Roman consul

A consul was the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic, and the consulship was considered the highest level of the cursus honorum (the sequential order of public offices through which aspiring politicians sought to ascend).

Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. The consuls alternated in holding imperium each month, and a consul's imperium extended over Rome, Italy, and the provinces. However, after the establishment of the Empire, the consuls were merely a figurative representative of Rome’s republican heritage and held very little power and authority, with the Emperor acting as the supreme leader.

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. 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, which probably derives—in view of the joint nature of the office—from con- and sal-, "get together" or from con- and sell-/sedl-, "sit down together with" or "next to". In Greek, the title was originally rendered as στρατηγός ὕπατος, strategos hypatos ("the supreme general"), and later simply as ὕπατος.