Consul, the title of the two highest ordinary magistrates in the Roman republic. The idea of two supreme magistrates or joint-presidents of the state seems to have been interwoven with the earliest conceptions of political organisation in Rome. After the expulsion of Tarquin, Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus were chosen joint heads of the state; but the title of consules seems first to have been introduced about 300 B.C. At first, the consuls seem to have differed from the kings in little else than their limited tenure of office, and the power which their fellow-citizens retained of calling them to account at its termination. They never assumed the golden crown, but their dress in almost every other respect was regal. They made peace and negotiated foreign alliances, had the supreme command of the army, and appointed the public treasurers. They likewise exercised the judicial functions of royalty. Dates were always determined by naming the consuls of the year. The symbol of their authority was the bundle of rods (fasces), with the axe in the centre, which was carried before them by twelve lictors. For a considerable period the consuls were chosen exclusively from the populus or patricians, as opposed to the plebs. At length, however, two plebeian officers called tribuni plebis were appointed as a sort of democratic rivals to the aristocratic consuls. The result of this rivalry was that the consulship was opened to plebeians, the famous Lex Licinia (367 B.C.) ordaining that one of the consuls should belong to that order. This law was more stringently re-enacted in 342, and from that time it was customary for one of the consuls to be a plebeian. This same law prohibited any individual from holding the same office within ten years, but the enactment was often suspended. The appointment of Censores (443) and of Pratores (367) relieved the consuls of many of their judicial functions. In the government of the provinces, the aid of the former consuls was called in, the consul thus appointed having the title of pro-consul. In sudden and critical emergencies, the consuls were either superseded by a Dictator (q.v.), or absolute power for the occasion was conferred on them by the decree of the senate, which ran in the famous formula: Vidant consules ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat—'Let the consuls look to it that the state take no harm.' The consuls were inaugurated by a great procession to the Capitol and a sacrifice to Jupiter Capitolinus. The shadow of the consulate survived the downfall of liberty; but the election of the consuls was taken from the people and conferred on the senate. Then their number was increased; they were divided into classes; till at last the office became a mere honorary appointment conferred by the emperor.
The title of consul was revived in the French republic after the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, and lasted till the coronation of Napoleon as emperor, 18th May 1804.