Definition
A Latin term from Roman civil law meaning to give, to distribute, or to allot. In its legal sense, *tribuere* carried the specific sense of apportioning or distributing something among those with a claim to it — particularly in the context of distributing assets among creditors or parties with competing interests. The term is the root of the *actio tributoria*, a Roman praetorian action by which creditors of a slave's trading business could compel the master to distribute the fund (*merx peculiaris*) among them proportionally.
Why It Matters in Research
*Tribuere* is not a freestanding operative term in modern legal practice but functions as a root concept essential for understanding the architecture of Roman civil law actions, particularly those involving distribution among competing claimants. Researchers encountering this term in historical sources should treat it primarily as a signal pointing toward the *actio tributoria* — the specific procedural mechanism it anchors — rather than as a term with independent doctrinal weight.
The key research trap: *tribuere* is sometimes loosely glossed in secondary sources as simply "to give," which flattens its distributive meaning. In its Roman legal context, the term consistently implies apportionment among multiple parties, not mere conveyance from one party to another. Sources that collapse the distinction between *dare* (to give, transfer ownership) and *tribuere* (to distribute, apportion) obscure an important functional difference in Roman law's vocabulary of obligation and asset allocation.
Researchers working in equity jurisprudence, bankruptcy history, or the history of creditor remedies will find *tribuere* and the *actio tributoria* relevant background for understanding how legal systems have historically managed the problem of insufficient assets distributed among multiple claimants — a problem that recurs across legal traditions.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries agree on the core meaning but reveal minor inconsistencies, likely the result of transcription error in at least one source. Black's (1st ed.) contains a garbled entry — "To geld, or payment; three times the value of a give" — that is almost certainly corrupted text and should be disregarded as a reliable statement of meaning. Black's (2nd ed.) offers the cleaner gloss "to give; to distribute," while Burrill provides the most useful entry by explicitly linking *tribuere* to the *actio tributoria* and citing Calvinus's *Lexicon Juridicum* as authority.
None of the historical dictionaries provides substantive analysis of how *tribuere* functions within the mechanics of the *actio tributoria* itself. Researchers should not rely on these entries alone for an understanding of the action's operation; they function primarily as definitional stepping stones toward Roman law sources and specialized treatments of praetorian actions.
The Burrill entry's cross-reference to *actio tributoria* is the most practically useful feature across all three sources. It correctly signals that the term's legal significance lies not in the word in isolation but in the procedural context it generates.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Actio Tributoria; Roman Civil Law Actions; Peculium and Slave Commerce in Roman Law.