a Roman magistrate sent to govern a province with consular authority. The proconsuls were appointed out of the body of the Senate; and commonly, when the year of any one's consulate expired, he was sent as proconsul into some province. The proconsuls decided cases of equity and justice, either privately in their palace, where they received petitions, heard complaints, and granted writs under their seal; or publicly, in the common hall, with the usual formalities observed in the court of judicature at Rome. Their office lasted only a year.