Page "Tribune" Paragraph 6

Since the tribunes were considered to be the embodiment of the plebeians, they were sacrosanct.

Their sacrosanctity was enforced by a pledge, taken by the plebeians, to kill any person who harmed or interfered with a tribune during his term of office.

All of the powers of the tribunes derived from their sacrosanctity.

One obvious consequence of this sacrosanctity was the fact that it was considered a capital offense to harm a tribune, to disregard his veto, or to interfere with a tribune.

The sacrosanctity of a tribune ( and thus all of his legal powers ) were only in effect so long as that tribune was within the city of Rome.

If the tribune was abroad, the plebeians in Rome could not enforce their oath to kill any individual who harmed or interfered with the tribune.

Since tribunes were technically not magistrates, they had no magisterial powers (" major powers " or maior potestas ), and thus could not rely on such powers to veto.

Instead, they relied on the sacrosanctity of their person to obstruct.

If a magistrate, an assembly or the senate did not comply with the orders of a tribune, the tribune could ' interpose the sacrosanctity of his person ' ( intercessio ) to physically stop that particular action.

Any resistance against the tribune was tantamount to a violation of his sacrosanctity, and thus was considered a capital offense.

Their lack of magisterial powers made them independent of all other magistrates, which also meant that no magistrate could veto a tribune.