Roman consul

This article is about the highest oce of the Roman tive, legislative and judicial), and in wartime often held
Republic. For other uses, see Consul.
the highest military command. Additional religious duties included certain rites which, as a sign of their formal
A consul was the highest elected political oce of the importance, could only be carried out by the highest state
ocials. Consuls also read auguries, an essential step beRoman Republic, and the consulship was considered the
highest level of the cursus honorum (the sequential order fore leading armies into the eld.
of public oces through which aspiring politicians sought Two consuls were elected each year, serving together,
to ascend).
each with veto power over the others actions, a normal
Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve principle for magistracies. It is thought that originally
for a one-year term. The consuls alternated in holding only patricians were eligible for the consulship. Conimperium each month, and a consuls imperium extended suls were elected by the Comitia Centuriata, which had
over Rome, Italy, and the provinces. However, after the an aristocratic bias in its voting structure which only inestablishment of the Empire, the consuls were merely a creased over the years from its foundation. However, they
gurative representative of Romes republican heritage formally assumed powers only after the ratication of
and held very little power and authority, with the Emperor their election in the older Comitia Curiata, which granted
the consuls their imperium by enacting a law, the "lex cuacting as the supreme leader.
riata de imperio".

1
1.1

If a consul died during his term (not uncommon when

consuls were in the forefront of battle) or was removed
from oce, another would be elected by the Comitia
Centuriata to serve the remainder of the term as consul
suectus, or suect consul. By contrast a consul who
was elected to start the year was a consul ordinarius or
ordinary consul. Ordinary consulship was more prestigious than interim consulship, partly because the year
would be named for ordinary consuls (see consular dating).

History
Under the Republic

After the legendary expulsion of the last Etruscan King

Lucius Tarquinius and the end of the Roman Kingdom,
most of the powers and authority of the king were ostensibly given to the newly instituted consulship. Originally,
consuls were called praetors (leader), referring to their
duties as the chief military commanders. By at least 300
BC the title of Consul was being used.[1] Ancient writers
usually derive the title consul from the Latin verb consulere, to take counsel, but this is most likely a later
gloss of the term,[2] which probably derivesin view of
the joint nature of the ocefrom con- and sal-, get
together or from con- and sell-/sedl-, sit down together
with or next to.[3] In Greek, the title was originally
rendered as , strategos hypatos (the
supreme general), and later simply as .[2]

According to tradition, the consulship was initially reserved for patricians and only in 367 BC did plebeians
win the right to stand for this supreme oce, when the
Lex Licinia Sextia provided that at least one consul each
year should be plebeian. According to Gelzer, only 15
of these novi homines were elected to the consulship between the consulships of Sextius in 366 BC and Cicero
in 63 BC.[6] The rst plebeian consul, Lucius Sextius,
was thereby elected the following year. Modern historians have questioned the traditional account of plebeian
emancipation during the early Republic (see Conict of
the Orders), noting for instance that about thirty percent
of the consuls prior to Sextius had plebeian, not patrician,
names. It is possible that only the chronology has been
distorted, but it seems that one of the rst consuls, Lucius
Junius Brutus, came from a plebeian family.[7] Another
possible explanation is that during the 5th century social
struggles, the oce of consul was gradually monopolized
by a patrician elite.[8]

The consul was believed by the Romans to date back to

the traditional establishment of the Republic in 509 BC,
but the succession of consuls was not continuous in the
5th century BC. During the 440s, the oce was quite often replaced with the establishment of the Consular Tribunes, who were elected whenever the military needs of
the state were signicant enough to warrant the election
of more than the two usual consuls.[4] These remained in
place until the oce was abolished in 367/366 BC and
During times of war, the primary qualication for consul
the consulship was reintroduced.[5]
was military skill and reputation, but at all times the selecConsuls had extensive powers in peacetime (administra1

tion was politically charged. With the passage of time, the

consulship became the normal endpoint of the cursus honorum, the sequence of oces pursued by the ambitious
Roman who chose to pursue political power and inuence. When Lucius Cornelius Sulla regulated the cursus
by law, the minimum age of election to consul became,
in eect, 41 years of age.
Beginning in the late Republic, after nishing a consular
year, a former consul would usually serve a lucrative term
as a proconsul, the Roman Governor of one of the (senatorial) provinces. The most commonly chosen province
for the proconsulship was Cisalpine Gaul.

1.2

Under the Empire

Flavius Anastasius Paulus Probus Sabinianus Pompeius Anastasius (consul 517 AD) in consular garb, holding a sceptre and the
mappa, a piece of cloth used to signal the start of chariot races
at the Hippodrome. Ivory panel from his consular diptych.

Throughout the early years of the Principate although the

consuls were still formally elected by the Comitia Centuriata, they were in fact nominated by the princeps.[9] As
the years progressed, the distinction between the Comitia Centuriata and the Comitia Tributa (which elected the
lower magisterial positions) appears to have disappeared,
and so for the purposes of the consular elections, there
came to be just a single an assembly of the people which
elected all the magisterial positions of the state, while the
consuls continued to be nominated by the princeps.[10]

HISTORY

beit as the method through which the Roman aristocracy

could progress through to the higher levels of imperial administration only former consuls could become consular
legates, the proconsuls of Africa and Asia, or the urban
prefect of Rome.[11] It was a post that would be occupied
by a man halfway through his career, in his early thirties
for a patrician, or in his early forties for most others.[9]
Emperors frequently appointed themselves, or their protgs or relatives, consuls, even without regard to the age
requirements. For example, Emperor Honorius was given
the consulship at birth. Cassius Dio states that Caligula
intended to make his horse Incitatus consul, but was assassinated before he could do so.[12]
The need for a pool of men to ll the consular positions forced Augustus to reinvent the suect consulate,
allowing more than the two elected for the ordinary
consulate.[9] During the reigns of the Julio-Claudians, the
ordinary consuls who began the year usually relinquished
their oce mid-year, with the election for the suect
consuls occurring at the same time as that for the ordinary consuls. During reigns of the Flavian and Antonine
emperors, the ordinary consuls tended to resign after a
period of four months, and the elections were moved to
12 January of the year in which they were to hold ofce. During the Flavian or Antonine periods, the election
of the consuls were transferred to the Senate, although
through to the 3rd century, the people were still called on
to ratify the Senates selections.[13]
The proliferation of suect consuls through this process,
and the allocation of this oce to homines novi (or new
men) tended over time to devalue the oce.[11] However,
the high regard placed upon the ordinary consulate remained intact, as it was one of the few oces that one
could share with the emperor, and during this period
it was lled mostly by patricians or by individuals who
had consular ancestors.[9] If they were especially skilled
or valued, they may even have achieved a second (or
rarely, a third) consulate. Prior to achieving the consulate,
these individuals already had a signicant career behind
them, and would expect to continue serving the state, lling in the post upon which the state functioned.[14] Consequently, holding the ordinary consulship was a great
honor and the oce was the major symbol of the still
republican constitution. Probably as part of seeking formal legitimacy, the break-away Gallic Empire had its own
pairs of consuls during its existence (260274). The list
of consuls for this state is incomplete, drawn from inscriptions and coins.

By the end of the 3rd century, much had changed. The

loss of many pre-consular functions and the gradual encroachment of the equites into the traditional senatorial
administrative and military functions, meant that senatorial careers virtually vanished prior to their appointment
as consuls.[14] This had the eect of seeing a suect consulship granted at an earlier age, to the point that by the
by men in their early twenThe imperial consulate during the period of the High Em- 4th century, it was being held
[14]
As time progressed, secties,
and
possibly
younger.
pire (until the 3rd century) was an important position, al-

2.1

Republican duties

ond consulates, usually ordinary, became far more common than had been the case during the rst two centuries,
while the rst consulship was usually a suect consulate.
Also, the consulate during this period was no longer just
the province of senators the automatic awarding of a
suect consulship to the equestrian praetorian prefects
(who were given the ornamenta consularia upon achieving their oce) allowed them to style themselves cos. II
when they were later granted an ordinary consulship by
the emperor.[14] All this had the eect of further devaluing the oce of consul, to the point that by the nal years
of the 3rd century, holding an ordinary consulate was occasionally left out of the cursus inscriptions, while suect
consulships were hardly ever recorded by the rst decades
of the 4th century.[14]
One of the reforms of Constantine I (r. 306337) was
to assign one of the consuls to the city of Rome, and
the other to Constantinople. Therefore, when the Roman Empire was divided into two halves on the death
of Theodosius I (r. 379395), the emperor of each half
acquired the right of appointing one of the consuls
although on occasion an emperor did allow his colleague
to appoint both consuls for various reasons. The consulship, bereft of any real power, continued to be a great
honor, but the celebrations attending it above all the
chariot races had come to involve considerable expense,
which only a few citizens could aord, to the extent that
part of the expense had to be covered by the state.[15] In
the 6th century, the consulship was increasingly sparsely
given, until it was allowed to lapse under Justinian I (r.
527565): the western consulship lapsed in 534, with
Decius Paulinus the last holder, and the consulship of
the East in 541, with Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius.
Consular dating had already been abolished in 537, when
Justinian introduced dating by the emperors regnal year
and the indiction.[16] In the eastern court, the appointment
to consulship became a part of the rite of proclamation
of a new emperor from Justin II (r. 565578) on, and is
last attested in the proclamation of the future Constans
II (r. 641668) as consul in 632.[17] In the late 9th century, Emperor Leo the Wise (r. 886912) nally abolished consular dating with Novel 94. By that time, the
Greek titles for consul and ex-consul, "hypatos" and "apo
hypaton", had been transformed to relatively lowly honorary dignities.[18]
In the west, the rank of consul was occasionally bestowed
upon individuals by the Papacy. In 719, the title of Roman consul was oered by the Pope to Charles Martel,
although he refused it.[19] In about 853 Alfred the Great
was made Roman consul by the Pope at the age of 4 or 5.

Powers and responsibilities

2.1 Republican duties

After the expulsion of the kings and the establishment
of the Republic, all the powers that had belonged to the
kings were transferred to two oces: that of the consuls and the Rex Sacrorum. While the Rex Sacrorum
inherited the kings position as high priest of the state,
the consuls were given the civil and military responsibilities (imperium). However, to prevent abuse of the kingly
power, the imperium was shared by two consuls, each of
whom could veto the others actions.
The consuls were invested with the executive power of
the state and headed the government of the Republic. Initially, the consuls held vast executive and judicial power.
In the gradual development of the Roman legal system,
however, some important functions were detached from
the consulship and assigned to new ocers. Thus, in 443
BC, the responsibility to conduct the census was taken
from the consuls and given to the censors. The second function taken from the consulship was their judicial
power. Their position as chief judges was transferred to
the praetors in 366 BC. After this time, the consul would
only serve as judges in extraordinary criminal cases and
only when called upon by decree of the Senate.

2.1.1 Civil sphere

For the most part, power was divided between civil and
military spheres. As long as the consuls were in the
pomerium (the city of Rome), they were at the head of
government, and all the other magistrates, with the exception of the tribunes of the plebeians, were subordinate to
them, but retained independence of oce. The internal
machinery of the Republic was under the consuls superintendence. In order to allow the consuls greater authority
in executing laws, the consuls had the right of summons
and arrest, which was limited only by the right of appeal
from their judgment. This power of punishment even extended to inferior magistrates.
As part of their executive functions, the consuls were responsible for carrying into eect the decrees of the Senate
and the laws of the assemblies. Sometimes, in great emergencies, they might even act on their own authority and
responsibility. The consuls also served as the chief diplomat of the Roman state. Before any foreign ambassadors
reached the Senate, they met with the consuls. The consul would introduce ambassadors to the Senate, and they
alone carried on the negotiations between the Senate and
foreign states.
The consuls could convene the Senate, and presided over
its meetings. Each consul served as president of the Senate for a month. They could also summon any of the three
Roman assemblies (Curiate, Centuriate, and Tribal) and
presided over them. Thus, the consuls conducted the elections and put legislative measures to the vote. When neither consul was within the city, their civic duties were

2 POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

assumed by the praetor urbanus.

Each consul was accompanied in every public appearance
by twelve lictors, who displayed the magnicence of the
oce and served as his bodyguards. Each lictor held a
fasces, a bundle of rods that contained an axe. The rods
symbolized the power of scourging, and the axe the power
of capital punishment. When inside the pomerium, the
lictors removed the axes from the fasces to show that a
citizen could not be executed without a trial. Upon entering the Comitia Centuriata, the lictors would lower the
fasces to show that the powers of the consuls derive from
the people (populus romanus).
2.1.2

sul given the power to veto his colleague. Therefore,

except in the provinces as commanders-in-chief where
each consuls power was supreme, the consuls could only
act in unison, or, at least, not against each others determined will. Against the sentence of one consul, an appeal
could be brought before his colleague, which, if successful, would see the sentence overturned. In order to avoid
unnecessary conicts, only one consul would actually perform the oces duties every month. This is not to say
that the other consul held no power but merely allowed
the rst consul to act without direct interference. Then in
the next month, the consuls would switch roles with one
another. This would continue until the end of the consular
term.

Military sphere

Another point which acted as a check against consuls was

the certainty that after the end of their term they would
Outside the walls of Rome, the powers of the consuls be called to account for their actions while in oce.
were far more extensive in their role as commanders-inThere were also three other restrictions on consular
chief of all Roman legions. It was in this function that the
power. Their term in oce was short (one year); their
consuls were vested with full imperium. When legions
duties were pre-decided by the Senate; and they could
were ordered by a decree of the Senate, the consuls connot stand again for election immediately after the end of
ducted the levy in the Campus Martius. Upon entering
their oce. Usually a period of ten years was expected
the army, all soldiers had to take their oath of allegiance
between consulships.
to the consuls. The consuls also oversaw the gathering of
troops provided by Romes allies.[20]
Within the city a consul could punish and arrest a citizen,
but had no power to inict capital punishment. When on
campaign, however, a consul could inict any punishment 2.1.4 Governorship
he saw t on any soldier, ocer, citizen, or ally.
Each consul commanded an army, usually two legions Main article: Roman governor
strong, with the help of military tribunes and a quaestor
who had nancial duties. In the rare case that both con- After leaving oce, the consuls were assigned by the Sensuls marched together, each one held the command for ate to a province to administer as governor. The provinces
a day respectively. A typical consular army was about each consul was assigned were drawn by lot and deter20,000 men strong and consisted of two citizen and two mined before the end of his consulship. Transferring his
allied legions. In the early years of the Republic, Romes consular imperium to proconsular Imperium, the consul
enemies were located in central Italy, so campaigns lasted would become a proconsul and governor of one (or seva few months. As Romes frontiers expanded, in the 2nd eral) of Romes many provinces. As a proconsul, his imcentury BC, the campaigns became lengthier. Rome was perium was limited to only a specied province and not
a warlike society, and very seldom did not wage war.[21] the entire Republic. Any exercise of proconsular imSo the consul upon entering oce was expected by the perium in any other province was illegal. Also, a proSenate and the People to march his army against Romes consul was not allowed to leave his province before his
enemies, and expand the Roman frontiers. His soldiers term was complete or before the arrival of his successor.
expected to return to their homes after the campaign with Exceptions were given only on special permission of the
spoils. If the consul won an overwhelming victory, he was Senate. Most terms as governor lasted between one and
hailed as imperator by his troops, and could request to be ve years.
granted a triumph.
The consul could conduct the campaign as he saw t, and
had unlimited powers. However, after the campaign, he
could be prosecuted for his misdeeds (for example for
2.1.5 Appointment of the dictator
abusing the provinces, or wasting public money, as Scipio
Africanus was accused by Cato in 205 BC).
In times of crisis, when Romes territory was in immediate danger, a dictator was appointed by the consuls for
2.1.3 Abuse prevention
a period of no more than six months, after the proposition of the Senate.[22] While the dictator held oce, the
Abuse of power by consuls was prevented with each con- imperium of the consuls was subordinate to the dictator.

2.2

Imperial duties

After Augustus became the rst Roman emperor in 27

BC with the establishment of the principate, the consuls
lost most of their powers and responsibilities under the
Roman Empire. Though still ocially the highest ofce of the state, with the emperors superior imperium
they were merely a symbol of Romes republican heritage. One of the two consular position was often occupied by emperors themselves and eventually became
reserved solely for the Emperor. However, the imperial
consuls still maintained the right to preside at meetings
of the Senate, exercising this right at the pleasure of the
Emperor. They partially administered justice in extraordinary cases, and presented games in the Circus Maximus and all public solemnities in honor of the Emperor
at their own expense. After the expiration of their ofces, the ex-consuls (proconsuls) went on to govern one
of the provinces that were administered by the Senate.
They usually served terms of three to ve years.

Consular dating

French Consulate

6 References
[1] Lintott, Andrew (2004). The Constitution of the Roman
Republic. Oxford University Press. p. 104. ISBN
0198150687.
[2] Kbler, B. (1900). Consul. Realencyclopdie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Band IV, Halbband 7,
Claudius mons-Cornicius. pp. 11121138.
[3] Gizewski, Christian (2013). Consul(es)". Brills New
Pauly. Brill Online. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
[4] Forsythe, Gary (2005). A Critical History of Early Rome:
From Prehistory to the First Punic War. University of California Press. p. 236. ISBN 0520226518.
[5] Forsythe, Gary (2005). A Critical History of Early Rome:
From Prehistory to the First Punic War. University of California Press. p. 237. ISBN 0520226518.
[6] See page 15: Wirszubzki, Ch. Libertas as a Political Idea
at Rome during the Late Republic and Early Principate.
Reprint. Cambridge University Press, 1960.

Roman dates were customarily kept according to the

names of the two consuls who took oce on January 1 of [7] Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed., Hornblower, S. and
Spawforth, A. edd., s.v. Iunius Brutus, Lucius
that year, much like a regnal year in a monarchy. For instance, the year 59 BC in the modern calendar was called [8] T. J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, chapter 10.4.
by the Romans the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus,
since the two colleagues in the consulship were (Gaius) [9] Bagnall et al. 1987, p. 1.
Julius Caesar and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulusalthough
[10] Bury, John B, A History of the Roman Empire from its
Caesar dominated the consulship so thoroughly that year
Foundation to the Death of Marcus Aurelius (1893), pg.
that it was jokingly referred to as the consulship of Julius
29
and Caesar.[23] The practice of dating years ab urbe condita (from the supposed foundation date of Rome) was [11] Bagnall et al. 1987, pp. 12.
less frequently used.
[12] Cassius Dio, Roman History, 59:14:7

In Latin, the ablative absolute construction is frequently

used to express the date, such as "M. Messalla et M. Pupio [13] Michael Gagarin, Elaine Fantham; The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, Volume 1 (2010), pgs.
Pisone consulibus", translated literally as "Marcus Mes296-297
salla and Marcus Pupius Piso being the consuls, which
appears in Caesars De Bello Gallico.
[14] Bagnall et al. 1987, p. 2.

Lists of Roman consuls

For a complete list of Roman consuls, see:

List of Roman consuls
List of undated Roman consuls
List of consuls designate

See also
Constitution of the Roman Republic

[15] Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of

Byzantium, Oxford University Press, p. 527, ISBN 9780-19-504652-6
[16] Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of
Byzantium, Oxford University Press, pp. 526527, ISBN
978-0-19-504652-6
[17] Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of
Byzantium, Oxford University Press, p. 526, ISBN 9780-19-504652-6
[18] Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of
Byzantium, Oxford University Press, pp. 526, 963964,
ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
[19] e. The Frankish Kingdom. 2001. The Encyclopedia of
World History

7 FURTHER READING

[20] Polybius - Histories book VI

[21] War and society in the Roman World ed. Rich & Shipley
[22] Arthur Keaveney, in Sulla, the Last Republican (Routledge, 1982, 2nd edition 2005), p. 162 online, discusses
the appointment of a dictator in regard to Sulla, in which
case exceptions were made.
[23] Suetonius Lives of the Caesars: Julius Caesar Chapter
XX.

Further reading
Bagnall, Roger S; Cameron, Alan; Schwartz, Seth R;
Worp, Klaus Anthony (1987). Consuls of the later
Roman Empire. Volume 36 of Philological monographs of the American Philological Association.
London: Scholar Press.

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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