consul

Reading notes

• The Conspiracy of Catiline §21 the consulship

  The supreme magistracy: two consuls, elected annually, held the chief civil and military power. Winning it was the aim of both Catiline and Cicero.

• The Jugurthine War §4 the praetorship and the consulship

  The two senior annual magistracies of Rome: the consulship (two supreme magistrates) and the praetorship below it, the prizes of a political career.

• The Jugurthine War §27 consuls

  The two supreme annual magistrates of Rome, who commanded its armies; the provinces they would govern were assigned in advance under the Sempronian law.

• The Jugurthine War §85 masks

  The imagines: wax ancestor-masks of office-holding forebears, kept in noble houses and paraded at funerals; the badge of inherited nobilitas that Marius, a 'new man,' answers with his battle-scars.

• The Jugurthine War §114 Kalends of January

  The first of January, the day Roman consuls entered office; Marius celebrated his Jugurthine triumph as he took up his second consulship.

• The Histories §Phil.1 consulship

  Lepidus's consulship of 78 BC, which Philippus says he won 'out of robbery.'

• The Histories §Lep.4 consul

  One of the two annual chief magistrates of Rome; Lepidus held the consulship of 78 BC and here calls on the people to follow him as their consul.