TRIBU´NAL
TRIBU´NAL (
βῆμα), a
raised platform, or, to use the term adopted from the French, tribune, on
which the
SELLA of the praetor or
presiding magistrate was placed, when he sat to administer justice in any
place which might be selected (
Liv. 23.32). it
is termed
locus superior in
Cic.
Verr. 2.42, 102; 4.40, 85. It is described under
BASILICA Vol. I. pp. 288, 291
(cf. Mommsen,
Staatsrecht, i.3 400).
There was a tribunal in the camp, which was generally formed of turf, but
sometimes, in a stationary camp, of stone, from which the general addressed
the soldiers, and where the consul and tribunes of the soldiers administered
justice. When the general addressed the army from the tribunal, the
standards were planted in front of it, and the army placed round it in
order. [ADLOCUTIO; CASTRA, Vol. I. p. 380.] For an
instance of a tribunal raised in honour of a deceased imperator, see
Tac. Ann. 2.83: for the theatrical tribunal,
THEATRUM p. 821
b.
[
P.S] [
G.E.M]
