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

CONSUL.

11G

CONTUBERNALES.

was void. They received foreign ambassa-
dors, and introduced them into the senate,
and in short all negotiations with foreign
princes or nations passed through their
hands. G. In matters connected with their
own official functions, the consuls, like all
other magistrates, had the power of issuing
proclamations or orders (edicta), which might
be binding either for the occasion only, or
remain in force permanently.-—Although the
consular power had been gradually dimi-
nished, it was in cases of imminent danger
restored to its original and full extent, by a
decree of the senate calling upon the consuls
ridcant ne quid res publico, detrimenti capiat.
In such cases the consuls received sovereign
power, but they were responsible for the
manner in which they had exercised it.—It
has already been observed, that to avoid col-
lision and confusion, the two consuls did not
possess the same power at the same time, but
that each had the imperium every other
month.. The one who possessed it, as the
consul major, exercised all the rights of the
office, though he always consulted his col-
league. In the earliest times it was custo-
mary for the elder of the two consuls to take
the imperium first, afterwards the one who
had had the greater number of votes at the
election, and had therefore been proclaimed
(renuntiare) first. In the time of Augustus
it was enacted that the consul who had most
children should take precedence of the other ;
and some distinction of rank continued to be
observed down to the latest times of the em-
pire.—Towards the end of the republic the
consulship lost its power and importance.
The first severe blow it received was from
Julius Caesar, the dictator, for he received
the consulship in addition to his dictatorship,
or he arbitrarily ordered others to be elected,
who were mere nominal officers, and were
allowed to do nothing without his sanction.
He himself was elected consul at first for five,
then for ten years, and at last for life. Under
Augustus the consulship was a mere shadow of
what it had been : the consuls no longer held
their office for a whole year, but usually for a
few months only ; and hence it happened
that sometimes one year saw six, twelve, or
even twenty-five consuls. Those who were
elected the first in the year ranked higher
than the rest, and their names alone were
used to mark the year, according to the an-
cient custom of the Romans of marking the
date of an event by the names of the consuls
of the year in which the event occurred.
During the last period of the empire it be-
eame the practice to have titular or hono-
rary consuls, who were elected by the senate
and confirmed by the emperor. Constantine

appointed two consuls, one for Rome and
another for Constantinople, who held their
office for a whole year, and whose functions
were only those of chief justices. All the
other consuls were designated as honorarii or
consulares. But though the consulship had
thus become almost an empty title, it was
still regarded as the highest dignity in the
empire, and as the object of the greatest am-
bition. It was connected with very great
expenses, partly on account of the public
games which a consul had to provide, and
partly on account of the large donations he
had to make to the people. The last consul
at Rome was Decimus Theodorus Paulinus,
a.d. 536, and at Constantinople, Flavius Ba-
silius junior, a.d. 541.

CONSULARIS, signified, under the re-
public, a person who had held the office of
consul; but under the empire, it was the
title of maiyy magistrates and public officers,
who enjoyed the insignia of consular dig-
nity, without having filled the office of consul.
Thus we find commanders of armies and go-
vernors of provinces called Consulares under
the empire.

CONTIO, a contraction for conventio, that
is, a meeting, or a conventus. In the tech-
nical sense, however, a contio was an assem-
bly of the people at Rome convened by a
magistrate for the purpose of making the
people acquainted with measures which were
to be brought before the next comitia, and of
working upon them either to support or op-
pose the measure. But no question of any
kind could be decided by a contio, and this
constitutes the difference between contiones
and comitia. Still contiones were also
convened for other purposes, e. g. of per-
suading the people to take part in a war, or
of bringing complaints against a party in the
republic. Every magistrate had the right to
convene contiones, but it was most frequently
exercised by the consuls and tribunes, and
the latter more especially exercised a great
influence over the people in and through these
contiones. A magistrate who was higher in
rank than the one who had convened a contio,
had the right to order the people to disperse,
if he disapproved of the object. It should be
remarked, that the term contio is also used
to designate the speeches and harangues ad-
dressed to the people in an assembly, and
that in a loose mode of speaking, contio de-
notes any assembly of the people.

CONTUBERNALES ■(awm/voi), signified
originally men who served in the same army
and lived in the same tent. The word is de-
rived from taberna (afterwards tabernacu-
lum), which was the original name for a
military tent, as it was made of boards (fa-