The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

CONSUL

Consul was a name originally given to the two highest magistrates in the republic of Rome. After King Tarquinius Superbus had been expelled by the joint efforts of the patricians and plebeians in 509 BC, two consuls (consules) were placed at the head of the senate, the body in whose hands was the administration of the republic. These officers were annually elected, at first only from the patricians; at a later period , from 366 BC, also from the plebeians. In order to be eligible to the consulship, the candidate was to be forty-five years of age, and must have passed through the inferior offices of quaestor, sedile, and praetor, and he was required by law to be in Rome at the time of the election. All these laws, however, were disregarded at various junctures in Roman history.

The insignia of the consuls were a staff of ivory with an eagle at its head, a toga bordered with purple (toga praetexta), which under the emperors was embroidered; an ornamental chair (sella curulis), and twelve lictors, who, with fasces and axes, preceded them. In the beginning of the republic the authority of the consuls was almost as great as that of the preceding kings. They could declare war, conclude peace, make alliances, and even order a citizen to be put to death; but their powers were gradually curtailed, especially by the establishment of the tribunes of the people, early in the 5th century. But they still stood at the head of the whole republic: all officers were under them, the tribunes of the people only excepted: they convoked the senate, proposed what they thought fit, and executed the laws. In times of emergency they received unlimited power, and could even sentence to death without trial, levy troops, and make war without the resolve of the people first obtained. Under the emperors the consular dignity sunk to a shadow, and became merely honorary. The last consul at Rome was Theodorus Paulinus in 536.

In France the name of consul was temporarily adopted for the chief magistrates after the revolution. The directorial government (third constitution) having been abolished by the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, of the year VIII (November the 9th,1799), a provisional consular government, consisting of Bonaparte, Sieyes, and Roger Ducos, established the fourth constitution, proclaimed on December the 15th, by which France was declared a republic under a government of consuls. Three elective consuls (Bonaparte, Cambaceres, Lebrun) had almost uncontrolled executive authority, while the legislative power was in the hands of the tribunate and the legislative assembly: a conservative senate was also elected. But as early as August the 2nd, 1802, Bonaparte was proclaimed First Consul for life, and thus the constitution of France became again practically monarchical. On April the 10th,1804, he was proclaimed emperor, and even the nominal consulate ended.

At present consuls are officials appointed by the government of one country to attend to its commercial interests in another country. The duties of a consul generally speaking are to promote the trade of the country he represents; to give advice and assistance when called upon to his fellow-subjects; to uphold their lawful interests and privileges if any attempt be made to injure them; to transmit reports of trade to his own government, to authenticate certain documents, etc. They are generally of three ranks: consuls-general, consuls, and vice-consuls.
Research Consul