Consul (Roman Republic)

“ In the century before Gaius Gracchus, we know of some eight statesmen who told the story of Rome from the beginning up to their own day. These are Fabius Pictor, senator and pontifex, who had served in the army in 225 B.C., L. Cincius Alimentus, a praetor and general in the Hannibalic war, Cato, consul and censor, C. Acilius, a senator, Postumius Albinus, a consul, Cassius Hemina, Fabius Servilianus, consul and commentator on pontifical law, Calpurnius Piso, consul, censor, and reformer of the courts, and Sempronius Tuditanus, a jurist, who while consul conquered Histria. ”

“ At twelve o'clock he returned a consul duly elected to hold office till the 1st of January, that is to say, for the remainder of the day of election. So you are to know that in the consulship of Caninius no one breakfasted. It must be granted that his consulship was remarkably free from crime, owing to his marvellous vigilance, for during his term of office he never closed an eye. This seems a joke to you. Yes, for you are far away: if you were here to see it, you could not refrain from tears. ”

“ Afterwards, the consuls made the appointment. The shadow of the old practice still survives, whenever in consequence of the Latin festival some one is deputed to exercise the consul's functions. And Augustus too during the civil wars gave Cilnius Maecenas, a Roman knight, charge of everything in Rome and Italy. When he rose to supreme power, in consideration of the magnitude of the State and the slowness of legal remedies, he selected one of the exconsuls to overawe the slaves and that part of the population which, unless it fears a strong hand, is disorderly and reckless. ”

“ The consul frankly says that if the Roman senators were mad enough to obey a man of Setia, he would come, sword in hand, into the senate, and that he would kill every Latin he saw in the curia with his own hand. Then turning towards Jupiter’s statue, he cries: “Listen to these crimes, Jupiter, hear them, Right and Justice! Foreign consuls, a foreign senate, inaugurated in Jupiter’s temple, thyself captive and oppressed, that is what thou wouldst see.”
This sublime insolence proves that these men had souls worthy of kings. A government like a man has its own personality. ”

“ The very criminal who the day before thought that he was already condemned, is acquitted now that his defender has been made consul. What are we to think then? Will it avail nothing that all Sicily, all the Sicilians, that all the merchants who have business in that country, that all public and private documents are now at Rome? Nothing, if the consul-elect wills it otherwise. What! will not the judges be influenced by the accusation, by the evidence, by the universal opinion of the Roman people? No. Everything will be governed by the power and authority of one man. ”

“ In the case of the election of the consuls being thus vitiated the consequences might be serious; for if the flaw was discovered after their entrance on office, a renewal of the auspices (renovatio auspiciorum) [698] could only be effected through an interregnum. It was in this connexion that the power of the augurs came into play, for they were the interpreters of the heaven-sent signs. It was no wonder that membership of the augural college was the highest ambition of the Roman statesman, when its decree could upset a law, stave off a capital charge, or force a consul to abdicate. ”

“ The consuls headed the Romans against them, and made their rendezvous in certain holy places, the one called the Arsian grove, the other the Æsuvian meadow. When they came into action, Aruns, the son of Tarquin, and Brutus, the Roman consul, not accidentally encountering each other, but out of hatred and rage, the one to avenge tyranny and enmity to his country, the other his banishment, set spurs to their horses, and, engaging with more fury than forethought, disregarding their own security, fell together in the combat. ”

“ After the expulsion of the kings, we certainly admitted the Claudian family from the Sabine country not only into citizenship, but even into the number of the patricians. Can a man from a foreigner be made a patrician, then a consul? shall a Roman citizen, if he belong to the commons, be precluded from all hope of the consulate? Do we then deem it impossible that a man of the commons can be a person of fortitude and activity, qualified to excel both in peace and war, tyke to Numa, Lucius Tarquinius, and Servius Tullius? ”

“ After the establishment of the censorship they still retained the general superintendence of the public economy, inasmuch as they had the keys of the aerarium, and as the quaestors or paymasters were dependent on them. But still in the management of the finances the consuls were at all times under the control of the senate. 5. In all relations with foreign states the consuls were the representatives of the Roman republic. Hence they might conclude peace or treaties with foreign nations, which had, however, to be sanctioned by the senate and people at Rome ”

“ Among the oldest authorities, however, I find that Titus Larcius was appointed the first dictator, and Spurius Cassius master of the horse. They chose men of consular dignity: so the law that was passed for the election of a dictator ordained. For this reason, I am more inclined to believe that Larcius, who was of consular rank, was attached to the consuls as their director and superior, rather than Manius Valerius, the son of Marcus and grandson of Volesus, who had not vet been consul. ”

“ Cneius Lentulus, a military tribune, seeing, as he rode by, the consul sitting upon a stone and covered with blood, said to him: "Lucius Aemilius! the only man whom the gods ought to regard as being guiltless of this day's disaster, take this horse, while you have any strength remaining, and I am with you to raise you up and protect you. Make not this battle more calamitous by the death of a consul. ”

“ I had been often told by one of the wisest of men and one of the most virtuous of citizens, Quintus Catulus, that it was not often that there was one wicked consul, but that there had never been two at the same time since the foundation of Rome, except in that terrible time of Cinna. Wherefore, he used to say that my interest would always be firmly secured, as long as there was even one virtuous consul in the republic. ”

“ The authority of consul was usurped by both Cinna and Marius. The consuls were elected by the comitia of the centuries. They could not appear in public without the protection of twelve lictors, who bore bundles of twigs (fasces) and walked in single file before their chiefs. ”

“ The general assistance which the quaestors were meant to render to the consuls was extended, as we saw, [1003] in the year 421 B.C. to their activity in the field. Each consul or praetor who assumed a military command was given a particular quaestor (the dictator being exempted from what was regarded as a limitation on the discretionary powers of the magistrate) , and, [215] after the custom had grown up of extending the imperium, these assistants accompanied the proconsuls and propraetors to their provinces. ”

“ His declining the tempting prize of a provincial government, which was his right on the expiration of his praetorship, may fairly be attributed to his having in view the higher object of the consulship, to secure which, by an early and persistent canvass, he felt it necessary to remain in Rome. But he again waived the right when his consulship was over; and when, some years afterwards, he went unwillingly as pro-consul to Cilicia, his administration there, as before in his lower office in Sicily, was marked by a probity and honesty quite exceptional in a Roman governor. ”

“ Furthermore, the consuls, if not always good generals, were generally experienced soldiers, for a record of ten campaigns was required of the candidate for public office. Likewise their subordinates, the military tribunes, were veterans, having seen some five and others ten years’ service. But the factor that contributed above all else to the success of the Roman armies was their iron discipline. The consular imperium gave its holder absolute power over the lives of the soldiers in the field, and death was the penalty for neglect of duty, disobedience, or cowardice. ”

“ For all the provinces belong to the consul of right, and are bound to obey him. Decimus Brutus, imperator and consul-elect, a citizen born for the republic, denies that he is consul. Gaul denies it. All Italy denies it. The Senate denies it. You deny it. Who then thinks he is consul except a few robbers? I think that at present not only men but the immortal gods have all united together to preserve this republic. For if the immortal gods foreshow us the future, by means of portents and prodigies, then it has been openly revealed to us that punishment is near at hand to him, and liberty to us. ”

“ The Romans appear never to have begun a war without a previous consultation with the College of Fecials as to its justice; and in the same way, and for the same purpose, the early Christian emperors consulted the opinion of the bishops. If a Roman general made an unjust attack upon a people his [Pg 272] triumph was refused, or at least resisted; nor are the instances infrequent in which the senate decreed restitution where a consul, acting on his own responsibility, had deprived a population of its arms, its lands, or its liberties. ”

“ The laws give the tribune the power to arrest the consul. It is a power given against a man elected by the people; for consul and tribune are equally mandataries of the people. Shall not then the people have the right of depriving the tribune of his authority, when he uses this authority in a way prejudicial to the interests of the giver? What does the history of the past teach us? Can anything have been more powerful or more sacred than the ancient monarchy of Rome? The Imperium of the king was unlimited, the highest priestly offices were his. ”

“ In stating that the first consuls chose the best men from the commons, made them patricians, and with them filled the senate to the number of three hundred, Dionysius [948] apparently has in mind the consuls’ function of recruiting the senate before the Ovinian legislation, [949] together with their initiative in granting the patriciate. The Roman view that the bestowal required a vote of the people is further proved by the procedure of Julius Caesar and of Octavianus in creating new patricians; for in this function they doubtless followed tradition as nearly as possible. ”

“ Virginius, Icilius, and Numitorius were among the new Tribunes.
Two Consuls were elected in place of the Decemvirs, and the choice of the Comitia Centuriata naturally fell upon Valerius and Horatius. The new Consuls now redeemed their promises to the Plebeians by bringing forward the laws which are called after them, the Valerian and Horatian Laws. These celebrated laws enacted:
1. That every Roman citizen should have the right of appeal against the sentence of the supreme magistrate. ”

“ They named as consuls, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, then glorious with the conquest of Sicily, and Marcus Valerius, both in their absence. All the centuries followed the recommendation of that which voted first. Let men now ridicule the admirers of antiquity. Even if there existed a republic of wise men, which the learned rather imagine than know of; for my own part I cannot persuade myself that there could possibly be a nobility of sounder judgment, and more moderate in their desire of power, or a people better moralled. ”

“ In addition to these events at that time the consuls celebrated the festival held in honor of Venus Genetrix. During the Feriae, prefects, boys and beardless youths, appointed by Caesar and sprung from knights but not from senators, directed ceremonies. Also Aemilius Lepidus Paulus constructed at his own expense the so-called Porticus Pauli and dedicated it in his consulship; for he was consul a portion of that year. ”

“ For the decree has been drawn up as if ambassadors were being sent to Hannibal. For men are sent to order him not to attack the consul elect, not to besiege Mutina, not to lay waste the province, not to enlist troops, but to submit himself to the power of the senate and people of Rome. No doubt he is a likely man to obey this injunction, and to submit to the power of the conscript fathers and to yours, who has never even had any mastery over himself. ”

“ On their return to Rome, Pompey and Crassus became candidates for the Consulship; but Domitius Ahenobarbus, supported by Cato and the aristocracy, offered a most determined opposition. The Consul Lentulus Marcellinus likewise was resolved to use every means to prevent their election; and, finding it impossible to carry their election while Marcellinus was in office, they availed themselves of the veto of two of the Tribunes to prevent the Consular Comitia from being held this year. ”

“ The division of power between the two incumbents who reigned at any one time may have been somewhat similar to that made in Rome between the consuls. But the system differed from that of the consular government in the fact that the Spartan kings were not elected magistrates, like the Roman consuls, but hereditary sovereigns, deriving their power from their ancestors, each in his own line. ”