Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/344

Rh 314 CONSUL the space of eighty years with a spirit and resolution which made even a foreign war desirable as a relief from internal contests. Livy relates that for five years (375-371 B.C.) the opposition raised by the plebeians, under the guidance of the tribunes L. Licinius Stolo and L. Sextius, was so formidable that neither consuls nor any other magis trates could be appointed, and there was what he calls a solitudo mayistratuum. At length the patricians, after attempting an evasion by the appointment of five military tribunes, were compelled to accede to the Licinian law, by which it was ordained (367 B.C.) that in all time coming one of the consuls should be a plebeian. L. Sextius was the first plebeian consul. But the power which was effec tual in the passing of the law was not equal to its enforcement, for in 355 B.C. both consuls were patricians ; and, as was often the case with Roman laws, it was found necessary to re-enact it. This time, however, the demands of the plebeians increased ; and not satisfied with having one consul, they tried to add a clause ordaining it to be lawful for the people to elect both consuls from their own number. Although the attempt was successful, no example of the appointment of two plebeian consuls occurs till the year 215 B.C. The honour seems for the most part to have been equally divided between the two orders. The first foreigner who obtained the consulship was Cornelius Balbus, a native of Cadiz, and a man of extraordinary wealth. The legal age for enjoying the consulship was forty-five ; but this regulation was not strictly observed. Pompey was made consul in his thirty-sixth year, M. Valerius Corvus in his twenty-third, T. Quinctius Flaminius was created consul before he was thirty, Scipio Africanus the Elder at twenty-eight, and the Younger at thirty-eight. It was necessary for candidates to have discharged the inferior duties of quaestor, sedile, and praetor before they were eligible ; and a regulation was made that they should be present at the election in a private capacity. It was also enacted that no one should be made consul a second time till after the lapse of ten years. But we find cases in which all these conditions were disregarded. Some were elected who had not previously borne any curule magistracy; and others were appointed in their absence. Some con tinued in office more than a year, as Marius, who was seven times consul without intermission ; and others were elected before the allotted time had elapsed. The election of consuls was made by the comitia centuriata in the Campus Martius. The assembly at which they were elected was always convoked and presided over by a consul, dictator, or interrex. It generally took place iu the month of July, that an opportunity might be afforded for investigating the conduct of the successful candidates before they entered on their office, and that they might have time to become conversant with their duties. From their appointment to the day of their in duction they were called consules designati, or consuls elect, and had the privilege of being first asked their opinion in the senate. The day upon which they assumed office was repeatedly changed. It seems originally to have been the Ides of September, when, in the rude days of Roman history, the consuls used annually to fix a nail in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus to mark the year; but as it sometimes happened, when one died before the term of his office had expired, that another was immediately chosen to fill his place, the year of his successor was naturally finished before the usual time, and this necessitated a repeated change in the days of their appointment and induction. Sometimes, too, civil commotions prevented the election taking pla^e at the usual time. As the consul whose year was completed could not in such cases discharge any of the consular duties, it was customary for the senate to nominate a temporary magistrate called interrex. His authority being limited to five days, a succession of interreges Lad frequently to be chosen before tranquillity was restored. At length (154 B.C.) it was enacted that consuls and all the ordinary magistrates, with the exception of the tribunes of the people, should begin their duties on the 1st of January. That day was marked by peculiar solemnities. At day break the consuls arose and consulted the auspices. After wards the senate and people waited upon them at their houses, and then, with the new magistrates clad in their state robes at their head, they all marched in solemn procession to the capitol. There victims were offered, and prayers presented for the safety and prosperity of the Roman people. After the conclusion of the religious rites a meeting of the senate was held, and the new consuls first exercised their functions by consulting it about the per formance of religious ceremonies. Within five days after their induction they were obliged to swear, as they had done at their election, that they would strictly observe the laws ; and at the close of their consulship they were required to take a similar oath declaring that they had done nothing contrary to the constitution. The power of the consuls appears at first to have been similar to that of the kings ; but in process of time several distinctions arose which combined to render the consular authority inferior to the regal. The office of high priest, which had been discharged by the kings, was in the time of the consulship executed by a special magistrate, called rex sacrorum, or rex sacrificulus. The power of life and death was afterwards denied to the consuls, and the symbolic axe removed from ilie fasces. While there was only one king, there were two consuls. The obvious design of the Romans in dividing the consulship was that their power might be weakened, and the safety of the people made more secure by the resistance which the ambitious designs of the one would receive from the other. For the same reason they elected them annually, and thus prevented that insolence of authority which the long continuation of it is apt to produce. They were restrained from illegal measures still further by fear of punishment when their term of office had expired ; for the people had reserved to themselves the right of bringing them to trial for misconduct. The Valerian law weakened their authority by decreeing that no magistrate should scourge or put to death a Roman citizen who appealed to the people. Even the decision of one consul could be repealed by the other. But it was the creation of the tribunes of the people that especially con tributed to limit their prerogatives, and strengthen the cause of liberty. And as additional magistracies were instituted, many of their old privileges were taken from them. Their judicial power was transferred to the praetors, and their censorial to the censors, while other duties originally discharged by them devolved upon sediles and other new magistrates. But notwithstanding these limitations, the power of the consuls was at all times very great. As civil magistrates they were at the head of the government, and all others, with the exception of the tribunes of th.e people, were sub ject to them. They assembled and presided over the senate and comitia centuriata ; they introduced subjects of deliberation, proposed laws, and executed the decrees of both senate and people. The laws proposed by them generally received their name. The year was called after them. They gave audience to embassies, and communicated with other states. Before the establishment of the prsetor- ship and censorship, they discharged the highest judicial functions, and superintended the assessment of the citizens. They had the right of summoning and enforcing the presence of any one they pleased. Every person was bound to turn out of the way, dismount, rise up, uncover the head, or show some similar token of respect, on passing them.