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Consul, 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. They differed from kings only in so far as their tenure of office was limited and their fellow citizens could call 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 negotiated peace treaties and 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 comitia, or assemblies of Roman citizens, known as comitia curiata and 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 plebeians, or common people. Eventually, however, two plebian officers called tribuni plebis were appointed as democratic rivals 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 the censor after 443 BC and the aediles and praetor 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 army was divided between them, and military 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 had ended and the regular practice, in the later Republic, of dividing the provinces for administrative purposes among former magistrates; former consuls became provincial governors called proconsuls.Under the Roman Empire, which 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 was the highest post to which a private citizen could aspire, although with decreasing and eventually only nominal authority. The last civilian consul was elected in AD 541.

The title consul was briefly revived in the first French Republic (1799-1804) under Napoleon I, and was used by the three members of his consulate.[1]