Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/345

Rh The consul &quot;Acilius ordered the curule chair of the praetor Lucullus to be broken in pieces for a breach of this regula tion. As military commanders they had absolute authority. They had the power of life and death over the lives of their soldiers ; and accordingly they had axes in their fasces when in the field. When any great danger threatened the state the consuls were invested by the senate with extra ordinary powers, which made them supreme in the city as well as out of it. Accordingly, in the early days of the republic, when the patricians were in sole possession of the consulship, and wished to subdue any outbreak of the plebeians, they feigned that some powerful enemy was marching against the city, and thus succeeded in obtaining extraordinary powers for the consuls. After the consuls had resigned their office, they were commissioned by the senate to assume the government of provinces under the title of proconsuls. It was the prerogative of the senate to determine the provinces for the consuls, although it was left to themselves to decide by lot or agreement which of them each should receive. When the time arrived for a proconsul to set out for his province, he was furnished by the senate with the troops appointed for him, and everything requisite for his command. Surrounded by a train of friends, and a numerous personal staff, he marched out of the city with great pomp. He was bound to travel direct to his province ; and the towns through which he passed had to supply him with necessaries for his journey. Within his province he had the command of the troops, and could employ them as he pleased. He was supreme judge both in criminal and in civil causes, and could inflict the punishment of death except on Roman citizens, who could appeal to Rome. Justice was generally administered at circuit courts, held once a year in the principal towns. The proconsulship continued likewise for one year only, but it was often prolonged by a decree of the senate. Under the empire the consuls were superseded by the emperors. The title, indeed, remained, and all the ceremonies were performed with exactness, and perhaps even with more magnificence than formerly. It would seem as if they attempted to conceal the loss of real power by the trappings of external pomp. The day of their induction was even more than ever a day of note in the city. Sitting on curule chairs, which were placed on lofty chariots, arrayed in rich dresses in imitation of those which used to be worn by generals in a triumph, with shoes of cloth of gold upon their feet and sceptres in their hands, they passed through the city, scattering money among the crowd, and bestowing gifts upon their friends. Their first duty, however, no longer consisted in consulting the senate about the religious duties of the state, but in formally returning thanks to the emperor for their election. The emperors had arrogated the right of assuming the consul ship to themselves, or disposing of it as they thought proper, Julius Ca3sar was dictator and consul at the same time. Augustus made himself consul thirteen times during his reign. Vespasian proclaimed himself perpetual consul. A.nd in bestowing it upon others, the emperors were not content with having one pair of consuls for one year. Desirous to conciliate as many of their friends as possible, they greatly shortened the duration of the office. It was held generally for two months, which allowed twelve con suls during one year. But sometimes it lasted only a few weeks, a few days, or even a few hours, according to the pleasure of the emperor. There happened to be twenty-five consuls in the year 189 A.D. But those who entered upon their office on the 1st of January were held in greater respect, and gave their names to the year. They were called, as in the time of the republic, consumes ordinarii ; while those who were raised to the office at other times were termed consides suffecti, or consules minores. While the republic lasted, the time that elapsed between the election and ordination of consuls was short, generally from July to January. In the time of the emperors, ordination was sometimes deferred several years. The triumvirs in 39 B.C. nominated consuls for eight succeed ing years. In this way the title of designates was frequently enjoyed long before the actual consulship. Caius, the grandson of Augustus, was consul designatus for five years. Nero was fourteen years old when he was nominated consul designatus, and twenty when he became consul. Besides these different kinds of consuls, all of which existed in the republic, we find another class peculiar to the later days of the empire honorary consuls. These enjoyed the titles and badges of consuls, but nothing more. They possessed their honours, though altogether free from their duties. All the consuls, in truth, during the period of which we speak, may with propriety be termed honorary, for the substance of their power had been taken from them. They had become the mere slaves of the emperors, although they still continued the formal discharge of their functions. Nevertheless, even in this degraded condition, the consul ship was always regarded with veneration, and considered the highest dignity to which a Roman citizen could aspire. CONSUL, a public officer authorized by the state whose commission he bears to manage the commercial affairs of its subjects in a foreign country, and formally permitted by the Government of the country wherein he resides to perform the duties which are specified in his commission, or lettre de provision. A consul, as such, is not invested with any diplomatic character, and he cannot enter on his official duties until a rescript, termed an exequatur (sometimes a mere countersign endorsed on the commission) has been delivered to him by the authorities of the state to which his nomination has been communicated by his own Government. This exequatur, called in Turkey a barat, may be revoked at any time at the discretion of the Government where he resides. The status of consuls commissioned by the Christian powers of Europe to reside in the Levant, and to exercise judicial functions in civil and criminal matters between their own countrymen and strangers, is exceptional to the common law, and is founded on special conventions or capitulations with the Ottoman Porte. The English consuls in the Levant were originally the officers of &quot; the governor and company of merchants of England trading in tlie Levant seas,&quot; created by letters patent from James I., which were cancelled in 182G. Besides the pure consular jurisdiction exercised under the Order in Council 30th November 1864, by a judge in the Supreme Consular Court at Constantinople, and by the ordinary consuls in provincial courts, subject to an appeal to Her Majesty s Imperial Court of Appeal, in cases beyond 500 in value there ia also the jurisdiction of the consular court of the defender s nation, where the parties are both foreign Christians, and a Turkish tribunal for cases between Turks and foreign Christians. The tendency now is to substitute mixed tribunals in both these cases. The right of British consuls to be present in the native courts, when one of the parties is a British subject, was conceded by the Treaty of Dardanelles ( 1 809). [t is not unusual in the case of consuls-general resident in Mahometan countries that they should also be accredited as political agents, or charges d affaires, in which case they are invested with the diplomatic character, and are entitled to the privileges of public ministers. The present system of consuls $ outre mer, or a l'etranger, was preceded by the system of domestic consuls, juges consuls, or marc/Kinds, in the chief maritime cities of the south of Europe. These constituted mere tribunals of commerce which had no special concern with foreign 