the Patricians and Plebeians. The position could only be held by a Plebeian. Initially there were two Plebeian Tribunes. They were elected by the newly created Plebeian assembly for a term of one year, synchronous with the Consuls and other lesser magistrates. The tribunicia potestas, the powers of the Plebeian Tribunes, were surprisingly significant. The Plebeian Tribunes could convene the Plebeian assembly and suggest legislation for them to create (affecting Plebeians only, of course). They also could eventually convene the Senate as well and suggest actions for them to take, too. There were additional powers of the Tribunes of the Plebs, as well: Ius Auxilii (the Right of Assistance), Intercessio (the Power of Intercession), Coercitio (the Power of Coercion), Sacrosanctitas (the Power of Sacrosanctity).

Ius Auxilii, the Right of Assistance, was arguably the most important power from a moral and ethical position, and the embodiment of the raison d'être of the position. This right of the Plebeian Tribunes allowed them to physically intervene on behalf of a fellow Plebeian. They could stop an arrest or an attempt to punish a Plebeian by a magistrate or any Patrician in general. This power also came with responsibility. The Plebeian Tribunes were required to keep the doors of their homes open day and night and it also limited them to only being able to be absent from the city for no more than a day. This power literally made them the protectors of the working class of Rome.

Intercessio, the Power of Intercession, authorized the Plebeian Tribunes to stop the actions of holders of imperium or to terminate legislation that they deemed harmful to the Plebeians. The power was initially limited to the individual actions of the magistrates and Patricians but eventually evolved into the power of veto over acts of the Senate and legislation of the assemblies. This ability empowered the Plebeian Tribunes to legislatively intervene on behalf of the Roman working class.

Coercitio, the Power of Coercion, authorized the Plebeian Tribunes to implement their edicts and to protect their relevancy by giving them the ability to fine, punish, or even sentence to death those citizens that defied their actions and orders. The death sentences were subject to an appeal to the Plebeian assembly, though.

Finally, Sacrosanctitas, the Power of Sacrosanctity, arguably the most important power functionally, protected the Plebeian Tribunes physically by making their person legally inviolable. Any citizen who physically violated a Plebeian Tribune in any way was legally proscribed to immediate unappealable death at the hands of any other Plebeian. From this aegis of popular protection flowed the other powers of the Tribunes of the Plebeians.

Initially there were two Plebeian Tribunes. Then the first two suggested to the Plebeian assembly to create three more for a total of five. Shortly thereafter their number increased to ten, and the number of members of this "College of Plebeian Tribunes" stood at ten until the end of the Republic.

The role of the Plebeian Tribunes and their powers and rights ebbed and flowed. More types of tribunes were created, to include military tribunes and "Tribunes with Consular powers" (although not invested with imperium). Councils of these so-called Consular Tribunes governed the Republic during periods of decades during the Conflict of the Orders. By the time of the Punic Wars, Consular Tribunes no longer existed. For a short period of time in the late Roman republic during Lucius Cornelius Sulla's dictatorship, the role of the Plebeian Tribunes was abolished. After Sulla's death the Plebeian Consul Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus eventually restored the role, albeit diminished in power by limiting their legislative powers.

The power and the prestige of the position of the Plebeian Tribunes was paramount among the people. So much so that one of the ultimate symbolic acts signaling the death of the Republic was when the Dictator Perpetuo (Dictator for Life), Julius Caesar Octavius had the tribunicia potestas bestowed upon him for life by the Senate (just as his adopted father and granduncle Gaius Julius Caesar had before him while he also was Dictator Perpetuo). Octavius, henceforth known as Imperator Caesar Augustus, created the position of the Princeps Civitatas, First Citizen, by combining the tribunicia potestas with his dictator imperium and auctoritas. This was the inception of the Principate, the beginning of the Roman Empire as we now know it.

The tribunicia potestas were so important that when the emperor in power shared it with another individual, it signaled to the Senate and People of Rome that that person was the designated successor of the emperor. This bestowal of the tribunicia potestas was done mainly for the power of Sacrosanctitas, to protect the designated successor from physical harm.

It is the original energy and qualities of the tribunicia potestas, the aura of resolve and action, the power to advocate for and protect the People, that we are channeling by naming this website the Tribunician.

V. Why "Decimus"?

The authors of The Federalist Papers, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, used and shared the nom de plume Publius, in honor of Publius Valerius Publicola. Publius had been a member of the Senate when they overthrew the last king. Afterwards he helped establish the Roman republic, eventually serving four asynchronous terms as Consul.

It is in this spirit that the founders of this website have adopted the pseudonym Decimus. We have chosen Decimus because it was a common praenomen, or first name, in ancient Rome, just as was Publius. We have also chosen Decimus because of its intrinsic connection to the number ten. Originally the name indicated that the bearer was the tenth child or born into the tenth month of the year. We assume it because we founders of the Tribunician are members of the American generational cohort known as Generation X. The "X" in that nomenclature was originally meant to symbolize a lack of a name. The "X" was a placeholder for the name of the generation born immediately after the Baby Boomers. The name stuck and the lazy corporate American media elite failed to replace the placeholder. Their laziness was compounded by unoriginality as they continued to initially name the successive American generations with derivatives of the "X"; Generation Y (the Millennials), Generation Z (the Zoomers), and now Generation Alpha.

We believe that those that label possess power. We usurp this power of the labeling our generation and make it our own. We take the pseudonym Decimus with the intent that the "X" in Generation X no longer represents some unknown value. The "X" now represents the number ten as it did in ancient Rome. Generation X will now be recognized as they rightly and correctly should be; as the tenth American generation born after the American Revolution. Henceforth, we are Decimus. We advocate for the People, for all generations, for all genders, for all races and all ethnicities, for the working class.