the chief magistrate of the Roman commonwealth, invested with regal authority for the space of one year. They were two in number, called consuls à confundendo, and annually chosen in the Campus Martius. The two first consuls were L. Jun. Brutus, and L. Tarquinius Collatinus, chosen in the year of Rome 244, after the expulsion of the Tarquins. In the first times of the republic the two consuls were always chosen from patrician families or noblemen, but the people obtained the privilege in the year of Rome 388, of electing one of the consuls from their own body, and sometimes both were plebeians. The first consul among the plebeians was L. Sextius. It was required that every candidate for the consulship should be 43 years of age, called legitimum tempor. He was always to appear at the election as a private man without a retinue. CONFUL

Conful

Contagion.