Consul

The noun consul (or its equivalent in another language, e.g. French consul, German Konsul, Italian console) has been applied, over the last two-and-a-half thousand years, to the holders of various official positions in a number of different states. The office held by a consul may be referred to as a consulship; and the related adjective is consular.

• Consul was originally a Latin word. During the Roman Republic (i.e., the period of Rome’s history which ended in 27 BCE when Augustus became the first emperor) the consuls were the chief magistrates, i.e., the highest state officials, with authority in both civil and military matters. There were always two consuls: they had to be at least 40 years old, were elected by one of the popular assemblies (the comitia centuriata) on the recommendation of the senate, and held office for a year. (If a consul died in office or had to resign before the end of the year because of illness or for some other reason, another consul, known as a consul suffectus (‘suffect [~ 'substitute'] consul’), was appointed in his place.) The title of consul was retained during the Roman Empire, though the office was now virtually an honorary position, with little of its former authority. Consuls were typically in office for periods of two or four months, and were often proposed by the emperor, who sometimes proposed himself or one of his children. In 386 the office was conferred on the future emperor Honorius (reigned 393-423 CE) at the age of two.

• The last Roman consuls held office in 534 CE, but the word continued to be used throughout the Middle Ages as the name of a variety of official positions at the municipal level: particularly in France, it was the title of the mayor of a town or city, or was applied to the members of a town council. In Genoa the word was used of the holders of many official positions, and in particular of Genoese state officials resident in ports around the Mediterranean with the responsibility of assisting Genoese merchants and sailors who might find themselves in difficulties with the local authorities. (This is, of course, the origin of the modern use of the word: see below.)

• After the French Revolution in 1789 the word consul was briefly used in France in a way which closely resembled its use in the Roman Republic. From 1799 it became the title of the three chief magistrates of the First Republic. The system was short-lived: Napoleon Bonaparte, who was first consul and dominated his two junior colleagues, appointed himself consul for life in 1802, and in 1805 declared himself emperor and abolished the office of consul.

• In the modern world the word consul continues to be used as the name for an official who represents his country abroad with a particular responsibility to protect its commercial interests and to provide help to any of his fellow-citizens who might need it. Thus we might speak of the Danish consul in Hull or the Italian consul in Manchester. The building in which a consul conducts his official business is known as a consulate.

Etymological note: The origins of the Latin word consul are disputed. Some connect it, not implausibly, with the verb consulere, ‘to consult’.