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Lucius Verus
:Verus is a disambiguation page linking to articles about more than one person of that name.
Lucius Ceionius Commodus Verus Armeniacus (December 15 130 - 169), known simply as Lucius Verus, was Roman co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius, from 161 until his death.
Verus was the son of Avidia and Lucius Aelius Caesar, the adopted son, and intended successor, of Emperor Hadrian. When Aelius Caesar died in 138, Hadrian chose Antoninus Pius as his successor, on the condition that Antoninus adopt both Verus (then seven years old) and Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian's nephew. As an imperial prince, Verus received careful education from the most famous grammaticus Marcus Cornelius Fronto. Verus is reported to have been an excellent student, fond of writing poetry and delivering speeches.
Verus' political career started as quaestor in 153 and then as consul in 154. In 161, he was once again consul, with Marcus Aurelius as senior partner. Antoninus died on March 7, 161, and was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius. Verus was nonetheless opted as co-emperor, an unprecedented event in the Roman Empire. Officially both men shared equal powers, but in practice it was Marcus Aurelius who became the leader. Verus was given the control of the armies, proving the confidence between him and his senior brother. To solidify this alliance, Marcus Aurelius gave his daughter Lucilla in marriage to Verus and together they had three children.
Roman Empire
Between 162 and 166 Verus was in the East, commanding a campaign against the Parthian empire for the control over the Armenian kingdom. In this war, the city of Seleucia on the Tigris was destroyed and the palace at the capital Ctesiphon was burned to the ground by Avidius Cassius in 164. The Roman legions advanced as far as Media. Vologases IV of Parthia made peace but was forced to cede western Mesopotamia to the Romans. Verus is reported to be an excellent commander, without fear of delegating military tasks to more competent generals. Contemporary accounts state that Verus did not live a hard life during the campaign. He was always surrounded with actors and musicians, enjoying copious banquets and other pleasures of life. Apparently the merry disposition was transposed to the ranking troops, since the morale was high. This attitude did not either stop his reasonable actions: Verus remained a competent leader and performed his tasks with competence. On the return of the campaign, Verus was awarded with a Roman triumph, and the title of Armeniacus. The parade was unusual because it included Verus, Marcus Aurelius, their sons and unmarried daughters as a big family celebration.
The next two years were spent in Rome. Verus continued with his glamorous lifestyle and kept the troupe of actors and favourites with him. He had a tavern built in his house, where he celebrated parties with his friends until dawn. He also enjoyed roaming around the city among the population and without acknowledging his identity. The games of the circus were another passion in his life, especially chariot racing. Marcus Aurelius disapproved of his conduct but, since Verus continued to perform his official tasks with efficiency, there was little he could do.
In the spring of 168 war broke out in the Danubian border when the Alamanni and the Marcomanni invaded the Roman territory. This war would last until 180, but Verus did not see the end of it. In 169, as Verus and Marcus Aurelius returned to Rome from the field, Verus fell ill with symptoms attributed to food poisoning, dying after a few days. However, scholars believe that Verus may have been a victim of smallpox, as he died during a widespread epidemic known as the Antonine Plague. Despite the minor differences between them, Marcus Aurelius grieved the loss of his adoptive brother. He accompanied the body to Rome, where he offered games to honour his memory. After the funeral, the senate declared Verus a god to be worshipped as Divus Verus.
References
- Augustan History
Category:130 births
Category:169 deaths
Category:Roman emperors
Category:Nerva-Antonine Dynasty
December 15December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 16 days remaining.
Events
- 533 - The Battle of Ticameron begins
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- 1791 - The United States Bill of Rights is passed
- 1891 - James Naismith introduces basketball.
- 1913 - Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1914 - The Battle of Łódź ends; Russians retreat toward Moscow
- 1939 - Gone with the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia
- 1945 - General Douglas MacArthur orders end of Shinto as state religion of Japan
- 1947 - All India Muslim League meeting in Karachi resolved to split itself into two separate organizations for Pakistan and India.
- 1960 - King Baudouin of Belgium marries Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón
- 1961 - An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust
- 1965 - Gemini program: Gemini 6A is launched
- 1976 - Samoa becomes a member of the UN
- 1994 - Netscape Navigator 1.0 is first released
- 1994 - Palau becomes a member of the UN.
- 1995 - The European Communities Court of Justice passes the Bosman ruling
- 1997 - A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85
- 2002 - BBC 7, digital radio station is launched in UK
Births
- 37 - Nero, Roman Emperor (d. 68)
- 130 - Lucius Verus, Roman Emperor (d. 169)
- 1242 - Prince Munetaka, Japanese shogun (d. 1274)
- 1567 - Christoph Demantius, German composer (d. 1643)
- 1610 - David Teniers the Younger, Flemish artist (d. 1690)
- 1634 - Thomas Hansen Kingo, Danish poet (d. 1703)
- 1648 - Gregory King, English statistician (d. 1712)
- 1713 - Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, British statesman (d. 1802)
- 1719 - Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (d. 1742)
- 1802 - János Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1860)
- 1832 - Gustave Eiffel, French civil engineer (d. 1923)
- 1852 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1908)
- 1859 - L. L. Zamenhof, Russian initiator of Esperanto (d. 1917)
- 1860 - Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1904)
- 1861 - Charles Duryea, American automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
- 1878 - Hans Carossa, German writer (d. [[1956]{
169
Events
- Second Marcomannian War begins. Germanic tribes invade frontiers of the Roman Empire, specifically the provinces of Raetia and Moesia.
- Northern African Moors invade what is now Spain.
- Marcus Aurelius becomes sole Roman Emperor.
- Change of Patriarch of Constantinople from Patriarch Alypius to Patriarch Pertinax.
- Theophilus of Antioch becomes Patriarch of Antioch.
Births
-
Deaths
- Lucius Verus - Roman Co-emperor, in Altinum
Category:169
ko:169년
Roman EmperorsThis is a list of Roman Emperors with the dates they controlled the Roman Empire.
Note that in the list below Julius Caesar is not mentioned as an Emperor, as conventionally he is not considered as such. For a more in-depth discussion of whether or not Julius Caesar might have been considered as the first Emperor, see Roman Emperor.
For the worship of the Roman Emperor as a god, see imperial cult.
For a simplified list see: Concise List of Roman Emperors
italics: claimant who cannot be considered to have ruled, or who held power over part of the empire only
bold: nickname by which the individual is commonly known
Severan Dynasty, African, Asian and Syrian Emperors
Tetrarchies, unifications and new splits
| Reign
| Common name
| Personal name & Title<
161
Events
- March 7 - Roman emperor Antoninus Pius dies and is succeeded by co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.
- Publication of Gaius' Institutiones
Births
- August 31 - Commodus, future Roman emperor
- Liu Bei, founder of the Shu Kingdom of China
Deaths
- March 7 - Antoninus Pius, Roman Emperor
Category:161
ko:161년
Lucius Aelius
Lucius Aelius Verus (died on January 1, 138) (born Lucius Ceionius Commodus) became the adopted son, and intended successor, of Emperor Hadrian (January 24, 76 - July 10, 138), but never attained the throne.
Aelius was adopted by an aging and ailing Hadrian in 136 and named successor to the throne, although he had no military experience; he had served as a senator. He had powerful political connections, but was in poor health. His tastes were luxurious and extravagant and his life said to have been frivolous. Hadrian's choice seems to have been an error in judgement. Some scholars have suggested that Aelius may have been Hadrian's bastard son, but there is no reason to believe this.
Aelius was the father of Lucius Verus (December 15, 130 - 169) who was later to be co-emperor from 161 until his death in 169.
Aelius himself was never to become emperor, dying shortly before Hadrian. After the death of Aelius, Hadrian adopted Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus Pius (September 19, 86 - March 7, 161) on the condition that Antoninus Pius himself adopt the younger Lucius Verus and Hadrian's nephew by marriage, Marcus Annius Verus (April 26, 121 - March 17, 180). Marcus later co-ruled with Lucius as Marcus Aurelius until Lucius death in 169, at which time he was sole ruler until his own death in 180.
External links
Category:Ancient Romans
Category:Nerva-Antonine Dynasty
Antoninus Pius
Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus Pius (September 19 86–March 7 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors.
He was the son of Titus Aurelius Fulvus, a Roman consul whose family came from Nemausus (Nîmes). Antoninus Pius was born near Lanuvium. After the death of his father, he was brought up under the care of Arrius Antoninus, his maternal grandfather, a man of integrity and culture, and a friend of Pliny the Younger.
Pliny the Younger on reverse. Antoninus had been entrusted, as proconsul, of the government of this province.]]
Having filled with more than usual success the offices of quaestor and praetor, he obtained the consulship in 120; he was next appointed by the Emperor Hadrian as one of the four proconsuls to administer Italia, then greatly increased his reputation by his conduct as proconsul of Asia. He acquired much favour with the Emperor Hadrian, who adopted him as his son and successor on February 25, 138, after the death of his first adopted son Aelius Verus, on the condition that he himself would adopt Marcus Annius Verus, the son of his wife's brother, and Lucius, son of Aelius Verus, who afterwards became the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Aelius Verus (colleague of Marcus Aurelius).
Antoninus in many ways was the ideal of the landed gentleman praised not only by ancient Romans, but also by later scholars of classical history, such as Edward Gibbon or the author of the article on Antoninus Pius in the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica:
: A few months afterwards, on Hadrian's death, he was enthusiastically welcomed to the throne by the Roman people, who, for once, were not disappointed in their anticipation of a happy reign. For Antoninus came to his new office with simple tastes, kindly disposition, extensive experience, a well-trained intelligence and the sincerest desire for the welfare of his subjects. Instead of plundering to support his prodigality, he emptied his private treasury to assist distressed provinces and cities, and everywhere exercised rigid economy (hence the nickname κυμινοπριστης "cummin-splitter"). Instead of exaggerating into treason whatever was susceptible of unfavorable interpretation, he spurned the very conspiracies that were formed against him into opportunities for demonstrating his clemency. Instead of stirring up persecution against the Christians, he extended to them the strong hand of his protection throughout the empire. Rather than give occasion to that oppression which he regarded as inseparable from an emperor's progress through his dominions, he was content to spend all the years of his reign in Rome, or its neighbourhood.
Of the public transactions of this period we have scant information, but, to judge by what we possess, those twenty-two years were not remarkably eventful in comparison to those before and after his; the surviving evidence is not complete enough to determine whether we should interpret, with older scholars, that he wisely curtailed the activities of the Roman Empire to a careful minimum, or perhaps that he was uninterested in events away from Rome and Italy and his inaction contributed to the pressing troubles that faced not only Marcus Aurelius but also the emperors of the third century.
third century. The emperor and his Augusta were deified after their death by Marcus Aurelius.]]
One of his first acts as Emperor was to persuade the Senate to grant divine honours to Hadrian, which they had at first refused; his efforts to persuade the Senate to grant these honours is one of the reasons given for his title of Pius (dutiful in affection; compare pietas). Two other reasons for this title are that he would support his aged father-in-law with his hand at Senate meetings, and that he had saved those men that Hadrian, during his period of ill-health, had condemned to death. He built temples, theaters, and mausoleums, promoted the arts and sciences, and bestowed honours and salaries upon the teachers of rhetoric and philosophy.
His reign was comparatively peaceful; there were several military disturbances throughout the Empire in his time, in Mauretania, Iudaea, and amongst the Brigantes in Britain, but none of them are considered serious. The unrest in Britain is believed to have led to the construction of the Antonine Wall from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde, although it was soon abandoned.
In his domestic relations Antoninus was not so fortunate. His wife, Faustina the Elder, has almost become a byword for her lack of womanly virtue; but she seems to have kept her hold on his affections to the last. On her death in the third year of his reign, he honoured her memory by the foundation of a charity for orphan girls, who bore the name of Alimentariae Faustinianae, following the practice of prior emperors in endowing an alimentaria to promote the welfare of children and an increased population. He had by her two sons and two daughters; but they all died before his elevation to the throne, except Annia Faustina, who became the wife of Marcus Aurelius.
Antoninus died of fever at Lorium in Etruria, about twelve miles from Rome, on March 7 161, giving the keynote to his life in the last word that he uttered when the tribune of the night-watch came to ask the password — "aequanimitas".
The only account of his life handed down to us is that of Julius Capitolinus, one of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae.
Contacts with China
The Hou Hanshu (History of the Later Han Chinese dynasty) recounted the first of several Roman embassies to China sent out by Emperor Antoninus Pius. The mission came from the South, and therefore probably by sea, entering China by the frontier of Jinan or Tonkin, bringing presents of rhinoceros horns, ivory, and tortoise shell which had probably been acquired in Southern Asia.
The emperor was probably actually Marcus Aurelius, who was the reigning emperor. Antoninus Pius died in 161, while the convoy arrived in 166. The confusion arises because Marcus Aurelius took as additional names, those of his predecessor as a mark of respect. He is referred to in Chinese history as "An Tun" (= Antoninus), hence the confusion.
The mission reached the Chinese capital of Luoyang in 166 and was met by Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty. About the same time, and possibly through this embassy, the Chinese acquired a treatise of astronomy from Daqin (Rome).
References
- Bossart-Mueller, Zur Geschichte des Kaisers A. (1868)
- Lacour-Gayet, A. le Pieux et son Temps (1888)
- Bryant, The Reign of Antonine (Cambridge Historical Essays, 1895)
- P. B. Watson, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (London, 1884), chap. ii.
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Category:86 births
Category:161 deaths
Category:Roman emperors
Category:Nerva-Antonine Dynasty
Category:Adoptive parents
ko:안토니누스 피우스
ja:アントニヌス・ピウス
Marcus Aurelius
Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (April 26 121 – March 17 180) was Roman Emperor from 161 to his death in 180. He was born Marcus Annius Catilius Severus, and at marriage took the name Marcus Annius Verus. When he was named Emperor, he was given the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. He was the last of the Five Good Emperors.
Early life
His uncle Antoninus Pius adopted him as a son and designated him his successor on February 25 138, when Marcus was only seventeen years of age. Antoninus also named Lucius Verus as his successor. When Antoninus died on March 7 161, Marcus accepted the throne on the condition that he and Verus were made joint emperors (Augusti), with Verus partly subordinate. The reasons for this are unclear but are thought to have been part of the succession arrangement of Antoninus's predecessor, Hadrian. After the death of his first adopted son, Aelius Verus, Hadrian appointed Antoninus Pius his successor on the condition that Antoninus in turn would adopt Marcus Annius Verus, the son of his wife's brother, and Lucius, son of Aelius Verus, and arrange for them to be next in line. In time they became the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Aelius Verus.
Aurelius married Faustina the Younger in 145. During their thirty-year marriage Faustina bore thirteen children, most notably, his son Commodus who would become Emperor and daughter Lucilla who was wed to Lucius Verus to solidify his alliance with Marcus Aurelius.
Roman emperor
The joint succession may have been motivated by military exigency. During his reign Marcus Aurelius was almost constantly at war with various peoples outside the Empire. Germanic tribes and other peoples launched many raids along the long European border, particularly into Gaul — Germans, in turn, may have been under attack from more warlike tribes farther east. In Asia, a revitalized Parthian Empire renewed its assault. A highly authoritative figure was needed to command the troops, yet the emperor himself could not defend both fronts at the same time. Neither could he simply appoint a general to lead one assault; earlier popular military leaders like Julius Caesar and Vespasian had used the military to overthrow the existing government and install themselves as supreme leaders.
Vespasian
Marcus Aurelius solved the problem by sending Verus to command the legions in the East. He was authoritative enough to command the full loyalty of the troops, but already powerful enough that he had little incentive to overthrow Marcus. The plan succeeded — Verus remained loyal until his death on campaign in 169. This joint emperorship was faintly reminiscent of the political system of the Roman Republic, which functioned according to the principle of collegiality and did not allow a single person to hold supreme power. Joint rule was revived by Diocletian's establishment of the Tetrarchy in the late 3rd century.
Marcus Aurelius wanted no child to be left behind. He required by law that everyone must register the birth of their children with the Secretary of Treasury or Provincial Registrars within 30 days.
Writings
While on campaign between 170 and 180, Aurelius wrote his Meditations as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. He had been a priest at the sacrificial altars of Roman service and was an eager patriot. He had a logical mind though his notes were representative of Stoic philosophy and spirituality. Meditations is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty. It has been praised for its "exquisite accent and it's infinite tenderness" and "saintliness" being called the "gospel of his life." They have been compared by J. S. Mill in his Utility of Religion to the Sermon on the Mount. Like many of the emperors of Rome he was loved by the people. Yet, with all his benevolence, administered justice and reforms he often mistrusted the Christians whom he subjected to systematic persecution.
Contacts with China
The first of several Roman embassies to China, although attributed to Antoninus Pius by the Hou Hanshu (History of the Later Han Chinese dynasty), was probably sent out by Marcus Aurelius. Antoninus Pius died in 161, while the convoy arrived in 166. The confusion arises because Marcus Aurelius took as additional names those of his predecessor, as a mark of respect. The emperor is referred to in Chinese history as "An Tun" (= Antoninus). The mission reached the Chinese capital Luoyang in 166 and was greeted by Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty.
Life
Marcus Aurelius died on March 17 180 during the expedition against the Marcomanni in the city of Vindobona (modern Vienna). His ashes were returned to Rome and rest in Hadrian's mausoleum (modern Castel Sant'Angelo). He was able to secure the succession for his son Commodus, whom he made co-emperor in his own lifetime (in 177), though the choice may have been unfortunate. Commodus was a political and military outsider, as well as an extreme egotist. Many historians believe that the decline of Rome began under Commodus. For this reason, Aurelius' death is often held to have been the end of the Pax Romana.
Depictions in art
Pax Romana
Pax Romana
A well preserved bronze equestrian sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, which during the Middle Ages had stood in the Lateran Palace in Rome, was relocated in 1538 to the Piazza del Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill); currently the original is inside the Musei Capitolini, while a copy is on display in the square. It is the only surviving bronze statue of a pre-Christian Roman emperor — the reason being that following Rome's conversion to Christianity, when statues of Emperors were being melted down to make statues for the Christian churches, it was (incorrectly) thought that the statue was of the Emperor Constantine, who 'christianised' Rome, so it was left untouched. According to accounts from medieval times, a small figure of a bound barbarian chieftain once crouched underneath the horse's front right leg. In addition, it was one of the few Roman statues to remain on public view during the Middle Ages. Such an image was meant to portray the Emperor as an always victorious all-conquering lord of the earth. However, shown without weapons or armor, Marcus Aurelius seems to be a bringer of peace rather than a military hero, for this is how he saw himself and his reign. This statue is the subject of a €0.50 Italian euro coin designed by Roberto Mauri.
Appearances in film and literature
Roberto Mauri
- Mémoires d'Hadrien (1951), a fictitious but plausible autobiography of one of his predecessors, Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar
- The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964 film), played by Alec Guinness
- Household Gods (1999 novel), by Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove. (ISBN 0613351479)
- Gladiator (2000 film), played by Richard Harris
External links
Primary sources
- [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Marcus%20Aurelius The Meditations]
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Marcus_Aurelius/1
- .html Historia Augusta: Life of Marcus Aurelius]
Secondary material
- [http://www.roman-emperors.org/marcaur.htm Marcus Aurelius] entry at De Imperatoribus Romanis
- [http://www.onelittleangel.com/wisdom/quotes/marcus_aurelius.asp Pictures and selected quotes]
- [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15877/ The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus] by George Long
Category:121 births
Category:180 deaths
Category:Nerva-Antonine Dynasty
Category:Roman emperors
Category:Roman era philosophers
Category:Stoic philosophers
ko:마르쿠스 아우렐리우스
ja:マルクス・アウレリウス・アントニヌス
Marcus Cornelius FrontoMarcus Cornelius Fronto (c. AD 100-170), Roman grammarian, rhetorician and advocate, was born of an Italian family at Cirta in Numidia.
He came to Rome in the reign of Hadrian, and soon gained such renown as an advocate and orator as to be reckoned inferior only to Cicero. He amassed a large fortune, erected magnificent buildings and purchased the famous gardens of Maecenas. Antoninus Pius, hearing of his fame, appointed him tutor to his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.
In 142 he was consul for two months, but declined the proconsulship of Asia on the ground of ill-health. His latter years were embittered by the loss of all his children except one daughter. His talents as an orator and rhetorician were greatly admired by his contemporaries, a number of whom formed themselves into a school called after him Frontoniani, whose avowed object it was to restore the ancient purity and simplicity of the Latin language in place of the exaggerations of the Greek sophistical school.
However praiseworthy the intention may have been, the list of authors specially recommended does not speak well for Fronto's literary taste. The authors of the Augustan age are unduly depreciated, while Ennius, Plautus, Laberius, and Sallust (of all people) are held up as models of imitation.
Until 1815, the only extant works ascribed (erroneously) to Fronto were two grammatical treatises, De nominum verborumque differentiis and Exempla elocutionum (the last being really by Arusianus Messius). In that year, however, Angelo Mai discovered in the Ambrosian library at Milan a palimpsest manuscript (and, later, some additional sheets of it in the Vatican), on which had been originally written some of Fronto's letters to his imperial pupils and their replies. These palimpsests had originally belonged to the famous convent of St Columba at Bobbio, and had been written over by the monks with the acts of the First Council of Chalcedon.
The letters, together with the other fragments in the palimpsest, were published at Rome in 1823. Their contents do not match the writer's great reputation. The letters consist of correspondence with Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, in which the character of Fronto's pupils appears in a very favourable light, especially in the affection they both seem to have retained for their old master; and letters to friends, chiefly letters of recommendation. The collection also contains treatises on eloquence, some historical fragments, and literary trifles on such subjects as the praise of smoke and dust, of negligence, and a dissertation on Anon. "His style is a laborious mixture of archaisms, a motley cento, with the aid of which he conceals the poverty of his knowledge and ideas."
His chief merit consists in having preserved extracts from ancient writers which would otherwise have been lost.
References
-
Category:Ancient Romans
Category:Roman era writers
Quaestor
Quaestors were elected officials of the Roman Republic who supervised the treasury and financial affairs of the state, its armies and its officers. The office may date back to the time of the kings of Rome. After about 420 BC there were four Quaestors, elected each year, and after 267 BC there were ten. Some quaestors were assigned to work in the City, while others were assigned to the staffs of generals or served the Roman Governors as Lieutenant Governors in the provinces. Still others were assigned to oversee military finances.
During the reforms of Sulla in 81 BC, the minimum age for a quaestorship was set at 28 for patricians and at 30 for plebeians, and election to the quaestorship gave automatic membership in the Senate. Before that the Censors revised the rolls of the Senate less regularly than the annual induction of quaestors created. The number of quaestors was also raised to 20.
See also
- Cursus honorum
- Roman Republic
Category:Ancient Roman titles
ja:クァエストル
Consul
:For modern diplomatic consuls, see Consulate general.
Consul (abbrev. cos.) was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire.
After the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus and the ending of the Roman Kingdom, all the powers and authority of the King were given to the newly instituted Consuls. The office of Consul was believed to date back to the traditional establishment of the Republic in 509 BC, although the early history is partly legendary, and the succession of Consuls is not continuous in the 5th century. Consuls executed both religious and military duties; the reading of the auguries was an essential step before leading armies into the field.
Under the Republic, the minimum age of election to consul for patricians was 40 years of age, for plebeians 42. Two consuls were elected each year, serving together with veto power over each other's actions. The year of their service was known by their names: for instance, the year commonly called 59 BC was called by the Romans "the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus", since the two colleagues in the consulship were Julius Caesar and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus (but Caesar dominated the consulship so thoroughly that year that it was jokingly referred to as "the consulship of Julius and Caesar").
In Latin, consules means "those who walk together". If a consul died during his term (not uncommon when consuls were in the forefront of battle), another would be elected, and be known as a suffect consul (cos. suff.).
According to tradition, the consulship was initially reserved for patricians; not until 367 BC did the plebeians win the right to stand for office, when the lex Licinia Sextia provided that at least one consul each year should be plebeian. The first plebeian consul, Lucius Sextius, was thereby elected the following year. Modern historians, however, have questioned the traditional account of plebeian emancipation during the Early Republic (see Conflict of the Orders), noting for instance that about thirty per cent of the consuls prior to Sextius had plebeian, not patrician, names.
During times of war, the primary criterion for consul was military skill and reputation, but at all times the selection was politically charged. With the passage of time, the consulship became the normal endpoint of the cursus honorum, the sequence of offices pursued by the ambitious Roman. Beginning in the late Republic, after finishing a consular year, a former consul would serve as a Proconsul and become the governor of one of Rome's provinces.
When Augustus established the Empire, he changed the nature of the office, stripping it of most of its powers. While still a great honor and a requirement for other offices, many consuls would resign part way through the year to allow other men to finish their term as suffects. Those who held the office on January 1, known as the consules ordinarii, had the honor of associating their names with that year. As a result, about half of the men who held the rank of praetor could also reach the consulship. Sometimes these suffect consuls would in turn resign, and another suffect would be appointed. This reached its extreme under Commodus, when in AD 190 twenty-five men held the consulship.
Under the Empire, Emperors frequently appointed themselves, protégés, or relatives without regard to the age requirements.
For example, Emperor Honorius was given the consulship at birth.
Holding the consulship was apparently such an honor that the break-away Gallic Empire had its own pairs of consuls during its existence (260–274). The list of consuls for this state is incomplete, drawn from inscriptions and coins.
One of the reforms of Constantine I was to assign one of the consuls to the city of Rome, and the other to Constantinople. Therefore, when the Roman Empire was divided into two halves on the death of Theodosius I, the emperor of each half acquired the right of appointing one of the consuls— although one emperor did allow his colleague to appoint both consuls for various reasons. As a result, after the formal end of the Roman Empire in the West, many years would be named for only a single consul. This rank was finally allowed to lapse in the reign of Justinian I: first with the consul of Rome in 534, Decius Paulinus, then the consul of Constantinople in 541, Flavius Basilius Junior.
For a complete list of Roman consuls, see:
- List of Republican Roman Consuls (before 33 BC)
- List of early imperial Roman consuls (33 BC‑AD 192)
- List of late imperial Roman consuls (after AD 192)
French consuls
In 1799, revolutionary France enacted a constitution that conferred supreme executive powers upon three officials that bore the title "consul". In reality, however, the state was de facto under control of the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte. Originally the consuls were to hold office for a period of ten years, although in 1802 Bonaparte was declared First Consul for life (lifetime consulate was introduced for Second and Third Consuls as well). The French consulate ceased to exist when Bonaparte was declared Emperor of the French in 1804.
See also
- List of Ancient Rome-related topics
- Political institutions of Rome
Category:Ancient Roman titles
Category:Military ranks
ko:집정관
ja:執政官
161
Events
- March 7 - Roman emperor Antoninus Pius dies and is succeeded by co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.
- Publication of Gaius' Institutiones
Births
- August 31 - Commodus, future Roman emperor
- Liu Bei, founder of the Shu Kingdom of China
Deaths
- March 7 - Antoninus Pius, Roman Emperor
Category:161
ko:161년
161
Events
- March 7 - Roman emperor Antoninus Pius dies and is succeeded by co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and | | | |
