After the kings had been driven out, the consulship was established, and two consuls took office.
A law was passed that the supreme authority in the state should rest
with them.
They were called consuls because they, above all else, consulted about, or looked after, the state.
In order, however, that they not appropriate to themselves in all matters the
power formerly wielded by the kings, a law was passed which stipulated that
there be a right of appeal from their decisions and that they not be able to
inflict capital punishment on a Roman citizen without an order from the "people."