Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

CONSUL.

114

CONSUL.

from both orders indiscriminately.-—During
the later periods of the republic it was cus-
tomary for persons to pass through several
subordinate magistracies before they were
elected consuls, though this rule was de-
parted from in many particular cases. The
age at which a person was eligible to the
consulship was fixed in n. c. 180, by the lex
annalis [Lex Annalis], at 43.—The election
of the consuls always took place in the co-
mitia of the centuries, some time before the
expiration of the official year of the actual
consuls, and the election was conducted
either by the actual consuls themselves, or
by an interrex or a dictator, and the persons
elected, until they entered upon their office,
were called consules designati. AYhile they
were designati, they were in reality no more
than private persons, but still they might
exercise considerable influence upon public
affairs, for in the senate they were asked for
their opinion first. If they had been guilty
of any illegal act, either before or during
their election, such as bribery (ambitus), they
were liable to prosecution, and the election
might be declared void.—The time at which
the old consuls laid down their office and the
crnsules designati entered upon theirs, dif-
fered at different times. The first consuls
are said to have entered upon their office in
October, then we find mention of the 1st of
August, of the ides of December, the 1st of
July, and very frequently of the ides of
March, until, in b.c. 153, it became an es-
tablished rule for the consuls to enter upon
their duties on the 1st of January; and this
custom remained down to the end of the re-
public. On that day the senators, equites,
and citizens of all classes conducted in a pro-
cession (deductio or processus consularis) the
new magistrates from their residence to the
capital, where, if the auspices were favour-
able, the consuls oft'ered up sacrifices, and
were inaugurated, i'rom thence the proces-
sion went to the curia, where the senate
assembled, and where the consuls returned
thanks for their election. There they might
also speak on any subject that was of im-
portance to the republic, such as peace and
war, the distribution of provinces, the gene-
ral condition of the state, the ferine Latinae,
and the like. During the first five days of
their office they had to convoke a cimtio, and
publicly to take a solemn oath, by which, in
the earliest times, they pledged themselves
not to allow any one to assume regal power
at Rome, but afterwards only to maintain the
laws of the republic [in leges jurare). On the
expiration of their office they had to take
another oath, stating that they had faithfully
obeyed the laws, and net done anything

against the constitution. The new consuls
on entering upon their office usually invited
their friends to a banquet. "When a consul
died during his year of office, his colleague
immediately convoked the comitia to elect a
new one. A consul thus elected to fill a
vacancy was called consul suffectus, but his
powers were not equal to those of an ordi-
nary consul, for he could not preside at the
elections of other magistrates, not even in
the case of the death of his colleague. In the
latter case, as well as when the consuls were
prevented by illness or other circumstances,
the comitia were held by an interrex or a
dictator. — The outward distinctions of the
consuls were, with few exceptions, the same
as those which had formerly belonged to the
kings. The principal distinction was the
twelve lictors with the fasces, who preceded
the consuls; but the axes did not appear in
the fasces within the city. This outward
sign of their power was taken by the con-
suls in turn every month, and while one
consul was preceded by the twelve lictors
with their fasces, the other was during the
same month preceded by an accensus, and
followed by the lictors; and the one was
called during that month consul major, and
the other consul minor. Other distinctions
of the consuls were the curule chair (sella
curulis), and the toga with the purple hem
(toga practexta). The ivory sceptre (scipio
or sceptrum) and purple toga were not dis-
tinctions of the consuls in general, but only
when they celebrated a triumph. Under the
empire a consul was sometimes distinguished
by the senate with a sceptre bearing an eagle
on the top, but his regular ensigns consisted
of the toga picta, the trabea, and the fasces,
botli within and without the city.—The con-
suls were the highest ordinary magistrates at
Rome. Their power was at first quite equal
to that of the kings, except that it was
limited to one year, and that the office of
high priest, which had been vested in the
king, was at the very beginning detached
from the consulship, and given to the rex
sacrorum or rex sacrificulus. Yet the aus-
picia mty'ora continued to belong to the
consuls. This regal power of the consuls,
however, was gradually curtailed by various
laws, especially by the institution of the tri-
bunes of the plebs, whose province it was to
protect the plebeians against the unjust or
oppressive commands of the patrician magis-
trates. Nay, in the course of time, whole
branches of the consular power were detached
from it; the reason for which was, that, as
the patricians were compelled to allow the
plebeians a share in the highest magistracy,
they stripped it of as much of its original