What is Roman consul?
A '''Roman consul''' was the highest elected [[political]] [[office]] of the [[Roman Republic]]. Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given [[veto]] power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month.<ref>Lintott, Andrew 1999. ''The Constitution of the Roman Republic''. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-926108-3}}.</ref> The consuls were usually [[patrician]]s, though after 367 BC [[pleb]]s (common people; plebeians) could stand for election as consul. Consuls had extensive power in peacetime (administrative, legislative and judicial), and in wartime often held the highest military command. They conducted some religious rites which could only be done by the highest state officials. Consuls also read [[Divination|auguries]], an essential step before leading armies into the field. == Civil administration == The consuls could convene the [[Roman Senate|Senate]], and presided over its meetings. Each consul served as president of the Senate for a month. They could also summon any of the Roman assemblies and preside over them. Thus, the consuls conducted the elections and put legislative measures to the vote. When neither consul was within the city, their civic duties were assumed by the ''praetor urbanus'' (city prefect). Each consul was accompanied in public by twelve ''lictors'', who displayed the magnificence of the office and served as his bodyguards. Each lictor held a ''[[fasces]]'', a bundle of [[rod]]s that contained an [[axe]]. The rods symbolized the power of scourging, and the axe the power of [[capital punishment]]. When inside the city, the lictors removed the axes from the fasces to show that a citizen could not be executed without a trial. Upon entering the democratic assembly, the lictors would lower the fasces to show that the powers of the consuls derive from the senate and people of Rome (senatus populusque romanus). == Military powers == Outside the walls of Rome, the powers of the consuls were far greater in the