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TRENT

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 265 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TRENT , the See also:

chief See also:river in the midlands of See also:England, the third in length in the See also:country, exceeded only by the See also:Thames and See also:Severn. It rises in the See also:north of See also:Staffordshire, and discharges through the See also:Humber into the North See also:Sea, having a course of about 170 m., and a drainage See also:area of 4052 sq. m. The source is on Biddu.lph See also:Moor, which rises to a height of 1loo ft. The course of the river is at first southerly, and it skirts the manufacturing See also:district of the See also:Potteries, passing Stoke-upon-Trent. Immediately below this See also:town the valley widens, and the fall of the river, from a point 15 M. from the source to the mouth, is only 338 ft. Passing See also:Stone, the course becomes See also:south-easterly, and the See also:united See also:waters of the Sow and the Penk are received on the right. Near See also:Rugeley the direction becomes easterly, and near Alrewas the Trent receives the Tame on the right, and turns to the north-See also:east. Much of the valley above this point is well wooded and picturesque, though the flanking hills are gently sloping, and of no See also:great See also:elevation. The river now passes (leges sacralae), which had been incorporated with the constitution on the abolition of the decemvirate. The right to summon the See also:senate and to See also:lay business before it was acquired soon after 367, but was seldom exercised, as the tribunes had abundant means of securing what they wanted by pressure applied to the See also:ordinary presidents—the consuls or the See also:praetor. When an See also:interregnum came about and there were no " magistrates of the See also:Roman See also:people," the plebeian tribunes became the proper presidents of the senate and conductors of ordinary See also:state business. At the end of the See also:republic there were interregna of several months' duration, when the tribunes held a position of more than usual importance.

A' See also:

tenure of the tribunate did not, until a comparatively See also:late See also:period (probably about the See also:time of the Second Punic See also:War), confer a claim to a permanent seat in the senate. The candidates for the See also:office were mainly See also:young men of See also:good See also:family who were at the beginning of their See also:political career, but the office was often filled by older men of ambition who were struggling upwards with few advantages. The plebeian aediles very soon after 367 became dissociated from the tribunes and associated with the See also:curule aediles, so that in the political See also:hierarchy they really ranked higher than those who were originally their See also:superior See also:officers. The real See also:kernel of the See also:tribune's See also:power consisted in his intercessio, or right of invalidating ordinances, whether framed by the senate or proposed by a See also:magistrate to the See also:comitia, or issued by a magistrate in pursuance of his office. From 367 B.C. down to the time of the Gracchi the power of See also:veto in public matters was, on the whole, used in the interests of the aristocratic governing families to check opposition arising in their own ranks. A recalcitrant See also:consul was most readily brought to obedience by an exercise of tribunician power. But, although See also:modern readers of the See also:ancient historians are See also:apt to carry away the See also:idea that the tribunate was an intensely political office, it is safe to say that the occasions on which tribunes found it possible to See also:play a prominent See also:part in politics were extremely few, even in the late republic. On the other See also:hand, the tribunes found a See also:field for See also:constant activity in watching the See also:administration of See also:justice and in rendering assistance to those who had received harsh treatment from the magistrates. The tribunes were, in fact, primarily legal functionaries, and constituted in a way the only See also:court of See also:appeal in republican See also:Rome. It was to this end that they were forbidden to pass a whole See also:night away from the See also:city, except during the Latin festival on the See also:Alban See also:Mount, and that they were expected to keep their doors open to suppliants by night as well as by See also:day. They held court by day in the See also:Forum See also:close by the Porcian See also:basilica, and frequently made elaborate legal inquiries into cases where their help was sought. Naturally this ordinary humdrum See also:work of the tribunes has See also:left little See also:mark on the pages of the historians, but we hear of it not infrequently in See also:Cicero's speeches and in other writings which See also:deal with legal matters.

According to the See also:

general principle of the constitution, magistrates could forbid the acts of magistrates equal to or inferior to themselves. For this purpose the tribunes were deemed superior to all other officers. If a tribune exercised his veto no other tribune could annul it, for the veto could not be itself vetoed, but it was possible for another tribune to protect a definite individual from the consequences of disobedience. The number of the tribunes (ten) made it always possible that one might balk the See also:action of another, except at times when popular feeling was strongly roused. In any See also:case it was of little use for a tribune to move in any important See also:matter unless he had secured the co-operation or at least the See also:neutrality of all his colleagues. The veto was not, however, See also:absolute in all directions. In some it was limited by See also:statute; thus the See also:law passed by See also:Gaius See also:Gracchus about the consular provinces did not permit a tribune to veto the See also:annual See also:decree of the senate concerning them. When there was a See also:dictator at the See also:head of the state, the veto was of. no avail against him. One of the important political functions of the tribunes was to conduct prosecutions of state offenders, particularly ex-magistrates. These prosecutions began with a See also:sentence pronounced by the tribune upon the See also:culprit, whereupon, exercising the right given him by the NII. Tables, the culprit appealed. If the tribune sought to inflict See also:punishment on the culprit's See also:person, the appeal was to the See also:assembly of the centuries; if he wished for a large See also:fine, the appeal was to the assembly of the tribes.

As the tribune had no right to summon the centuries, he had to obtain the necessary meetings through the See also:

urban praetor. In the other event he himself called together the See also:tribute assembly and proposed a See also:bill for fining the culprit. But the forms of trial gone through were very similar in both cases. It is commonly stated that a great See also:change passed over the tribunate at the time of the Gracchi, and that from their day to the end of the republic it was used as an See also:instrument for setting on See also:foot political agitation and for inducing revolutionary changes. This view is an See also:inversion of the facts. The tribunate did not create the agitation and the revolutions, but these found vent through the tribunate, which gave to the democratic leaders the See also:hope that acknowledged evils might be cured by constitutional means, and in the desperate struggle to realize it the best democratic tribunes strained the theoretic See also:powers of their office to their ruin. For the See also:bad tribunes did not hesitate to use for bad ends the powers which had been strained in the See also:attempt to secure what was good. But herein the t rihunate only fared like all other parts of the republican constitution in its last period. The consuls and the senate were at least as guiltyas the tribunes. After a severe restriction of its powers by See also:Sulla and a restoration by See also:Pompey, which gave a twenty years' See also:respite, the essential force of the tribunate was merged into the imperial constitution, of which indeed it became the See also:principal constituent on the See also:civil See also:side. The ten tribunes remained, with very restricted functions. The emperors did not become tribunes, but took up into their privileges the essence of the office, the " tribunician authority." This distinction between the principle of the office and the actual tenure of the office was a creation of the late republic.

Pompey, for example, when he went to the East, was not made proconsul of all the Eastern provinces, but he exercised in them a "proconsular authority" which was equal to that of the actual proconsuls—an authority which was the germ of the imperial authority on its military side. Similarly the See also:

emperor, as civil See also:governor, without being tribune, exercised powers of like quality with the powers of the tribune, though of superior force. By virtue of his tribunician authority he acquired a veto on legislation, he became the supreme court of appeal for the See also:empire, and to his person was attached the ancient sacrosanctity. See also:Augustus showed the highest statesmanship in See also:founding his power upon a metamorphosed tribunate rather than upon a metamorphosed dictatorship, upon traditions which were democratic rather than upon traditions which were patrician and optimate. The tribunes continued to exist till a late period, with gradually vanishing dignity and rights; but it is not necessary here to trace their decay in detail. The name " tribune " was once again illuminated by a passing See also:glory when assumed by Cola di See also:Rienzi. The See also:movement which he headed was in many respects extremely like the See also:early movements of the plebeians against the See also:patricians, and his See also:scheme for uniting See also:Italy in one See also:free republic was strangely parallel with the greatest See also:dream of the Gracchi. The See also:history of the tribunate is interwoven with that of Rome, and must, to a large extent, be sought for in the same See also:sources. The principles attaching to the office are profoundly analysed by See also:Mommsen in his Staatsrecht, and are clearly set forth by E. See also:Herzog in his Geschichte u. See also:System der rdmischen Staatsverfassung (See also:Leipzig, 1884). (J.

S.

End of Article: TRENT

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TRENT (Lat. Tridentum; Ital. Trento; Ger. relent)

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