I investigate the relationship between politicians – specifically the tribunes of the plebs – and public opinion at Rome in the late Roman Republic (c. 70 -49 BC). My thesis offers and uses definitions of a Roman public sphere and a Roman public opinion to contextualize interactions between tribunes of the plebs and the Roman populace. I examine how the unique position of the tribunate relative to the spatial, temporal, sex-, wealth-, age, and status-based limitations on communication at Rome afforded tribunes of the plebs the best platform for meaningful engagements with manifestations of collective sentiments. In short, I research how people living at Rome were able to talk to one another, how their conversations functioned as public opinions, how these public opinions eventually reached the ears of Rome’s governing politicians, and how these politicians engaged with this whole process.