Comitia Tributa

This was the assemply of the plebeians. The voting units in this assembly were the territorial tribes (hence its name). This assembly had very limited powers; they could elect minor magistrates, like plebeian tribunes and aediles; enact plebiscites; and hold trials for non-capital offences.

The comitia tributa were known as comitia leviora (lighter assemblies); the magisrates they elected were magistratus minores; and the auspices taken before they were held were auspicia minora.

The tribal assembly was supposed to be more democratic than the centuriate one, since it was not based on the property of the class members. In practice, however, it still did not give any substantial power either to the urban plebs or the rural population of the rest of the Italian people.

The total number of tribes was 35. The urban plebeians were all enrolled in only four of those (and therefore had only four votes). On the other hand, the rural tribes were numerous, but the people lived too far from Rome to vote in person.

By the first century BCE, the comitia tributa ceased to represent the will of the people. The emperor Tiberius transferred the act of electing magistrates to the senate, thus stripping the comitia from their most essential function. The same happened to their judicial and legislative functions in the early stages of the empire.