The chief magistrate of the Ancient Roman Republic, invested with regal authority for one year. There were two consuls, annually chosen in the campus Martius. In the first ages of Tome, they were elected from Patrician families or noblemen; but in the year of Rome 388, the people obtained the privilege of electing one of the consuls from their own body, and sometimes both were plebeians.

In modern usage, the name consul is given to a person commissioned by a king or state to reside in a foreign country as an agent or representative, to protect the rights, commerce, merchants and seamen of the state, and to aid the government in any commercial transactions with such foreign country.

An adviser.