The goal of any young Roman at the start of his political career was to reach the highest office of the Republic: the consulship. For an aristocratic family the accumulation of consulships over decades and centuries provided an indelible political and symbolic capital which remained forever in their own familial records and imagines maiorum, and which the family wished to be remembered by the Roman citizens for as long as possible. When Lucius Scipio Asiaticus became consul in 83, some fifteen Scipiones had already held the highest office from the fourth century onwards. When in 57 Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos held the consulship, thirteen Caecilii Metelli had been consuls before him since the third century. The consulship obviously carried enormous prestige, but the office only lasted for one year – regardless of whether it was held again later, or whether the imperium of a consul could be prolonged with a promagistracy. However, the conclusion of the consulship implied becoming a consularis for life – the evidence shows that consulars were only exceptionally expelled from the Senate – which meant that an ex-consul was automatically included among the crème de la crème in the Senate and, therefore, in Roman society.

During the crisis that the Hannibalic war provoked, the ‘old guard’ of consulars who had been consuls for the first time in the 230s assumed the leadership role in the military field and in politics. A number of ex-consuls once again held offices with imperium and were placed at the head of the army as consuls, praetors, or promagistrates. The state of emergency in Rome also led to the appointment of dictators, all of them ex-consuls. The military contribution of consulars also took place in intermediate positions, as legates under consuls or consulars, but also under imperatores who had not attained that rank, always with tasks of high responsibility. In 209, we find the last two censors who had not been consuls: from that year onwards, all censors were former consuls, and censorship became the potential culmination of a consular’s political career. From 209, the censors always designated as princeps senatus the man they considered to be the princeps civitatis. As before, the princeps senatus had to be a patrician consular and censorian, but the position was left open to competition. It was very unusual that consulars were co-opted for a priestly college. Two consulars were named triumviri mensarii to face up the economic crisis.

The period between 49 and 31 BCE witnessed a dramatic decline in the political and social influence that consulares had always exercised. The civil war reduced the number of consulars in the Senate to a minimum. The wars that followed Caesar’s death once more decimated the rank of consulars, or else drove them away from Rome for months or years in command of troops stationed in many different territories across Italy and the Mediterranean. Consequently, most consulars actually disappeared from Rome, making it difficult for them to exercise their usual leadership role. The situation did not improve when the number of consulares increased dramatically, as never before, due to the annual appointment of consules ordinarii and consules suffecti. Consuls depended on the Triumvirs for their appointments and were in practice under their control during their months in office. Consulars were likewise overshadowed and diminished by the power of the Triumvirs.

In line with the more civilian and less military role of consuls in the 1st century BCE, a number of consulars renounced any potential military glory through a provincial command and preferred to remain in Rome during and after their consulships. In contrast to what had happened throughout the 2nd century, consulars rarely filled their cursus honorum with regular offices. One of the usual tasks of consulars was to intervene in court, not only for their potential skills as orators but above all for the authority that their consular status conferred on them. Consulars acted as advocates, never as prosecutors. Some consulars, such as Cicero and Hortensius, were true specialists before the courts. Speaking at a popular assembly (contio) was always another way of gaining public visibility. For the period 81–50, we have evidence of a greater number of consulars taking part in assemblies than in earlier periods. However, since consulars as privati were not entitled to convene an assembly, their speeches to the people were always unusual. The Senate remained the great dialectical battleground for consulars. Priority to speak in the Senate always belonged to consulars.