Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Tribunal

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

TRIBU'NAL (δικαστήριον). The tribunal; a raised platform at one extremity of a law court, upon which the curule seats of the judges and other persons of distinction who wished to attend the proceedings were placed. (Cic. Verr. ii. 2. 38. Id. Orat. i. 37. Suet. Tib. 33.) It was sometimes of a square form, and constructed within the external wall of the court, as shown by the internal abuttment on the right side of the annexed engraving (Tribunal/1.1), which represents the ground-plan of the Basilica at Pompeii; at others, it consisted of a semicircular absis or alcove (hemicyclium, Vitruv. v. 1. 8.), projecting beyond the external wall of the edifice, as in the Basicila at Verona, of which a restoration is exhibited at p. 81.

2. In a camp, the tribunal was an elevated platform upon which the general sat to administer justice (Tac. Hist. iv. 25. Ib. iii. 10.); similar to the suggestum on p. 631.

3. In a Roman theatre, the tribunal was an elevated seat in the pit (orchestra, Suet. Claud. 21.), generally appropriated to the use of the praetor (Id. Aug. 44.).

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  Tribunal/1.1