07.07.25: Level 3; the ablative absolute [15]: noun + noun; consular dating

In Rome two consuls were elected each year, serving together, each with veto power over the other's actions. Roman years were customarily denoted according to the names of the two consuls who held office that year, which is not an immediate answer to a modern reader. The names of holders of the post and the post itself are expressed using the ablative absoute:

[i] C. Asiniō C. Antistiō (nouns) [ii] cōnsulibus (nouns) ¦ nōnus Tiberiō annus erat compositae reī pūblicae, flōrentis domūs … (Tacitus: Annālēs 4.1)

Literally: [i] (with) C. Asinius and (with) C. Antisitius ¦ [ii] (being) consuls …

> When / while C. Asinius and C. Antistius were consuls ¦ it was for Tiberius the ninth year of an orderly state and flourishing household …

Here Tacitus pays no more than lip-service to consular dating by employing the ablative absolute construction to detach the consular year from the main action thereby underlining the limitation of the consuls’ role; there is juxtaposition with nōnus Tiberiō annus i.e. the ninth year was already in progress (began the previous August) but the consuls were not in any way the cause of the positive conditions of the reign of Tiberius.

Some examples include both the names of the consuls and the number of years since the founding of the city (ab urbe conditā) traditionally considered as 753BC:

C. Fabiō et L. Virgīniō cōnsulibus │ During the consulship of Gaius Fabius and Lucius Virginius [ablative absolute: literally with GF and LV being consuls i.e. while they were the consuls]

L. Genuciō et Q. Servīliō cōnsulibus mortuus est Camillus. │ Camillus died during the consulship of Lucius Genucius and Quintus Servilius

[i] M. Tulliō Cicerōne ōrātōre et C. Antōniō cōnsulibus, ¦ [ii] annō ab urbe conditā sexcentēsimō nōnāgēsimō primō … │[i] During the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero, the orator and Gaius Antonius ¦ [ii] in the 691^st year from the founding of the city

[i] C. Fabiō Liciniō C. Claudiō Canīnā cōnsulibus ¦  [ii] annō urbis conditae quadringentēsimō sexāgēsimō prīmō ¦ lēgātī Alexandrīnī ā Ptolemaeō missī Rōmam vēnēre et ā Rōmānīs amīcitiam quam petierant obtinuērunt. │ [i] During the consulship of Gaius Fabius Licinius and Gaius Claudius Canina ¦ [ii]  in the 461^st year of the founding of the city ¦ ambassadors from Alexandria sent by Ptolemy came to Rome and obtained the friendship that they had sought.