comes, who commanded a cavalry vexillatio. As tribounos, the title survived in the East Roman army until the early 7th century. From the use of tribunus to describe various military officers is derived the word tribunal, originally referring to a raised platform used to address the soldiers or administer justice. Military tribunes are featured in notable works of historical fiction, including Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, by Lew Wallace, and The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas. Both novels involve characters affected by the life and death of Jesus, and were turned into epic films during the 1950s. Messala, the primary antagonist in Ben-Hur, was played by Stephen Boyd, while Marcellus Gallio, the protagonist of The Robe, was played by a young Richard Burton. Consular tribunes In 445 BC, the tribunes of the plebs succeeded in passing the lex Canuleia, repealing the law forbidding the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians, and providing that one of the consuls might be a plebeian. Rather than permit the consular dignity to pass into the hands of a plebeian, the senate proposed a compromise whereby three military tribunes, who might be either patrician or plebeian, should be elected in place of the consuls. The first tribuni militum consulare potestate, or military tribunes with consular power, were elected for the year 444. Although plebeians were eligible for this office, each of the first "consular tribunes" was a patrician. Military tribunes were elected in place of the consuls in half the years from 444 to 401 BC, and in each instance, all of the tribunes were patricians; nor did any plebeian succeed in obtaining the consulship. The number of tribunes increased to four beginning in 426, and six beginning in 405. At last, the plebeians elected four of their number military tribunes for the year 400; others were elected in 399, 396, 383, and 379. But apart from these years, no plebeian obtained the highest offices of the Roman State. The patricians' monopoly on power was finally broken by Gaius Licinius Calvus Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus, tribunes of the people, who in 376 BC brought forward legislation demanding not merely that one of the consuls might be a plebeian, but that henceforth one must be chosen from their order. When the senate refused their demand, the tribunes prevented the election of annual magistrates for five years, before relenting and permitting the election of consular tribunes