How were the consuls elected?

In the Roman Republic, consuls were elected annually in a process known as the consular elections (comitia consularia). The elections were presided over by a 'consul suffectus', a magistrate designated by the outgoing consuls for the specific purpose of holding the elections. They were held in mid-July at the Campus Martius, a field just outside Rome.

Eligibility:

To be eligible for the consulship, candidates had to meet several criteria:

- They had to be male Roman citizens.

- They had to be at least 42 years old.

- They had to have held a series of lower magistracies, including the praetor and curule aedile, as part of the Cursus Honorum.

- They could not have held the consulship within the previous ten years.

Voting process:

The elections began with the candidates declaring their intention to run for the consulship. They would then campaign extensively, appealing to voters through public speeches, promises, and bribes.

The voters were divided into 35 tribes, each of which cast a single vote. Voting took place in two stages:

- In the first stage, each tribe selected two candidates from the pool of all candidates.

- In the second stage, the two candidates with the most votes from each tribe were declared elected as consuls.

The results were announced by the presiding consul, and the newly elected consuls would take office on January 1st of the following year.