High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Sacrosanctity was a right of tribunes in Ancient Rome to not be harmed physically. Plebeians took an oath to regard anyone who laid hands on a tribune as an outlaw liable to be killed without penalty. The term comes from the phrase sacer esto ("let him be accursed") and reflects that violation of a tribune's sacrosanctity was not only a secular offense, but a religious offense as well. Tribune (from the Latin: tribunus; Byzantine Greek form ) was a title shared by 10 elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it.