tribune – n - A person who upholds or defends the rights of the people; (Roman History) any of various administrative officers, esp. one of 10 officers elected to protect the interests and rights of the plebeians from the patricians.
In other words, a tribune's job was to represent the commoners and to intervene on their behalf with the elites. (A tribune might also have been one of six officers who took turns commanding a legion, but the definition I've given is what's generally understood.) The most famous tribunes in Roman history were the Gracchus brothers, Tiberius (163-133 B.C.) and Gaius (159-121 B.C.), both of whom ran afoul of the Senate and paid with their lives. Their mother, Cornelia (pictured above), became a venerated figure for having produced two such men of the people.
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