the term, which probably derives--in view of the joint nature of the office--from con- and sal-, "get together" or from con- and sell-/sedl-, "sit down together with" or "next to". In Greek, the title was originally rendered as ????????? ??????, strategos hypatos ("the supreme general"), and later simply as ?????? (hypatos).

The consulship was believed by the Romans to date back to the traditional establishment of the Republic