How did the consulship develop during the early Republic?

This lesson has been designed with the OCR GCSE Ancient History course ( ‘Rome and its neighbours’) Period study in mind.

The lesson begins with a drawing game where two consuls and a lictor are depicted and students are invited to infer this.

Students are then presented with an image of Scipio Barbatus’ sarcophagus and invited to make inferences. Its importance in terms of it being the earliest archaeological record of a ‘consul’ is then discussed.

This leads on to the ‘problem’ of the consulship in terms of when Romans say it developed vs what evidence we have for when it developed.

Mary Beard’s take on the situation from SPQR is then included (slightly adapted for easier understanding) and this is finally followed by a handout on the main political offices of the early Republic with accompanying information. There are then some comprehension questions based on this handout for students to answer.

The lesson finishes with students asked to match an image to their learning and the teacher can draw out explanations through these in order to check the progress of students.