Tribe

TRIBE, the term applied to a subdivision of a nation or stock that has not been organized as a civil state. The principal divisions of the Roman people were known as tribes. In general, the development of a nation begins with the clan, passes through the tribal state, and finally merges into the larger and more completely organized body known as the nation. Romulus divided the Romans into the three tribes known as the Raninenscs, the Titicnses and the Luceres, who probably represented the Latin, the Sabine, and the Etruscan elements, respectively. Each of these tribes was subdivided into ten curiae, and these were required to furnish a given proportion of the military forces for general defense and offense. The ancient people of Greece are frequently mentioned as divided into tribes, which appear to have developed from various clans, and later from territorial or political divisions. Since the Greeks were a nation of different races, the tribes frequently constituted classes distinguished by rights. Anciently the term tribe was used extensively in reference to the Teutonic peoples, and different divisions of them are mentioned in history as the Germanic tribes.