Currently listening to the History of Rome podcast. In the middle of the 2nd Punic War at present.
That there were 2 counsels and this setup worked kind of stuns me.
Sometimes it did and sometimes it... really didn’t. Polybius’ account of the Battle of Cannae is a good example of the latter (although beware authorial bias as per).
Duncan is talking about Cannae in The History of Rome about how the 2 counsels disagreed on what to do that there were 1 of 2 solutions - each counsel gets half the army or they alternated days of control, which they did at Cannae. He stated that as what they did and granted it was spoiled to me it was Rome's greatest ever military defeat but upon hearing "alternating days of control" I instantly thought "holy sh**t, what an incredibly awful idea".
Still, this counsel system even up from the end of the Kingdom until Cannae had lasted longer than the United States of America has now been in existence. It just amazes me it didn't create civil wars every 15 to 20 years through competition for control.
