Consul

The consul was the highest position in the government of the Roman Republic. To earn this position, one was originally expected to climb the "ladder of offices"; however, as the values of Rome changed, so did the methods required to achieve this rank.

The ladder of offices:

1. Military service for ten years
2. Quaestor- financial administrator
3. Board of Aediles - oversaw numerous functions of the city (streets, sewers, etc.)
4. Praetor - judicial and military command duties
5. Consul

Relevance to Social Values

The methods used to achieve Consulship mirrored the social circumstance of Rome during that time. In the early Republic, Consulship was earned through outstanding public service (completing the ladder of offices), and by sponsoring cultural events in the city. After being elected, all public officials were expected to help fund public projects. This reflects directly onto the Roman values of honor and community above all else. The Roman value of the family is shown in Consulship as well, as becoming a Consul guaranteed significant degrees of honor for the descendants of the Consul, making them a nobility of sorts.

As time went on, the methods for achieving a Consulship changed significantly. The values of honor and community began to be replaced by greed and wealth. Money became the defining value of the political system of Rome. By gathering wealth from successful military campaigns, commanders were able to advance their political careers at home. Progression through the ladder of offices was now bought more than earned.

The values of the Consulship, and in fact Roman politics, completely collapsed when Gnaeus Pompey (106-48 B.C.E.) demanded the office in 70 B.C.E. He had neither climbed the ladder of offices, nor had he reached the minimum age of 42. Pompey managed to gain this office because of fear of his military power; the same method he had used to demand the honor of a triumph, the greatest honor Rome granted, not long before. Both of these demands were massive breaks with tradition which cause substantial unrest.

Relevance of Consulship to the Struggle of Orders

As a product of the Struggle of Orders, a social rift between the elite families (patricians) and the rest of Roman citizenry (plebeians), one seat of the Consul was promised to a plebeian. Patricians intended to monopolize all high level political office; however, by 367 B.C.E., plebeians had exerted substantial political power and forced the patricians to concede that one Consul every year would be from their social class. This concession did not open the office to all citizens however, as the cost of running for office was still prohibitive for the poor.

Conclusion

The Consulship, as the highest level of Republican government, mirrored the social values and conflicts of Rome. At first, those who achieved this rank depicted the ideal of Roman cultural values; eventually these idealist were replaced by those who bought their way into office; and the final permutation of this office were those who took it by force. This position also created a a perfect mirror of the political schism present between the patricians and the plebeians that manifested in the Struggle of Orders.

Sources

Hunt 142-145, 163