<P> The need for a pool of men to fill the consular positions forced Augustus to remodel the suffect consulate, allowing more than the two elected for the ordinary consulate . During the reigns of the Julio - Claudians, the ordinary consuls who began the year usually relinquished their office mid-year, with the election for the suffect consuls occurring at the same time as that for the ordinary consuls . During reigns of the Flavian and Antonine emperors, the ordinary consuls tended to resign after a period of four months, and the elections were moved to 12 January of the year in which they were to hold office . Election of the consuls were transferred to the Senate during the Flavian or Antonine periods, although through to the 3rd century, the people were still called on to ratify the Senate's selections . </P> <P> The proliferation of suffect consuls through this process, and the allocation of this office to homines novi tended over time to devalue the office . However, the high regard placed upon the ordinary consulate remained intact, as it was one of the few offices that one could share with the emperor, and during this period it was filled mostly by patricians or by individuals who had consular ancestors . If they were especially skilled or valued, they may even have achieved a second (or rarely, a third) consulate . Prior to achieving the consulate, these individuals already had a significant career behind them, and would expect to continue serving the state, filling in the post upon which the state functioned . Consequently, holding the ordinary consulship was a great honor and the office was the major symbol of the still republican constitution . Probably as part of seeking formal legitimacy, the break - away Gallic Empire had its own pairs of consuls during its existence (260--274). The list of consuls for this state is incomplete, drawn from inscriptions and coins . </P> <P> By the end of the 3rd century, much had changed . The loss of many pre-consular functions and the gradual encroachment of the equites into the traditional senatorial administrative and military functions, meant that senatorial careers virtually vanished prior to their appointment as consuls . This had the effect of seeing a suffect consulship granted at an earlier age, to the point that by the 4th century, it was being held by men in their early twenties, and possibly younger . As time progressed, second consulates, usually ordinary, became far more common than had been the case during the first two centuries, while the first consulship was usually a suffect consulate . Also, the consulate during this period was no longer just the province of senators--the automatic awarding of a suffect consulship to the equestrian praetorian prefects (who were given the ornamenta consularia upon achieving their office) allowed them to style themselves cos. II when they were later granted an ordinary consulship by the emperor . All this had the effect of further devaluing the office of consul, to the point that by the final years of the 3rd century, holding an ordinary consulate was occasionally left out of the cursus inscriptions, while suffect consulships were hardly ever recorded by the first decades of the 4th century . </P> <P> One of the reforms of Constantine I (r . 306--337) was to assign one of the consuls to the city of Rome, and the other to Constantinople . Therefore, when the Roman Empire was divided into two halves on the death of Theodosius I (r . 379--395), the emperor of each half acquired the right of appointing one of the consuls--although on occasion an emperor did allow his colleague to appoint both consuls for various reasons . The consulship, bereft of any real power, continued to be a great honor, but the celebrations attending it--above all the chariot races--had come to involve considerable expense, which only a few citizens could afford, to the extent that part of the expense had to be covered by the state . In the 6th century, the consulship was increasingly sparsely given, until it was allowed to lapse under Justinian I (r . 527--565): the western consulship lapsed in 534, with Decius Paulinus the last holder, and the consulship of the East in 541, with Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius . Consular dating had already been abolished in 537, when Justinian introduced dating by the emperor's regnal year and the indiction . In the eastern court, the appointment to consulship became a part of the rite of proclamation of a new emperor from Justin II (r . 565--578) on, and is last attested in the proclamation of the future Constans II (r . 641--668) as consul in 632 . In the late 9th century, Emperor Leo the Wise (r . 886--912) finally abolished consular dating with Novel 94 . By that time, the Greek titles for consul and ex-consul, "hypatos" and "apo hypaton", had been transformed to relatively lowly honorary dignities . </P>

Who had the power to veto actions by other government officials