Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Consul

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CONSUL (ὕπατος). A consul; one of the two chief magistrates annually elected by the Roman people during the republican period, and nominally retained under the empire, though with very different and limited powers. The outward symbols of their authority were the fasces, which were carried before them by twelve lictors; an ivory sceptre (sceptrum eburneum, or scipio eburneus), with the image of an eagle on its top; and the embroidered toga (toga picta), which, however, was only worn upon certain occasions: their ordinary civil costume being the toga and tunica, with the latus clavus; their military one, the paludamentum, lorica, and parazonium. Consequently, on works of art, they are represented without any very distinctive marks: either simply draped in the toga, or in the same military costume as other superior officers; as on the consular coins of Cn. Piso, and of Cinna, in Spanheim, vol. ii. pp. 88. 91.