chief magistrate of the ancient Roman Republic. According to tradition the office was created with the expulsion of the kings from Rome about 510 bc and had become firmly established by about 300 bc. The consuls were always two in number, and they held office for only one year. At first they differed from kings in little else than their limited tenure of office and the power that their fellow citizens retained of calling them to account at the ends of their terms. They never assumed the golden crown, but their dress in almost every other respect was regal. They made peace and negotiated foreign alliances, had supreme command of the army, appointed the public treasurers, and exercised the judicial functions of royalty. In the calendar, years were named after the consuls.

Under the early Republic, consuls, who were at first called praetors (later a different magistracy) or judges (iudices), nominated their successors, who were then elected annually by an assembly of the people called the comitia curiata (in very early times) or by the comitia centuriata. Candidates for the consulship under the later Republic were usually those who had held lesser magistracies, such as the office of quaestor. For a considerable time consuls were chosen exclusively from the populus, or patricians, as opposed to the plebs, or common people. At length, however, two plebian officers called tribuni plebis were appointed in a sort of democratic rivalry to the aristocratic consuls. This eventually led to the opening of the consulship to plebeians, and in 367 bc the famous Lex Licini ordained that one of the consuls should belong to that order.

The establishment of new magistracies, such as censor after 443 bc and aediles and praetors after 367, diminished the extent of consular jurisdiction. The responsibility of each of the two consuls was shared, insofar as possible, or rotated. The power (imperium) of each was supreme, provided it was not contravened by the other. In wartime the troops were divided between them, or the command alternated daily. As territory was acquired, portions or departments (provinciae) were allocated to each consul. From this custom developed the allocation of provinces to consuls after their term of office and finally, in the later Republic, the regular practice of dividing the provinces for administrative purposes among the ex-magistrates; ex-consuls became provincial governors called proconsuls.

Under the empire, which nominally preserved the institutions of the Republic in altered forms, the consulship was preserved. Consuls were elected by the Senate after ad 14, and the office remained the highest to which a private citizen could aspire, although with decreasing and eventually only nominal authority. The last civilian consul was chosen in ad 541. See also AEDILES,; COMITIA,; PRAETOR,; QUAESTOR,; ROME, HISTORY OF..

The title consul was briefly revived in the first French Republic. See CONSULATE,.

For further information on this topic, see the Bibliography, section 887. Rome.