[1] Under the Principate, a number of senior magistracies were created for consulares:[1] Already during the Republic, certain provinces were reserved for ex-consuls.
This tradition carried into the Principate following the grant of an enormous provincial command to Augustus in 27 BC effectively dividing the empire between so-called Imperial and Senatorial provinces.
[1] According to the Notitia Dignitatum (circa 400), the following provinces were administered by a consularis: The Notitia gives the following staff (officium) for a consularis of the West: princeps officii (detached from the praetorian prefecture), a cornicularius, two tabularii, an adiutor, a commentariensis, an ab actis, a subadiuva, and various exceptores and cohortalini, i.e. menial staff.
[4] For the East, the officium was slightly different: princeps officii, cornicularius, commentariensis, adiutor, numerarius, ab actis, a libellis, and the usual exceptores and cohortalini.
Following the reconquest of North Africa, in 534, Tripolitania was given a consularis, while Numidia was downgraded to a mere praeses.