Last updated on December 17th, 2022 at 09:41 pm

We know how the Roman Republic’s war machine facilitated its rise. By the third century BC, the Roman legions were the most significant fighting force in the Mediterranean.

But often less commented upon is how the political institutions of the Roman Republic allowed for the rise of the city on the Tiber to pre-eminence across much of the known world.

The Romans had one of the first political systems involving a proper balance of powers.

Rome divided its authority between the Senate, the broader Centuriate Assembly, and many elected officers and magistrates such as the tribunes and praetors.

At the top of this pyramid were the consuls, who only held power for one year and were effectively the Prime Ministers of Rome for these twelve months.

Because there were two consuls elected every year, it prevented either from becoming overly powerful.

Origins of the Office of Consul

The office of consul emerged at the end of the sixth century BC when Rome was transitioning from a monarchy, the last ruler of which was the tyrant Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, to a republic. 

The idea was that many of the monarchy’s powers would transfer to these newly created magistrates. However, there would be two consuls rather than having a sole leader. 

The Republic devised this system to prevent a consul from developing into a tyrant like Superbus had proved to be.

There were also precedents for this elsewhere in the Mediterranean world, a vast region of hundreds of polities with enormously varied political systems. 

For instance, in Sparta in Greece, there were two royal families and two kings at any time. The dual consulship mirrored this, though consuls were elected and only served for a year.

Election of the Consuls

The Republic elected consuls through a two-stage process. This process mirrored the simultaneously oligarchic and populist nature of the Roman Republic since the Twelve Tables were introduced

First, the various candidates for office in a given year had to be nominated by the Roman Senate. Rome’s wealthiest citizens, the patrician class, made up most of the Senate.

Ownership of property and goods worth hundreds of thousands of sesterces, the Roman silver coinage, was a prerequisite for membership in the Senate. 

Thus, this was an oligarchic political body and tended to nominate members of its social class as potential consuls. 

When the Senate nominated candidates, they were put forward to the Centuriate Assembly. This body was a much larger elective assembly of Roman citizens with a broader franchise.

They ultimately selected two nominated candidates to become the consuls for the next twelve months. 

Thus, the consuls were elected in a two-stage process that gave many Romans a say in the matter and ensured a monopoly on the office by the Roman patrician class.