| They may be tribunes of the people but they are also deeply self-interested. |
| We have not fallen from grace or lost all sense of decency, as some disgruntled tribunes of the people would have you believe. |
| Finally the republic was torn to pieces by rival power-hungry tribunes or dictators like Pompey, Sulla, and Julius Caesar. |
| Offices required popular election, and tribunes represented a plebeian constituency. |
| So the aristocrats who sought elections as tribunes had to be able to play the demagogue. |
| Severe penalties were to be inflicted on those harming the tribunes or other plebeian officers. |
