Roman Consul - Consular Dating

Consular Dating

The highest magistrates were eponymous, i.e. each year was officially identified (like a regnal year in a monarchy) by the two consuls' names, though there was a more practical numerical dating ab urbe condita (i.e. by the era starting with the mythical foundation year of Rome). For instance, the year 59 BC in the modern calendar was called by the Romans "the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus", since the two colleagues in the consulship were (Gaius) Julius Caesar and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus—although Caesar dominated the consulship so thoroughly that year that it was jokingly referred to as "the consulship of Julius and Caesar".

In Latin, the ablative absolute construction is frequently used to express the date, such as "M. Messalla et M. Pupio Pisone consulibus", translated literally as "Marcus Messalla and Marcus Pupius Piso being the consuls", which appears in Caesar's De Bello Gallico.