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THE ROMAN SYSTEM 
 
 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION 
 
 ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 
 
 Being the Arnold Prize Essay for 1879. 
 
 ' W: T._ARNO'LD, B.A. 
 
 FORMEKLV SCHOLAR OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 ' Urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat.' — Ruiilius, 
 * Perceperunt niiercedem suani. ' — A ngiisibu De Civituie De-i. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 1879. 
 
 The right of tramlaiton is reserved, \ 
 
:ORNELl\ 
 |UN!VERSITY 
 \ LIBRARY^ 
 
 OXFORD. 
 PICKARD HALL, M.A., AND J. n. STACY 
 Printers to the University. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I HAVE given a list of my cliief authorities below. But 
 I should more especially acknowledge my obligations to 
 Marquardt and Preuss. The extent to which I have used 
 Marquardt in the chapter on Taxation, and Preuss in the 
 chapter on the Later Empire, has been very considerable. In 
 the other parts of the Essay I have relied to a larger extent 
 on my own independent reading ; but I have felt throughout 
 the disadvantage of an imperfect knowledge of the modern 
 literature on the subject. In England I know of no com- 
 prehensive book devoted to it, but in France and Germany 
 it has long aroused the energies of a host of enthusiastic 
 workers. In this field the French have names which command 
 as great respect as the most learned among the Germans. If, 
 in particular, I have not been able to use the great work of 
 M. Waddington, Les Fastes des Provinces Asiatiques, it is not 
 owing to want of will, but to the limitations of time which the 
 conditions under which this Essay must be written impose ^. 
 
 In printing this Essay, I have not been able to make 
 alterations of much moment. I have, however, revised it 
 throughout, and hope that no errors of consequence have 
 escaped me. How inadequate the treatment of such a subject 
 is I am only too painfully conscious ; but if I had once begun 
 to make large alterations I should not have been able to stop 
 
 ' The above was written as a preface to the Essay when sent in for 
 competition. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 short of rewriting the Essay in great part, and I preferred to 
 follow the usual, and on the whole probably commendable, 
 custom of printing a prize essay substantially in the form in 
 which it was written. I subjoin a list of my chief authorities 
 so as to be able to refer to them by the author's name without 
 giving the full title of the book as well. I naturally do not 
 include in the list the ordinary classical authors. 
 
 Ackner and Mtillei'. Die Romischen inschriften in Dacien. (Vienna, 
 
 1865.) 
 Ancyanum Monumentum (under Mommsen). 
 Arnold. Later Roman Commonwealth. ■> vols. (London.) 
 Boissier. L'Empire Remain en Orient. (Rev. des deux Mondes, 
 
 July, 1874-) 
 Boissiere. Esquisse d'une histoire de I'Afrique Romaine. (Paris, 
 
 1878.) 
 Brambach. Corpus Inscriptionum Rhenanarum. (Elberfeld, 1867.) 
 Bruns. Pontes Juris Antiqui Romani. (Tubingen, 1876.) 
 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Vols, i-vii. (Berlin.) 
 De la Berge. Essai sur le regne de Trajan. (Paris, 1877.) 
 E. Desjardins. G^ographie de la Gaule Romaine. 2 vols. (Paris, 
 
 1876.) 
 Les Antonins d'apres I'epigraphie. (Rev. des deux 
 
 Mondes^llfe:., 1874.) 
 Dietrich. Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Romischen Staatspachter- 
 
 systems. (Leipsic, 1877.) 
 Duruy. Histoire des Remains. 5 vols. (Paris, 1874.) 
 Egger. Examen critique des historiens anciens de la vie et du regne 
 
 d'Auguste. (Paris, 1844.) 
 Ephemeris Epigraphica (supplement to the Corpus). (Berlin, 1S72.) 
 Finlay. History of Greece. Vol. i. (Oxford, 1877.) 
 Flach. La table de bronze d'Aljustrel. (Paris, 1879.) 
 Henzen. Inscriptiones (supplementary volume to Orelli). (1856.) 
 Historiae Augustae Scriptores. ed. Joran and Eyssenhardt. (Berlin, 
 
 1864.) 
 Hudemann. Geschichte des Romischen Postwesens wahrend der 
 
 Kaiserzeit. (Berlin, 1878.) 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Kandler. Inscrizioni dei tempi Romani rinvenute nell' Istri.i. 
 
 (Trieste, 1855.) 
 Klein. Die Verwaltungsbeamten des Roin. Reichs bis auf Diocletian. 
 
 (Bonn, 1878.) 
 Lentheric. Les villes mortes du golfe de Lyon. (Paris, 1877.) 
 Marquardt. Romische Staatsverwaltung. 2 vols. (Leipsic, 1873.) 
 
 De conciliis. in Eph. Epig. 
 
 Merivale. History of the Romans under the Empire. 8 vols. 
 
 (London, 1865.) 
 Mommsen. History of Rome, English translation. 4 vols. (London, 
 
 1863.) 
 
 Monumentum Anc^anum. (Berlin, 1865.) 
 
 Schweiz in Rijmischer Zeit. (Mittheilungen der anti- 
 
 quar Gesellschaft in Zurich, 1854.) 
 Orelli. Inscriptiones. 2 vols. (Turin, 1828.) 
 G. Parrot. De Galatia provincia Romana. (Paris, 1867.) 
 
 Memoire sur quelques inscriptions inedites des cotes 
 
 de la mer Noire. (Rev. Archeol. 1874.) 
 
 Inscriptions inedites d'Asie Mineure. (Rev. Archeol. 
 
 1875.) 
 
 Preuss. Kaiser Diocletian und Seine Zeit. (Leipsic, 1869.) 
 
 Renier. Melanges d'Epigraphie. (Paris, 1854.) 
 
 Savigny. Essay on Coloni (translated in Philological Museum, 
 ii. 117.) 
 
 Stephan. Das Verkehrsleben in Alterthum (in Raumer's Histor- 
 isches Taschenbuch. 4th series, vol. ix. pp. 1-136.) 
 
 Troyon. Monuments de I'Antiquite dans 1' Europe barbare. (Lau- 
 sanne, 1868.) '^' 
 
 Watson. Cicero's Select Letters. (Oxford, 1874.) 
 
 Zell. Opuscula. (Friburg, 1857.) 
 
 Zumpt (C. T.) Decretum Tergestinum. (Berlin, 1847.) 
 
 Zumpt (A. W.) Studia Romana. (Berlin, 1859.) 
 
 Commentationes Epigraphicae. 2 vols. (Berlin, 
 
 1850.) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductory .... . . . . i 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 What a province was. How acquired. Use of ' client princes.' 
 How secured and organised. Moral aspect of the Roman 
 rule 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Period of the Republic 40 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Period of the Early Empire 89 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Period of the Later Empire 154 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The System of Taxation . . . . . .179 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Towns in the Provinces . . . . . .201- 
 
 Conclusion 239 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Taking the terms in their widest extent, the Roman provincial 
 administration may be said to have lasted for some 700 years, 
 from the final settlement of Sicily after the Second Punic War 
 to the apparent destruction of the system by the barbarians. 
 And as the fall of the Western Empire is a convenient external 
 mark of the success of those barbarians and of the passing 
 away of the old order of things, the date of that event, a.d. 476, 
 might be taken as the limit in time between which and B.C. 210, 
 the limit on the other side, that administration existed. But 
 within this larger whole there are smaller wholes, each of which 
 forms in itself a unity. And indeed if we press the terms 
 Roman Provincial Administration closely, the limit might be 
 put earlier, with the accession of Constantine. For then that 
 administration ceased to be in any sense distinctively Roman. 
 It has been said ^ that with Constantine modern history begins ; 
 and there are many reasons which make the date of his acces- 
 sion a better division — where all such divisions are necessarily 
 arbitrary — ^between the old world and the new than the date 
 which marks the fall of the Empire of the West. The tendencies 
 which came to their full growth in the reign of Constantine had 
 existed many of them for centuries, all of them at least since 
 Diocletian. But coming to their completion as they did with 
 him, Constantine seems to gather up and concentrate in his 
 reign the forces which were a legacy from the past and were 
 to form the future. Constantine adopted a new religion and 
 created a new capital. The one act marks the final adoption 
 of the religion which is that of the Western world, and the other 
 brought into existence the Byzantine Empire, Europe's ' bulwark 
 
 ~J y ' Freeman, Essays, 2nd Series, p. 310. 
 
 B 
 
2 ROMAN FROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 'gainst the Ottoman.' The monarchy which he constituted, 
 with its hierarchy of counts and its briUiant court, was the 
 model which later princes copied; and by his abandonment 
 of Rome the Pope was made possible ^ But .Constantine's 
 reign, if it looks towards the future, can be only understood in 
 the hght of the past from which it grew. The division of the 
 Empire into the four great prefectures was the thought of 
 Diocletian, and the principle at its base had long before been 
 anticipated by the subdivision of the_ governments of Gaul and 
 Syria*- So the fatal change in the municipal towns, which 
 shows itself so clearly in this reign, was the result of the slow 
 canker of centuries. The division instituted between civil and 
 military functions was mainly the work of Diocletian, but had 
 been anticipated under the early Empire in the governments of 
 Africa^ and Egypt*- The counts (comites) of Constantine 
 grew out of the retinue which accompanied the Emperor on 
 a provincial progress ; and occur at least as early as the reign 
 of M. Aurelius ^ The centrifugal tendencies which had sub- 
 sisted in the Empire along with its great and at one time 
 prevailing tendencies to unity, had been already marked by 
 Diocletian's practical abandonment of Rome ; and indeed the 
 division between East and West had always and necessarily 
 existed, and could be made use of by Mark Antony as well as 
 by Vespasian. Similarly Christianity was of course no new 
 growth of the reign of Constantine, but then won the fruit of 
 centuries of enduring effort. 
 
 If then Constantine's reign, as consummating the past and 
 as heralding the future, is a good limit to this great subject, we 
 
 ' Freeman, Essays, 2nd Series, p. 310. 
 
 ^ For the dread felt by the emperors of all the resources of Gaul or Syria 
 being in one man's hands, see a discussion by Zumpt, Comm. Epig. ii. 133 ; 
 Tac. Ann. xiii. 53, xiv. 57. 
 
 ' Boissiere, L'Afrique Romaine, p. 246. 
 
 ' Arnold's Later Roman Commonwealth, ii. 375. 
 
 " See two inscriptions in Renier, Melanges d'Epigraphie, p. 80 and p. 76, 
 where among a man's titles occurs — ' comiti divi Veri per Orientem,' and 
 ' comiti ejusdem in Oriente.' 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 are still left with a period of 500 years, for which it is very 
 necessary to find subdivisions. Fortunately this is not difficult. 
 The immense and far-reaching changes which the Empire 
 introduced into the administration of the provinces mark off 
 in the clearest way, and yet without any absolute breach of 
 continuity, the Republican period from the period of the early 
 Empire. It may be questioned whether we should make this 
 latter period begin with Thapsus or with Actium, with Caesar 
 or with Augustus. But the short eighteen months which Caesar 
 had of supreme power in Rome were too little for him to do 
 anything but sketch out the lines of a system which Augustus 
 developed and realised, and we shall do better to fix the begin- 
 ning of the Empire, as does Dean Merivale ', on the day of the 
 fight in the bay of Actium. It is more open to dispute as to 
 where the next break should come. The Julian Emperors 
 in a sense, as being of the same blood and claiming the same 
 divine origin, form a whole by themselves; and the terrible 
 year of civil war which followed the last of them may be 
 regarded as a cataclysm which marks the end of one period 
 and the beginning of another. But for our purpose it is not 
 so. The Flavian emperors who followed do not introduce new 
 principles of administration ; though their origin in the will of 
 the army marks so far a new departure. Nor will the fact that 
 Suetonius makes his collection end with Domitian induce us to 
 regard the ' Twelve Caesars ' as vitally distinguished from the 
 rest. A happier era is inaugurated when the choice of the 
 Senate becomes the origin of imperial authority in the person 
 of Nerva ; but otherwise the emperors from Nerva to Marcus 
 Aurelius, the Antonines as they are sometimes loosely called, 
 may be regarded as continuing the best traditions of the Flavian 
 emperors. With Marcus Aurelius comes a real break. He is 
 the first emperor of the frontiers. From his time onwards the 
 Empire has to maintain a long struggle with the barbarians; 
 and the emperors that succeed one another in such breathless 
 haste are the mere nominees of the soldiers. More important 
 
 ' History of the Romans, iii. 328. 
 B 2 
 
4 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 for our purpose are the changes in the administration, some 
 of which had .been operating silently for some time, but 
 which now come prominently forward. The taxation for in- 
 stance became felt as an intolerable burden, and its amount 
 is henceforth continually rising. The municipia were more 
 and more perverted from their original constitution; and the 
 municipal oflSces became an instrument of oppression. The 
 gain of the provinces upon Italy, which had been going on for 
 centuries, completed itself with the edict of Caracalla. The 
 progress towards administrative uniformity is shown by the 
 perpetual provincial edict of M. Aurelius. Above all, the 
 reforms of Diocletian were the most important changes that 
 had taken place in the administration since Augustus ^- I pro- 
 pose therefore to make the second division of the subject at the 
 death of M. Aurelius, not absolutely binding myself to a defi-. 
 nite date, but taking that to be approximately the period at 
 which the changes which distinguish the Early from the Later 
 Ernpire TOOst clearly manifested themselves. But I cannot hope 
 to include all I have to say in three sections on the Republic, 
 the Early Empire, and the Later Empire. The financial 
 arrangements, for instance, are too important not to be dis- 
 cussed by themselves; and the same applies to the adminis- 
 tration of justice ■■'. Above all it is essential to form some idea 
 of the constitution of the towns within a Roman province. 
 The towns were the basis of the Roman administration ; through 
 them the taxes were collected, and in them justice was adminis- 
 tered. But, more than this, a large share of local liberty was 
 left to them. Even Rome would have found herself unequal 
 to the burden of governing her heterogeneous empire if she 
 had not left a good deal to the municipal administrations. 
 Discoveries of the highest interest and importance in the course 
 
 ' ' Nous ne craignons pas d'etre dementis par les juges competents en 
 affirmant que la revolution qui a substitue sous Auguste la forme imperiale 
 a la forme republicaine, a et^ moins radicale que celle qu'ont operee les 
 reformes de Diocletien et de Constantin.' Desjardins, i. 12. 
 
 ^ I have not been able, at present, to devote a separate chapter to the 
 administration of justice. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 of the last twenty years have thrown a flood of light on the 
 internal constitution of a provincial town. The active pros- 
 perous life of these innumerable towns is the fairest feature of 
 Roman rule ; and the question of how much was left to the 
 magistrates, and how much had to be referred to the governor 
 at different periods, is perhaps the most interesting as it is the 
 most diflBcult inquiry connected with our subject. 
 
 So much for the way in which I propose to divide the sub- 
 ject. But there are one or two general remarks still to make. 
 It is exceedingly difficult in discussing the provinces of Rome 
 not to talk of them as a whole, and as a fixed whole. But 
 in truth the Roman world is a world continually growing, 
 developing, changing, always tending to a uniformity but never 
 fully reaching it. The difference between East and West is 
 never obliterated, and at last victoriously asserts itself. The 
 Romans showed greater power of assimilation than has been 
 shown by any other conquerors ; but even they could not assi- 
 milate a civilisation like that of Greece, which was in some 
 respects superior to their own. So the Greek East was never 
 organised, after the strict type of the Roman province, into 
 colonies and municipia. If we want to see typical examples 
 of the Roman rule we must look to the West, not to the East ; 
 to the 'savage and barbarous tribes,' as Cicero^ calls them, 
 of Africa, Gaul, or Spain, rather than to the polished Greeks 
 of Achaia and Asia Minor. It is to the West also that we must 
 look for instances of another important distinction, that be- 
 tween forward and backward provinces. By forward provinces 
 I mean those which took kindly to Roman rule and flourished 
 under it, for instance Spain and Gaul ; by backward provinces 
 those which either from having a different and equally advanced 
 civihsation of their own, as Greece proper, or from a dead 
 weight of barbarism, as Rhaetia, were unable to move in the 
 ordinary Roman lines. On the whole, those provinces gained 
 
 ' Ad Qu. Fr. I. i. 9 ; ' Afris aut Hispanis aut Gallis . . . immanibus ac 
 barbaris nationibus.' With these he contrasts the Greeks of Asia Minor — 
 ' quod est ex hominum omni genere humanissimum.' See § i of the same letter. 
 
6 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 most where there was least to lose. Rome was extraordinarily 
 successful in civilising barbarians, not perhaps so successful 
 in dealing with races already of a high type. It is also to be 
 borne in mind that there is a great difference between different 
 parts of the same country ; between Northern and Southern 
 Gaul* and between Northern and Southern Spain'*. So it is 
 easy to understand the reason of these countries having been 
 split up into several provinces, and the difference made between 
 the different parts of Spain when the provinces were divided 
 between the Senate and the Emperor. Or take the modem 
 country of Switzerland, the western part of which was in Gaul 
 and immensely rich and prosperous, full of important towns 
 and possessing an extensive commerce, the eastern part in 
 Rhaetia wholly uncivilised. Perhaps the modern division of 
 languages in Switzerland is due to the way in which Roman 
 civilisation had sunk into the western parts, so that the AUe- 
 manni could not wholly displace it, while in the eastern parts 
 the tongue of the conquerors easily prevailed '- 
 
 These remarks illustrate the danger of general statements on 
 the provinces. as a whole. I shall therefore endeavour always 
 to state to what particular province or provinces any such 
 statements I may make specially refer. At the same time it 
 would be absurd to ignore the large and increasing element 
 of unity. The administration was everywhere of much the 
 same type; a good governor in Cilicia was very similar to 
 a good governor in Spain; and a Verres in Asia was much the 
 same as a Verres in Sicily. The towns beginning with the 
 greatest possible varieties of constitution tended more and more 
 to the one municipal type ; and by the time of the Later Empire 
 the rights of individuals were the same over the Roman world. 
 It is not therefore necessary to avoid generalisations altogether 
 in speaking of the provinces ; but it is necessary to be cautious 
 in their employment. 
 
 ' Mommsen, Schweiz in Romischer Zeit, p. 1 7. 
 ' Arnold, Later Roman Commonwealth, ii. 366. 
 ^ Mommsen, Schweiz in Romischer Zeit, p. 17. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 What a province was. How acquired. Use of ' client-princes.' How 
 secured ; and organised. Moral aspect of the Roman nJe. 
 
 Whatever may be the derivation of the word ' Provincia V The word ■ 
 it is at any rate indisputable that it was not always used in the ' P™'"""='^- 
 special sense which became attached to it under the later 
 Republic. ' Provincial says Mommsen^, ' as is well known, de- 
 noted in the older language not what we now call province^ a 
 definite space assigned as a district to a standing chief magistrate, 
 but simply the functions prescribed for the particular magistrate 
 by law, decree of the senate, or agreement.' The word is of 
 course frequently used in the early books of Livy long before 
 there was any question of provinces in the later sense; and 
 even under the Empire instances of a similar use occur". 
 When the first transmarine provinces were formed their govern- 
 ment was assigned to the existing magistrates, as the business 
 which they had to discharge during their year of office *. Very 
 soon and very naturally the word came to be applied to the 
 district itself in which that government was exercised, The 
 
 ' Mr. Capes, in his recent edition of Livy, xxi and xxii, p. 1 74, adheres 
 to Festus' derivation of the word from pro-sincere, and refuses to have any- 
 thing to say to- the current explanation of it as a contraction oi providentia. 
 He says that the word is ' strictly used only in coimexion with the imperium 
 of a Roman magistrate, that is, with military and judicial functions.' But 
 (apart from linguistic difficulties) it is hard to see the fitness of the deriva- 
 tion, if the word can be applied, as of course it can and is (cf. Cic. in Verr. 
 vi. 15), to judicial functions. And, moreover, the word is certainly used of 
 the authority of the questor, who had potestas but not imperium. See § Ixvii 
 of the Lex Repetundarum, C. I. L. i. p. 62 ; Cic. pro Murena, 8 ; Suet. 
 Claud. 24. 
 
 ' ii. 71, note. ' Zumpt, Comm. Epig. ii. 100. * Mommsen, ii. 67. 
 
ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 word ' Conventus ' has had a precisely similar history. Origin- 
 ally applied to the assembly of Roman citizens as a provincial 
 town to meet the governor and act with him in trying law-suits 
 on definite occasions, it came to be applied to ' territory from 
 which the people assembled, and to the place in which the 
 assembly was held ^.' 
 Origin and It docs not come within the range of this essay to narrate the 
 Rome's" ""^ history of Rome's foreign conquests. They may be said to have 
 foreign -j^d their Origin in the Second Punic War. That war had 
 conques s. ^^^^ j^^^. ^^ necessity of the possession of the ' suburban 
 Sicily,' as Cicero calls it, if only for her own safety; and the 
 same imperative reasons applied to Sardinia. The war had 
 brought Roman armies into Spain, and once planted there, 
 they remained, severe and unpopular though the service there 
 was for many years. Philip of Macedonia's half-hearted assist- 
 ance of Hannibal (together with his aggressive foreign policy ^) 
 secured him the active enmity of Rome ; and it had all along 
 been obvious that in the struggle between Rome and Car-thage 
 Greece would necessarily be the prize of the conqueror. One 
 may believe this without at all condemning the philhellenism of 
 the better class of Romans as hypocritical and disingenuous. 
 Having once decisively asserted herself in the world across the 
 sea', it was inevitable that in that chaos of factions and intrigues 
 Rome should be called upon to play a more and more decisive 
 part. There is evidence enough to warrant Mommsen * in his 
 view that Rome's foreign conquests were not at first intentional 
 and deliberate, but that her immediate aim was to make herself 
 secure and all-powerful in Italy. But wars sprang up which 
 she could not avoid, or which she had not expected °; her 
 chents and allies made demands upon her which it was im- 
 
 ' See Mr. Long's note to Caes. B. G. i. 54 ; p. 100 of his edition. 
 ' Mommsen, ii. 226, 229. 
 
 ^ * Provinciae quae mart dividuntur ' is Tacitus' name for the Greek East ;• 
 Ann. ii. 43. 
 
 * ii. 312. Cf. Freeman, Essays, 2nd Series, p. 253. 
 
 * Cic. pro Fonteio, 19 : ' cum tot bella aut a nobis necessario suscipi- 
 antur, aut subito atque improvisa nascantur.' 
 
HOW THE PROVINCES WERE ACQUIRED. 9 
 
 possible to refuse, and the Senate saw itself committed to the 
 conqtiest and administration of half the known world, before 
 having clearly made up its mind whether such conquests were 
 advisable or the reverse. But in any case it was not long 
 before the sweets of conquest made themselves felt. The 
 remission of the tribute paid by Roman citizens in the year 167 
 marks an epoch. That remission was the direct consequence 
 of foreign conquest. The sums poured by PauUus into the 
 treasury were so immense and unprecedented as to make 
 it unnecessary to demand the money of Romans for the pur- 
 poses of the stated When C. Gracchus added the taxation 
 of Asia to the treasury ^ and fed the people by doles of foreign 
 com, the new system of things stands plainly revealed. The 
 Romans are to rule and enjoy, their subjects to serve and pay. 
 Along with these positive material advantages went an increase 
 of the mere military spirit, of the love of conquest for its own 
 sake, and of pride in the increasing extent of the subject world, 
 till we find under the Empire, even so moderate and sensible 
 a man as Agricola seriously meditating the barren conquest of 
 Ireland, so that the Roman arms might be carried everywhere, 
 and no country might be tempted from its allegiance by the 
 spectacle of another's freedom '- 
 
 Along with all this must be reckoned, in one case at all 
 events, the necessity Rome lay under of securing herself against 
 barbarian invasion. This was one of the reasons which led her 
 on to the conquest of all Gaul. Caesar* himself hints at the 
 danger of the Germans being allowed to settle in that country, 
 and there prepare themselves for a march southwards ; and the 
 facts seem to show that without Roman aid the Gauls could 
 have made no effectual resistance to their invaders. The more 
 rhetorical Cicero" in two well-known passages reminds his 
 hearers of Rome's previous dangers from the ' savage natures 
 and vast multitudes ' of the Gauls, and congratulates them that 
 
 • Mommsen, ii. 329. ^ lb. iii. 115, 121. ' Tac. Agr. 24. 
 
 ' Caes. B. G. i. 33. " Cic. de prov. Consul 3, in Pis. 33. 
 
princes, 
 
 lo ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION, 
 
 the barrier of the Alps is no longer needed for the protection 
 of Italy. The same reasons made it necessary for Rome in 
 a later period to possess herself of the Danubian provinces. 
 But conquest, whether deliberate or unintentional, was not the 
 only means by which the Roman dominion spread. Pergamum, 
 Bithynia, Cyrene, Egypt were bequeathed to Rome by will; 
 and Rome did not refuse the splendid gifts. That it was not 
 really independent and powerful monarchs who so acted is, 
 however, obvious ; and a more particular account of these 
 ' client-princes,' as Mommsen has called them, will make Rome's 
 final success in administering and assimilating her proyinces 
 easier to understand. 
 CHem- This system (for a system it was) lasted far into the times 
 
 of the Empire ; but the period when it was most extensively 
 used, and was least beneficial, was from the commencement of 
 Roman conquest in the East up to the definite settlement of 
 Macedonia *. Till then the Roman Senate hardly seems to have 
 made up its mind as to whether definitely to take over the 
 countries it had conquered or not. So we find the petty 
 kings of Asia Minor, the Seleucidae of Syria, and the Ptolemies 
 of Egypt left in possession of their dominions subject to the 
 hegemony, which was rather practically understood than posi- 
 tively defined, of Rome. So, as Mommsen '' has pointed out, 
 they had neither freedom nor orden They were not free, 
 because Roman senatorial commissions were continually regu- 
 lating their aifairs ; and their constant quarrels with one another 
 could neither come to a definite issue, nor be controlled by 
 a sovereign authority. No wonder then that both the Romans 
 and the princes themselves became tired of so unsatisfactory 
 an arrangements The latter did not care to leave to their 
 children the empty shadow of power' with which there was 
 neither honour nor profit; and the Romans by their definite 
 annexation of Macedonia showed that they had at last made 
 
 > Mommsen, iii. 142. » lb., iii. 43, 67, and the whole chapter. 
 
 ' ' Umbra regis ' is the expression of Tacitus, Ann. xv. 6, for one of these 
 princes. 
 
USE OF • CLIENT-PRINCES' 
 
 up their minds to a more decided policy. But this is not the 
 last of a system which we find in full force under Claudius; 
 and we may be sure that it would not have lasted so long if it 
 had not possessed, in the eyes of the Romans, some positive 
 advantages. Tacitus^ speaks. of it as 'the ancient and long- 
 recognised practice of the Roman people, which seeks to secure 
 among the instruments of dominion even kings themselves.' 
 It was especially the system, of Augustus, who describes his 
 application of it in these words: 'Greater Armenia, when, after 
 the murder of its King Artaxias, I could have made it a pro- 
 vince, I preferred, according to the example of our ancestors, 
 to entrust that kingdom to Tigranes, son of king Artavasdes, 
 grandson of king Tigranes, through the agency of Tib. Nero, 
 who was then my stepson. And the same nation, when it 
 afterwards revolted, on its subjugation by my son Gains, I 
 entrusted for government to king Ariobarzanes, son of Arta- 
 banus king of the Medes, ancf after his death to his son 
 Artavasdes; and when he too was slain, I sent Tigranes, who 
 was sprung from the royal stock of Armenia, into that kingdom''.' 
 But Cilicia is a better instance of the system than Armenia. 
 Augustus made it his policy to encourage the petty kings in this 
 quarter : thus we find a dynasty of Olbe, and a dynasty of 
 Mount Amanus "- In this way we find the province cut short 
 more and more till it meant only the plain country of Cilicia. 
 This distinction between Cilicia Campestris and Cilicia Aspera 
 is the key to the extensive use of the system in this country. No 
 diflSculty was found in thoroughly administering and Romanising 
 the level country from an early date. Tarsus * was a very con- 
 siderable city long before St. Paul mentions it. But it was 
 otherwise with the fierce hillmen whom the Romans had so 
 often hunted down in their fastnesses, and with so little perma- 
 nent effect. The description which Cicero ' gives us of a siege 
 
 ' Tac. Agr. 14. 
 
 ' Mon. Ancyr. § 27. I translate literally, imitating the formality of the 
 original. Cf. Suet. Aug. 48. ^ Marquardt, i. 227. 
 
 ' See, for instance, Hixtins, Bell. Alex. 66. = Ad AM. v. 20. 
 
12 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 of one of these hill-forts in Mount Amanus reads like a de- 
 scription of a raid upon the hillmen of Burmah or Afghanistan. 
 The difference between the men of the plains and of the hills 
 is strikingly illustrated by a passage where Tacitus ^ seems to 
 purposely contrast the Clitae on their ' rocky mountains ' with 
 the peaceful ' farmers,' ' townsfolk,' ' merchants,' shipowners ' 
 whom they harried in the plain beneath. Rome could not have 
 brought these districts and such as these directly under her rule 
 without a large mihtary force, and great expense with very little 
 profit. And yet it was impossible for her to leave them alto- 
 gether uncontrolled. So she interfered with their affairs so far 
 as to appoint princes who would rule in her interest, and whose 
 task it was to tame and civilise their subjects till they were fit 
 to come directly under Roman rule. Factions within the tribe 
 itself, or quarrels between different members of the ruling house, 
 ■would give her frequent occasion for such interference ; indeed 
 we find that on more than one occasion kings are requested 
 from her by nations beyond the frontier '■=- As it was to be 
 expected that such princes should frequently have to control 
 their subjects' disaffection, it was a common practice to support 
 the Roman nominee by a small detachment of Roman troops. 
 So when the Tigranes whom Nero had appointed to the govern- 
 ment of Armenia arrived in his province, ' he was supported 
 with a force of a thousand legionaries, three allied cohorts, and 
 two squadrons of cavalry, that he might the more easily secure 
 his new kingdom'.' Two other passages of Tacitus* prove 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xii. 55. 
 
 ^ Parthia is of course the principal instance. See Tac. Ann. xii. 10, 11, 
 xiii. 9, and the summary of Roman relations with Parthia under the 'first 
 emperors by Messrs. Church and Brodribb, p. 396. But the same thing 
 occurs in the case of the Suevi, Ann. xii. 29, 30 ; Cherusci, Ann. xi. 16 ; see 
 also Tac. Germ. 42 ; Bructeri, Plin. Ep. ii. 7. Arrian, Periplus (Geog. 
 Graeci Minores, ed. Muller), writing to the emperor an account of his voyage 
 round the coasts of the Black Sea, says, § 15 : 'Next to the Apsitae come 
 the Abasci ; their king is Rhesmagas ; he holds his kingdom of you.' § 27 
 he says the same of the king of the Zilchi. 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xiv. 26. » lb. xii. 15, 45. 
 
USE OF ' CUEN2--PRINCES: 13 
 
 that these troops were permanently stationed in the countr}' and 
 garrisoned strong places in it. A few cohorts and a Roman 
 knight protected the prince of the Bosporus ; and such troops 
 though insignificant in numbers would act as a nucleus for the 
 native army ' and form a model which princes like Deiotarus ^, 
 ambitious of having troops trained after the Roman fashion, 
 would imitate. Even if there were not troops stationed actually 
 within the kingdom, the governor of the neighbouring province 
 would send them in case of need. For instance, when the 
 Clitae revolted against the process of Romanisation which their 
 king was applying to them, the revolt was put down by troops 
 sent by the governor of Syria ^. The particular grievance 
 against which the Clitae revolted is an illustration of how these 
 ' subject princes *' of Rome broke in their unruly subjects 
 to the most unpleasant necessities of the Roman rule. ' They 
 were compelled in Roman fashion to render an account of their 
 revenue, and submit to tribute,' says Tacitus^. We find the 
 same thing in Cappadocia, where king Ariobarzanes is instructed 
 by Cicero's predecessor, Appius, to levy a tribute upon his 
 subjects ^ This was advised by Appius, apparently that Ario- 
 barzanes might be enabled to pay his debts ; and if other such 
 princes were as heavily indebted to aristocratic Roman usurers 
 as was this unfortunate monarch, the tribute must have been 
 instituted everywhere. It should be added that some, at all 
 events, of these kingdoms paid a tribute directly to Rome '. 
 
 It is obvious of what service such a system as this could be 
 to Rome. If these princes were, as Tacitus " says, protected 
 by the greatness of Rome against external Empires, it is also 
 true that they acted as a barrier between Rome and such 
 Empires ", to defer or altogether prevent the otherwise inevitable 
 collisions. Without saddling herself with absolute responsibility 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xii. 16. ' Hirtius, Bell. Alex. 34 ; Cic. Phil. xi. 13. 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. vi. 41. ' ' Inservientum regum ; ' Tac. Hist. ii. 81. 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. vi. 41. ° Cic. ad Att. vi. 1. § 3. 
 
 ' e. g. Herod ; Merivale, iii. 386. * Tac. Ann. iv. 5. 
 
 » Hirtius, Bell. Alex. 78. 
 
14 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 or binding herself to interfere when it was inconvenient, Rome 
 had her work done for her in the way in which she would have 
 it. These princes were thoroughly subservient and responsible 
 to their masters' ; were often themselves brought up at Rome ^ ; 
 and quite understood what work Rome expected of them. A 
 passage from Strabo ' shows the nature of that work in a few 
 words. He is describing the settlement of Africa after the 
 destruction of Carthage. ' The Romans paid particular attention 
 to Masanasses on account of his great abilities and friendship 
 for them. For he it was who formed the nomads to civil life, 
 and directed their attention to husbandry.' If an inscription of 
 Britain is correctly read, it seems to mention Cogidubni Regis 
 (also known from Tac. Agr. 14) legati Augusii in Brilannia ; 
 and Htibner supposes this client-prince to have actually dis- 
 charged the functions of imperial legate in this country *. Add 
 to this that in the coins struck by such provinces the Emperor's 
 head appears on one side, and that of the prince on the other ^ ; 
 and the part played by such princes as representing Rome to 
 their subjects, and preparing them for the rule of Rome, will 
 be fully understood "^ 
 Means of Where Rome did not make use of this system she secured 
 proviiKie. her hold upon a country by a mixture of policy and force. To 
 win over one tribe at all events, or to play one prince against 
 another were easy devices, which hardly ever failed of success. 
 The want of unity in uncivilised races made conquest easy ' ; 
 and traitors were never wanting, when there was none of that 
 
 ' Cf. Tac. Ann. xi. 8. 
 
 ° The case of Juba, king of Mauretania imder Augustus, is a remarkable 
 one. He was a thorough Roman, and a trained man of letters ; Plut. Jul. 
 55. ' Euseben et Philoromeum ' are the noticeable epithets with which 
 Cicero describes Ariobarzanes ; Ad Fam. xv. 2. § 4. 
 
 ' Strabo, xvii. 3. § 15 ; Mommsen, ii. 206. 
 
 ' C. I. L. vii. p. 18 ; and Hiibner's note. 
 
 " Church and Brodribb, Annals, p. 402 ; Marquardt, i. 1 50. 
 
 ' See Strabo, iv. 5. § 3 ; Marquardt, i. 343 ; Boissiere, L'Afrique Romaine, 
 p. 415, for a discussion of the rationale of the system. 
 
 ' Cf. Tac. Agr. 12. 
 
IfOfF THE PROVINCES WERE SECURED. 15 
 
 national unity which would make treason seem a crime. Thus 
 the Moschi were won over in Asia Minor' ; Galgacus complains 
 of the number of his fellow-countrymen who served against 
 him in Britain ^ ; and Caesar availed himself of the friendship of 
 the Remi and ^dui in Gaul'. Similarly the mutual jealousies of 
 the petty princes of an invaded country were dexterously made 
 available for Roman ends. So we find the Romans in Britain 
 upholding a wife against her husband, and sending troops to 
 support her when in difiBculties *- But these were merely tempo- 
 rary expedients ; and once thoroughly established in a country, 
 Rome secured herself there by very different measures. Where - 
 ever, owing to the natural difficulties of the country, or the 
 exceptional spirit of the people, repression was necessary, there 
 was a chain of ' fortresses with military garrisons ^.' We find Forts. 
 these for instance among the Silures in Britain*, and Tacitus 
 commends the promptitude with which they were established 
 in newly-conquered districts of the same province by Agricola'. 
 There was of course also a line of these along every frontier ; 
 for example (not to mention more important but more familiar 
 instances) on the northern border of the Narbonensis in the 
 time of Caesar '- Colonies again, when planted in a newly- Colonies, 
 conquered country, were really nothing but such fortified out- 
 posts on a larger scale. This is the account which Cicero' 
 gives of Narbo Martins (Narbonne) in Southern Gaul; and 
 Tacitus ^° says much the same in his brief and pointed manner 
 of the colony of Camulodunum (Maldon.?) in Britain. The 
 natives themselves regarded them quite in this light, and hated 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xiii. 37, ' Tac. Agr. 32. ' Caes. B G. v. 54, vii. 54. 
 
 ' Tac Ann. xii. 40 ; Hist. iii. 45. " Tac. Ann. xiv. 33. ' Ibid. 
 
 ' Tac. Agr. 20, 22. ' Caes. B. G. vii. 8. 
 
 ' Cic. pro Fonteio, v. § 13 : ' Est in eadem provincia Narbo Martins, 
 colonia nostronim civium, specula populi Romani ac propugnaculum istis 
 ipsis nationibus oppositum at objectum.' The same metaphor occurs Cic. 
 de Leg. Agr. ii. 27. 
 
 " Ann. xii. 32 : 'Colonia Camulodunum valida veteranorum manu dedu- 
 ■ citur in agros captivos, subsidium adversus rebelles, et imbuendis sociis ad 
 officia legum.' 
 
l6 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 them as the ' headquarters of tyranny ^ ; ' and that their hatred 
 was sometimes not without good cause appears from the 
 detestable oppressions practised by these same colonists of 
 Roads. Camulodunum 2. More important perhaps than any of these 
 measures yere the great military roads which it was the first 
 object of Rome to drive across a conquered country. These 
 magnificent causeways, raised considerably above the level of 
 the ground, and with a deep ditch on each side of them from 
 which the earth that formed them had been dug, were in 
 themselves eminently defensible, and enabled troops to be 
 massed on any given point with security and despatch. The 
 great Egnatian way, running from Dyrrhachium to Thessalonica, 
 ' that military road of ours,' as Cicero ' calls it, ' which extends 
 through Macedonia to the Hellespont,' was completed very 
 shortly after Rome had possessed herself of Macedonia, and 
 is still the main avenue of communication in those countries '- 
 Besides these definite and tangible measures Rome secured her 
 position by the attractions of commerce and a higher material 
 civilisation. The Roman trader was ubiquitous. He even 
 preceded the Roman arms ; thus we find him crossing the 
 Great St. Bernard and paying toll to the barbarians before 
 either end of the pass was secured by Roman troops °; and 
 wherever the Roman arms were carried, the merchants followed 
 in crowds '*. The immense and permanent diffusion of Roman 
 citizens over the world which Rome had conquered was one of 
 the chief agencies at work in levelling differences and establish- 
 ing a sort of unity between its heterogeneous parts. So again 
 the higher civilisation of Rome exercised an immense attraction 
 upon backward races '. The Romans quite understood this ; 
 and an interesting and characteristic passage of Tacitus ' shows 
 
 ' Tac. Agr. 16. " Ann. xiv. 51 ; cf. Ann. 1. 59. 
 
 ' De Prov. Cons. 2. ' Mommsen, iii. 43. ^ Caes. B. G. iii. i. 
 
 ° Mommsen, iii. 40; Finlay, i. 47; Died. Sic. v. 26; Duruy, iii. 257, 
 note. 
 
 ' This is illustrated by the case of the Ubii ; see Tac. Hist. iv. 28. 
 ° Tac. Agr. 21. 
 
'DIVIDE ET IMPERA: i>j 
 
 us Agricola of set purpose introducing the Britons to the 
 pleasant luxuries of their conquerors. 'AH this in their 
 ignorance they called civilisation, when it was but a part of 
 their servitude.' 
 
 If a Roman province was conquered and secured in some First or- 
 such way as this, how was it organised after conquest ? One ff " pro?" 
 of the first objects of the Romans was to put an end to all ""'=^- 
 leagues and combinations which might prove dangerous to 
 their rule. In this they only followed that rule of divide ei-T>mdeet 
 I'mpera which had proved so successful in Italy. Such power- ™P'^''^- 
 ful leagues as that of Acha ia at once came to an end ; and if 
 the Romans still permitted the 'community of Sicily^' and 
 the ' confederacy of Lycia ^ ' to exist, it was because they were 
 quite devoid of any political significance. To break up a 
 province as far as possible into a number of isolated units was ' 
 the key-note of their poUcy. It is only under the Empire that 
 we find anything of the nature of a provincial parliament ; and 
 even then it is easy to exaggerate the significance of those 
 shadowy assemblies. Even before Rome had fully taken over 
 a country and submitted it to her rule we find her at work 
 destroying any national unity it might possess, and subdividing 
 it and isolating its diff'erent parts. Thus Macedonia was broken 
 up into four confederacies without right of intermarriage, and 
 no one was allowed to hold landed property in more than one 
 of the confederacies'. Illyria was treated in much the same 
 fashion *. The later divisions introduced by Rome for purposes 
 of jurisdiction, the conventus or circuits, tended, whether in- 
 tentionally or not, to the same result. These divisions were 
 quite apart from race distinctions, and must have contributed 
 not a little to confuse and even obliterate those distinctions. 
 Thus Strabo " writes : ' The places situated next to these 
 towards the south and extending to Mount Taurus, are so 
 
 ' Cic. in Verrem, iii. 63. 
 
 ' aiarriiia \vK'ms. See Marquardt, i. 219. The Amphictyonic Council 
 held meetings in the time of Pausanias ; Pans. Phoc. viii. 3 ; Finlay, i. 67. 
 ' Mommsen, ii. 302. * Ibid. 303. " Strabo, xiii. 4. § 12. 
 
 C 
 
l8 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 intermixed, that parts of Phrygia, Lydia, Caria, and Mysia 
 running into one another are difficult to be distinguished. The 
 Romans have contributed not a little to produce this confusion, 
 by not dividing the people according to tribes, but following 
 another principle have arranged them according to jurisdictions, 
 in which they have appointed days for holding courts and 
 administering justice.' The same ends were secured by the 
 immense variety of rights and privileges that existed over the 
 area of a single province. The towns might be either free 
 towns or allied towns, or Roman colonies, or municipia with 
 Roman or Latin right, or simply ordinary provincial towns 
 without either special privilege or special disqualification. These 
 differenceS^of right would depend largely upon the conduct 
 they had severally shown while the Romans were engaged in 
 military operations in the country. The differences of land 
 tenure followed from the same cause. Some states had their 
 lands taken from them for good ^ ; to others they were, as the 
 phrase went, ' restored.' ' What could be more humane than 
 the conduct of our ancestors,' exclaims Cicero ■', who very 
 frequently restored their property even to foreign enemies 
 whom they had conquered ? ' 
 
 The Lex Agraria of iii which regulated the tenure of the 
 land and the payment of the taxes in the province of Africa 
 is extremely puzzling from the number of tenures it establishes: 
 The three main divisions are into ager privatus ex jure Quiri- 
 tium^, that is, land assigned to Roman colonies or to Roman 
 citizens individually; ager privatus ex jure peregrino, that is, the 
 land of free or allied towns, paying no taxes ; and ager publicus 
 populi Romani*, that is, the land of conquered communities like 
 
 ' Cic. pro Fonteio, i ; cf. Pro Balbo, i8. 
 
 " De leg. Agr. i. 6 : ' Quid enim illis clementius qui etiam extemis hosti- 
 bus victis sua saepissime reddiderunt ? ' Cf. in Verrem, iii. 21, 37, v. 54. 
 
 ' This land would be that of the colonies (C. Gracchus had powers for 
 more than merely one ; see Sail. Jug. 42) founded by C. Gracchus. 
 
 ' This land would be that of the seven free cities, Utica, Thapste, &c., 
 which assisted Rome against Carthage. See this important law (commonly 
 
VARIETY OF PRIVILEGE. 
 
 19 
 
 Carthage, which became the absolute property of Rome. But 
 this was not all. Some towns which had started with the same 
 rights as others, gained for this or that reason privileges to 
 which the others were strangers. Immunity from taxation 
 would be the chief of these, and adventurers like Antony ' or 
 goodnatured emperors like Claudius^ were far from unready 
 to make a bargain or a present of such privileges. It is obvious 
 from all this how absolutely isolated and independent would 
 become the interests of each single town within a Roman 
 province. From Rome a town might get everything, but from 
 its neighbours nothing. The citizens of one town were not as 
 a rule allowed to hold land within the territory of another ^ ; 
 and when we find a number of provincial towns cooperating 
 for any purpose of common advantage, as, for instance, the 
 Spanish municipia that combined their subscriptions to build 
 a bridge over the Tagus *, the case is exceptional enough to 
 excite attention. Such an instance of close intercourse again 
 as that of the hospilium between different tribes in the north of 
 Spain, of which there is epigraphic evidence ", is almost without 
 a parallel. Hospilium with Romans, — that was another matter ; 
 between Rome and the provinces the communication was easy 
 and incessant ; but between province and province, or between 
 different parts of the same province, it was never, even under 
 the Empire which could afford to be more liberal in those 
 respects than the Republic, more than tolerated. 
 
 But though in these respects Rome was inflexible enough, Adapta- 
 the great merit of her administration of the provinces is, on the Ro^an*^ '''^ 
 whole, the pliancy and adaptability of it. ' Everywhere where Administra- 
 the Roman conquest had found a good municipal and financial 
 organisation, it had remained content with it '.' The Romans 
 
 but erroneously called the Lex Thoria) in C. I. L. i. 90, and Mommsen's 
 full discussion of it, ib. i. 96. 
 
 ' For the traffic in such matters, of which Cicero accuses Antony, see 
 Phil. i. 10, ii. 14, 17, 36, 38. 
 
 * Tac. Ann. xii. 58, 60; Suet. Claud. 25. ' Mommsen, ii. 68. 
 
 * C. I. L. ii. 760. * Orelli, 156. • Egger, Examen critique, p. 44. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 were not cursed with the passion for uniformity; and as 
 Tacitus^ said of them, 'value the reaKty of the Empire, and 
 Illustrated disregard its empty show.' The extent to which they left the 
 of Egypt.'^ pre-existing arrangements unaltered in Egypt is an extraordinary 
 proof of their wise conservatism. In the first place, they left 
 the religion of the people quite untouched, and Roman gover- 
 nors were not above associating themselves with their cere- 
 monies, and devoutly listening to the miraculous statue of 
 Memnon I The arrangements of the Ptolemies remained the 
 groundwork of the government ; the Roman governor stepped 
 into their throne, was in the eyes of the Egyptians a vice-king, 
 and had none of the ordinary insignia of a Roman magistrate. 
 The great peculiarity of Egypt was the subdivision of the land, 
 and here, from the absolute necessity of definite and permanent 
 arrangements in a country whose soil was annually submerged, 
 the Romans were more than usually conservative. The main 
 division was into three Epistrategiae, which were in fact Upper, 
 Middle, and Lower Egypt. Each of these was divided into 
 nomes ; the nomes were again divided into toparchies, and the 
 toparchies into K^iuii and to'ttoi. Each of the three great divisions 
 was under an emarpaTriyos, to whom the minor magistrates were 
 responsible. Originally there were thirty-six nomes; later on 
 forty-seven can be pointed out, and there were perhaps more. 
 Each nome had a town for its capital, but the town was only a 
 part of the nome, and by no means the source of authority in it, 
 as would have been the case in Greece, or indeed in any other 
 Roman province. The magistrate of the norrie was called 
 vojiapxris, and by the Romans o-Tpanjydj. These officers were 
 native Greeks or Egyptians, appointed for three years, and 
 were no doubt the channel through which the government 
 reached the peasants. They received copies of the decrees 
 issued by the prefect in Alexandria, and it was their duty to 
 make these known to the inhabitants of their district. The 
 
 ' Tac. Ann xv. 31. 
 
 ^ Cf. Boissier, L'Empire Romain en Orient, p. 114 ; and for the protection 
 extended by Rome to foreign religions generally, Cic. in Verrem, v. ji. 
 
EGYPT. 21 
 
 copy of the decree issued by the prefect Tiberius Alexander, 
 found in the Grand Oasis in 1820 "^j is prefaced by the following 
 notice from the strategus : ' I, Julius Demetrius, strategus of 
 the Oasis of the Thebais, have published the copy of the 
 decree sent me by the prefect, Tiberius Julius Alexander, in 
 order that you may know and enjoy its beneficent provisions.' 
 There were also minor officials, known as (cm/ioypa^^aTfis, whose 
 main business it was to look after the boundaries which the 
 Nile was continually unsettling, but who also had duties con- 
 nected with the taxation of their nome^. The genuine Greek 
 towns stood wholly outside the nome arrangements, and 
 governed themselves on the usual Greek model. Alexandria 
 however, the second city of the Empire, had too unruly a 
 population to be allowed self-government, and was under a 
 juridicus Alexandriae who was named directly by the emperor. 
 Its population consisted of three distinct races ; firstly, Greeks 
 with administrative and judicial magistrates of their own 
 (e|r;y?)Tijs and dpx'8«Ka<mjy) ; Secondly, Jews, with an Ethnarch, 
 and a council of elders; thirdly, Egyptians as resident aliens 
 or jutVoiKoi'. 
 
 It is unnecessary to point out the peculiarities of this ad- The Greek 
 ministration. The general difference in the administration of ^^'' 
 
 ' This decree, along with a shorter one of a previous governor, Cn. 
 Vergilius Capito, was found by Calliaud. Letronne published it in the 
 Journal des Savans for 1822. They have been published by Elphinstone, 
 'Journey to the Oases, and Hyde, Class. Journ. xxiii. 156, the former of v^hom 
 gave a very incorrect English version of the Greek. The decrees are also 
 printed in the C. I. Gr., and (in part) by Bruns, 
 
 ' See the decree of Cn. Virgilius Capito. ' Let the imperial scribes, and 
 the KaiJi(yypafiiiaTHs and Tonoypafi/iareTs in each nome, keep account of what 
 is paid by the nome, in case any illegal exactions have been made, or any- 
 thing else of the kind. And if they do not, let them pay 60 (denarii ?) over 
 and above the sum they have thus failed to keep account of.' 
 
 ' This account of the administration of Egypt is in the main sum- 
 marised from Marquardt, i. 279-296, where the authorities are given. The 
 two decrees, of which I have also made some use, are of great interest and 
 importance, particularly with regard to the fiscal arrangements. I hope to 
 return to them later. 
 
ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 East and West illustrates the same marvellous readiness of 
 Rome to adapt herself to existing circumstances. The in- 
 compatibility of Roman and Greek was a fact she early- 
 recognised; it could not be stated more strongly than it is m 
 the Pro Flacco of Cicero ; and the policy of Rome was to leave 
 the Greek cities very much to themselves, though no doubt 
 always favouring the aristocratic element in them, as Sparta had 
 done before her, at the expense of the democratic element. 
 The Romans could not deal with Greek ecclesiae^ and the 
 contemptuous tone in which Cicero '■= speaks of the democratic 
 assemblies of Asia is a faithful echo of the ordinary Roman 
 feeling. But on the whole these towns remained wonderfully 
 unchanged, and even under the Empire, as far as inscriptions 
 go, a town like Tomi on the Black Sea might have appeared 
 wholly independent and outside of Roman rule, if it were not 
 for the occasional mention of the ' sacred rescripts ' (iepal avn.- 
 ypa(pat) of the emperor"- This conservatism was of course 
 very natural. The Romans would have given themselves an 
 immensity of trouble, if they had insisted upon a uniform ad- 
 ministration everywhere, without any proportionate advantage. 
 In the Greek cities of Asia Minor a municipal census had been 
 regularly taken *, and it was natural that the Romans when they 
 conquered the country should make use of it. In Egypt the 
 immemorial survey of the country was the basis of their ad- 
 ministration. They were indeed only too glad to be saved the 
 enormous labours of the survey in at all events one country, and 
 in the decree of Tiberius Alexander which has been preserved 
 to us we find the governor assuring the Egyptians that no 
 changes in that survey were meditated^. It is worth adding 
 
 ' A remark of Mommsen, ii. 69. 
 
 ' ' Graeculae contionis ; ' Pro Flacco, 10. § 23 ; also 7, 8, 24 of the same 
 oration. 
 
 ' Perrot, Mem. sur quelques inscriptions inedites des coles de la mer Noire, 
 Revue Archeol. 1874, p. 27. 
 
 * Appian, B. C. v. 4. For Sicily, cf. Cic. in Verrem, ii. 53-56. 
 
 ' Towards the end of the decree. 
 
siciL y. 
 
 23 
 
 that the peculiar Egyptian foot-measure was maintained under 
 their rule; just as in Gaul the leugae were not totally dispos- 
 sessed by the Roman system of measuring by miles '- 
 
 But the most marked instance of their conduct with regard to Sicily, 
 the existing arrangements of a province occurs in the case of 
 Sicily. Here the Lex Hieronica, the judicial and financial 
 arrangements established by the king who had been Rome's 
 faithful ally, were maintained in their entirety. In particular 
 the tithes which he had established were maintained as the 
 regular tax; and the arrangements by which the dealings 
 between the farmers and the middle men were controlled were 
 carefully observed. These laws, though framed with the utmost 
 care and even severity, were yet just, and, if they were observed, 
 it was, according to Cicero, impossible for the farmer of the 
 tithes to exact from the cultivator more than his due'^ The 
 Romans, when they made Sicily a province, took care that not 
 only the king's laws should be maintained, but also that they 
 should preserve his name ' ; and till the disastrous governor- 
 ship of Verres, no praetor had violated its provisions *- Even 
 the senatorial commission appointed during Verres' years of 
 office to inquire into the taxation of his province, though they 
 had at first intended to introduce reforms, ended by maintaining 
 the law of Hiero in its integrity \ 
 
 But whether the Romans were assisted by such pre-existing Lex Pro-f 
 conditions or not, they in all cases made it their business to""'^'^*" 
 establish a norm of administration in any country of which they 
 determined to make a province. A country was not thought to 
 be really conquered till it had been bound down by Roman 
 laws as well as overthrown by Roman arms. Cicero argues 
 for the prorogation of Caesar's command in Gaul on the 
 ground that the Gallic peoples had indeed been subdued, but 
 not yet attached to Rome by laws, by a fixed code of rights, by 
 a certain peace °. If this policy was thus necessary for security, 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 216. "In Verrem, iv. 8. ' lb. iv. 6. 
 
 • lb. iii. 60. ' lb. iv. 7. 
 
 • Cic. de Prov. Cons. 8 ; cf. chap. 1 2 and 14. 
 
24 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 it was of course indispensable for the future government of the 
 province. Directly after the conquest of a country, the Senate 
 dispatched a commission of ten senators, whose business it was, 
 in combination with the general, to settle its future government. 
 Thus Plutarch '' relates that LucuUus, after his campaign against 
 Mithridates, had written a sanguine letter to the Senate. Where- 
 upon just when he is in the midst of the dangers and difliculties 
 ■which shortly afterwards beset him, ' the legates arrived for the 
 setdement of Pontus, as if now entirely reduced.' They must 
 have been unwelcome visitors, but notwithstanding, it appears 
 that Lucullus with their assistance and advice did make arrange- 
 ments which Pompey afterwards annulled ^ It is not possible 
 to say exactly how much power the legates and the general 
 respectively had, but it is easy to understand that a successful 
 and powerful general would settle matters pretty much at his 
 discretion. That the Senate however gave their commissioners 
 definite instructions as to the line of conduct they were to 
 follow, appears fvom Livy's ^ account of the commission sent 
 to assist Paulus in regulating the affairs of Macedonia. On the 
 Other hand, Caesar * seems to have settled the affairs of Gaul. 
 ■without any such interference on the part of the Senate ; and 
 there is no mention of a commission to control the arrangements 
 of Pompey in Asia Minor. The norm of administration thus 
 established was called, in general terms, the ' law of the province' 
 (lex provinciae) ; but as applied to any particular province it 
 would be named after its original author. Thus we find the 
 Lex Pompeia in Pontus and Bithynia, the Lex Mummia in 
 Achaia, the Lex Rupilia in Sicily. Such arrangements were 
 called ' lex ' on the principle of delegated authority, which was 
 inherent in the Roman constitution ; if the Senate and people 
 gave a man authority to make such arrangements, they were 
 law just as much as if they had been passed in the assembly 
 and approved by the Senate ^. The Lex Rupilia, however, is 
 
 ' Plut. Lucull. 35. ^ lb. 36. ' Livy, xlv. 18. * Cf. Mommsen, iv. 313. 
 ^ Cf. Bruns, p. 105, note ; Mommsen, Stadtrechte von Salpensa unci 
 Malaga, p. 409, note. 
 
THE 'LEX PROVINCIAE: 
 
 loosely so called; for in this case there was no vote of the 
 people to authorise Rupilius, but only a senatorial decree ^- 
 This law, however, happens to be the best known to us of all 
 such constitutions, owing to the fact of Cicero having had 
 occasion to mention it in his indictment of Verres. If we ask 
 ourselves what sort of points such laws would be needed to 
 settle, it is obvious, a priori, that the financial and judicial 
 arrangements would above all require to be determined. It 
 was impossible to leave the property and persons of the subjects 
 absolutely to the caprice of the different proconsuls. The un- 
 certainty and arbitrariness which was the great evil of the 
 provincial administration under the Republic, would in this 
 case have been aggravated a thousandfold. There does not 
 appear, it is true, to have been an absolute obligation on the 
 part of the governor to obey the lex provinciae ; for Verres 
 disregarded it '^ ; but Cicero's language makes it plain that such 
 conduct was unprecedented and outrageous. As the law of 
 Hiero had already settled the financial administration, the Lex 
 Rupilia seems to have chiefly concerned itself with the ad- 
 ministration of justice, and laid down minute regulations as to 
 the courts in which actions between Sicilians and Romans, 
 between Sicilians of the same town, and between a Sicilian of 
 one town and a Sicilian of another, were to be tried ^ Sulla's 
 arrangements in Asia Minor, on the other hand, seem to have 
 been chiefly financial, and referred to the apportionment of the 
 tribute among the different cities of the province. These 
 arrangements were of the character of a ' lex provinciae,' 
 inasmuch as they remained the model for succeeding gover- 
 nors, and were for instance copied by Pompey and Flaccus *. 
 Under the Empire the financial arrangements came before every- 
 thing ; and the first thing that was done with a new province 
 was to take a census in it'. In the Republican period the 
 Romans had not learnt to be so systematic, and the general 
 
 ' Cic. in Verrem, iii. 13. '' lb. iii. 16. ' lb. iii. ij. 
 
 * Cic. pro Flacco, 14. . ^ Marquardt, ii. aot). 
 
26 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 plan was to maintain the taxes, which the country had pre- 
 viously paid, or, in some cases, to make a parade of generosity 
 by diminishing them'. Such arrangements would make part 
 of the ' lex provinciae.' In any case one innovation was always 
 carried out, naihely, the division of the country into taxation- 
 districts, each with a town for its capital, whose magistrates 
 were bound to pay over the amount of taxation due from the 
 district I This would imply little change in the cities of Greece 
 and Asia Minor, but it would mean a great deal in countries 
 like Spain and Gaul; and it helps to explain the immense 
 attention paid by the Romans to the building and enlarging of 
 towns in such provinces. 
 Essentials We are now in a position to see what the rule of the Romans 
 
 of the meant at first to the natives of the countries they had subdued. 
 Roman ' 
 
 rule. The essentials of that rule were, broadly, three ; — the tribute, 
 
 the conscription, and Ro man laws. In antiquity conquest 
 meant essentially the power to impose a tribute upon the 
 conquered. To get your taxes paid for you was the sufficient 
 reason for the previous expenditure of blood and treasure. 
 Caesar's account of pre-Roman Gaul makes it very clear that 
 the stronger tribes exacted tribute from the weaker ° ; and it is 
 put forward as the object of the migration of the Helvetii that 
 they intended to make the states they conquered tributary. 
 Athens, had previously yielded to the fascinations of this 
 advantage of the stronger ; and the Romans perhaps con- 
 sciously put it before themselves as the end of conquest. 
 A native regarded them, above all, as plunderers * ; and they 
 in their language currently and without arrifere pensee spoke of 
 
 ' This was done for instance in Macedonia ; cf. Livy, xlv. 29. For Asia, 
 cf. Cic. ad Qu. Fr. 1. 1. 11. For Numidia, in later times, cf, Merivale, ii. 367, 
 See G. C. Lewis, Government of Dependencies, p, 123. 
 
 '^ Marquardt, ii. 190, 
 
 = Caes. B. G. i. 36, 44, v. 27. 
 
 ' Tacitus probably does not mistake in the speeches he puts into the 
 mouths of Arminius, Galgacus, Caractacus. Cf. esp, Agric. 30, 31 ; Ann. 
 xii. 34. 
 
ESSENTIALS OF THE ROMAN RULE. 27 i 
 
 the provincials as slipendiarii'^. If we find Cicero in CiliciaThe 
 begging the Senate for reinforcements, it is that he may secure 
 the provinces 'in which are comprised the revenues of the 
 Roman people^;' and if he advocates the appointment of 
 Pompey to the charge of the Mithridatic war, it is because that 
 war is ' formidable and dangerous to our tax-payers and allies,' 
 and because ' the surest and largest revenues of the Roman 
 people are at stake'.' In his famous letter to his brother 
 Quintus, Cicero defends the taxes imposed on Asia on the 
 ground of their necessity for the expenses of the administra- 
 tion; and later, under the Empire, the large standing army 
 obviously necessitated a large tribute. ' There can be no 
 peace without troops, no troops without pay, no pay without 
 tribute,' says Cerialis in that curious speech in which he, or 
 rather Tacitus ' through his mouth, seeks to justify the Roman 
 rule in Gaul. 
 
 But there were some peoples so poor and backward as to be The levy. 
 unable to pay tribute; and on these the blood-tax only was 
 imposed ^. These levies of troops in the provinces existed of 
 course under the Republic ; Caesar mentions them for instance 
 as taken by him in Gaul, and the main strength of Cicero's 
 army in Cilicia was its non-Roman element ° ; but, in the main, 
 the practice of using provincial troops almost to the exclusion 
 of Italian did not establish itself before the Empire. Warlike 
 nations like the Batavi would be well content to serve under the 
 conquering eagles, but by other peoples it was felt as a grievous 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. iv. 20, xv. 25 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 97. 
 
 ' Cic. ad Fam. xv. i. 
 
 ' Cic. pro. Leg. Manil. J. For the way the payers regarded those 
 revenues, pro Flacco, 8. 
 
 « Hist. iv. 74. Cf. Caes. B. G. v. 22 ; Strabo, iv. 6. § 3 ; Tac. Agric. 13, 15, 
 31 ; Ann. xv. 6. The passage from Cicero's letter to his brother, referred 
 to, runs as follows : ' Id autem imperium quum retineri sine vectigalibus 
 nuUo modo possit, aequo animo parte aliqua suorum fructuum pacem sibi 
 sempitemara redimant et otium.' Ad Qu. Fr. i. I. II. 
 
 ' Tac. Hist. iv. 12, 17. 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. vi. 5. A levy in Macedonia is mentioned ; Cic. Phil. x. 6. 
 These however would be auxiliaries, not legionary troops. 
 
28 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 burden. What do you expect of your submission, Civilis asks 
 the Treviri, beyond a hateful service, everlasting tribute, the rod, 
 the axe, and the passions of a ruling race ' ? The recruiting 
 officers were sometimes not above acting as did Falstaff in a 
 like position, and picking out rich and elderly men for service, 
 who would redeem themselves by a heavy bribe ^. This was 
 bad enough, but if their conduct was often as detestable as it is 
 described to us in the same chapter of Tacitus, it was no 
 wonder that the levy was, to some at all events of the subject 
 races, more odious even than the tribute ". 
 Roman Another result of conquest was the introduction of the 
 
 poTty'^"'' Roman law and polity. In a case which Tacitus describes, 
 their immediate application to a quite barbarous people has an 
 almost grotesque effect. 'The Frisians . . . gave hostages, 
 and settled down on territories marked out by Corbulo, who at 
 the same time gave them a senate, magistrates, and a con- 
 stitution*'. It was the Roman policy to introduce an 
 aristocratic, or rather timocratic constitution everywhere*, 
 modelled on that of old Republican Rome " ; and of course 
 wherever the Romans went, they took their law with them. 
 At first some latitude was allowed. The free and allied towns 
 for instance were permitted, with more or less restriction, 
 ' to use,' as the phrase went, ' their own laws ; ' but such 
 classes of towns are continually diminishing, and passing into 
 Roman municipia, or are allowed the title of Roman colonies ; 
 and, as the franchise becomes more and more widely extended, 
 the Roman law comes to be the only law over the whole 
 Empire. From the first, to all provincials but the specially 
 privileged, the decisions of the Roman governor and his 
 subordinates constituted the law ; and it is well known that 
 the governor commonly incorporated into his edict the law as 
 
 ' Tac. Hist. iv. 32 ; see also Caes. B. G. vii. 77 ; Tac. Agr. 13, 15. 
 ^ Tag. Hist. iv. 14. * cf. lb. iv. 71. ' Tac. Ann. xi. 19. 
 
 * This point will be fully discussed later. 
 
 ' There is a strong archaising tendency in the municipal arrangements. 
 See this point discussed in a later section. 
 
MOHAL ASPECT OF THE ROMAN RULE. 29 
 
 laid down by the urban praetors at Rome. The part which 
 Roman law, constitutional and civil, played in civilising and 
 organising the subject races, was fully understood by the 
 ancients; and the mark which it has left on later history is 
 uneffaced, and perhaps ineffaceable. 
 
 The question as to the right or wrong of the Roman rule Moral 
 is not one to be settled off-hand. Modern opinion, on the ^^^^'^^^^^ 
 whole, condemns a policy of conquest and annexation, but it™'^. 
 must be remembered that war was the normal state of things 
 between two peoples in antiquity, unless there was a special 1 
 
 agreement to the contrary, and that conquerors were, it might 
 be, hated, but not, in popular opinion, condemned as wicked '. 
 Moreover, as has been already remarked, the conquests of the 
 Romans were, at first at all events, not deliberate, but were 
 partly forced on her, and partly arose naturally out of the 
 circumstances. Our own experience in India shows how 
 difficult it is to stop the process of conquest once begun ; and 
 moral indignation is out of place if it condemns all conquest 
 merely as such. The practical question of course is, as to Necessity 
 whether the conquered country had a free, national, prosperous '^^^'^^' c 
 life before its conquest, and whether or not that conquest has the pre- 
 given it a life more worth having than the old one. We condition 
 justify our rule in India, where we are certainly aliens and°^*? 
 interlopers to a greater degree than the Romans were in any 
 of their provinces, by pointing to the peace and security we 
 have given it, by dwelling on the endless petty wars and 
 detestable tyrannies of its innumerable princes before our rule 
 existed. In fact we say that the previous state of things was 
 so bad that our rule is a desirable substitute. The Romans 
 would have said, and did say, pretty much the same about their 
 own rule ; and it is quite impossible to give a fair judgment of 
 that rule unless we have some clear idea of the state of things 
 which it replaced. In attempting to give some account of the 
 
 ' 'In ancient times it was necessary to be either anvil or hammer;' 
 Moramsen, iii. 193 ; cf. 31 3. 
 
30 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 pre-Roman conditions in the different provinces, I by no means 
 profess to be exhaustive, but only to put together the most 
 necessary materials. 
 Pre-Roman The country with which, from this point of view, we are best 
 acquainted is Gaul. Caesar supplies us with a good deal of 
 information, which can be eked out with occasional notices 
 from Strabo. The point which comes out most clearly is that 
 till the Romans conquered the country it was never free from 
 petty wars '. The contest between the Arverni and Aedui in 
 particular had been so obstinate and prolonged, that at last the 
 Arverni sought to crush their rivals by calling in German mer- 
 cenaries from across the Rhine. This had led to the settle- 
 ment of 120,000 Germans on Gallic soiP; and it had not even 
 benefited the Arverni and their allies; for the German king 
 Ariovistus had established himself among the Sequani '- ' In a 
 few years all the Gauls will be driven from their country, and 
 all the Germans will have crossed the Rhine,' is the substance 
 of Divitiacus' appeal to Caesar*. Ariovistus had imposed a 
 tribute upon the Aedui ^ ; and if Caesar can be trusted, that 
 people had been reduced to a humiliating and miserable vas- 
 salage °. Besides having to pay a tribute, they were robbed of 
 their lands and compelled to give hostages with every circum- 
 stance of indignity. That these ' hostages ' so often mentioned 
 were in fact prisoners, or rather slaves who were treated with 
 great harshness, might be conjectured, and is proved by another 
 passage of the same writer '. Once begun, the stream of Ger- 
 mans across the Rhine was incessant. Sometimes they came 
 in small detachments; sometimes whole nations at once. 
 Caesar puts the number of the Usipetes and Tenchtheri at 
 430,000 * ; and if we merely consider the fact of his having 
 destroyed and repelled these invaders, as he had done pre- 
 
 ' Caes. B. G. vi. 15 : ' Hi, cum est usus atque aliquod bellum incidit (quoc 
 fere ante Caesaris adventum quotannis accidere solebat) . . .' Cf. Strabo 
 iv. I, § 2 ; Tac. Hist. iv. 73. 
 
 2 Caes. B. G. i. 31. ' Ibid. ' Ibid. « Ibid. i. 36. 
 
 • Ibid. vii. 54. ' Ibid. v. 27. " Ibid. iv. 15. 
 
PRE-ROMAN GAUL. 31 
 
 viously to the still more numerous Helvetii ^, the obligations of 
 Gaul to Rome will appear considerable. The Gauls could not 
 have resisted their invaders by their own strength, owing to 
 their lack of national unity. Caesar could never have con- 
 quered Gaul if it had all resolutely united against him; but 
 the powerful combination that was formed against him by the 
 genius of Vercingetorix did not last ; and it was an easy task 
 for him to beat his enemies in detail. Tacitus' description of 
 the revolt of Civilis, a century later, gives an idea of the jarring 
 jealousies and discords that were still rife among the Gauls, 
 and ready to burst out directly Rome's heavy hand was re- 
 moved ^. And these tribal hatreds were not all. There were 
 two factions, according to Caesar, in every city and every tribe. 
 The nobles were as powerful as the feudal barons of a thousand 
 years later, and the common people were little better than 
 slaves" What with debt, the burden of taxation, and the 
 violence of the nobles, they did indeed in many cases volun- 
 tarily resign their freedom, and attach themselves as slaves to 
 some powerful master *. Along with all this went a low deve- 
 lopment of material and moral civilisation. There were no 
 roads worth mentioning till the Romans made them ; and if it 
 had not been for the immense facilities provided by the unri- 
 valled river-system of the country '^ there could have been .but 
 little trade. The country was so little opened out that the 
 mountaineers regularly exacted toll from the merchants who 
 crossed their passes. It was impossible, for instance, to cross 
 the Great St. Bernard ' (and the same probably applies to all 
 the Alpine passes, as it applies to the Pyrenees ') without pay- 
 ing a heavy black-mail to the natives ; and the Veneti of North- 
 western Gaul laid similar burdens upon the commerce of the 
 Channel *. The so-called ' towns' (oppida) of Gaul were as a 
 
 » Caes. B. G. i, passim. " Tac. Hist. iv. 69. 
 
 3 Caes. B. G. vi. 13 : 'Plebs paene servonun habetur loco.' 
 * Ibid. 
 
 5 Strabo, iv. 1. § 14, iv. 3. § 3; Merivale, i. 198, 242. 
 
 6 Caes. B. G. iii. i. ' Plut. Sert. 6. " Caes. B. G. iii. 8. 
 
32 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 rule nothing but wretched villages, as were also the ' towns ' of 
 Spain \ Vienna (Vienne) for example, afterwards the me- 
 tropolis of the AUobroges and one of the chief cities of Gaul, 
 had been, so Strabo tells us, nothing but a village, and owed all 
 its magnificence to the Roman rule '^- The general barbarism 
 of the Gallic peoples outside the ' old province ' is strongly 
 asserted by Cicero ^ and seems confirmed by the practice of 
 human sacrifices, which Caesar * and Strabo ° mention. Strabo 
 adds that ' the Romans put a stop to these customs ;' just as we 
 in India have put a stop to Suttee and Juggernaut. 
 Pre-Roman We are not equally familiar with pre-Roman Spain ; but some 
 ^^'"' of the same points come clearly out. Just as in Gaul, the dif- 
 ferent tribes were continually at war ; and the necessity of con- 
 stant preparation for self-defence made agriculture impossible, 
 and neutralised the natural fertility of the country "- Another 
 great evil was the brigandage which the physical features of the 
 country made so easy, that not even the Romans could wholly 
 root it out, though they did an immense deal in that direction '- 
 How wholly savage some of the races of the peninsula were 
 appears from Plutarch's story of the miserable cave-dwellers on 
 whom Sertorius played so clever a trick I But the chief source 
 of weakness in the country was, again, the absence of anything 
 like national unity. ' The settlement of the Grecians amongst 
 these barbarous nations may be regarded as the result of the 
 division of these latter into small tribes and sovereignties, 
 having on account of their moroseness no union amongst them- 
 selves, and therefore powerless against attacks from without. 
 This moroseness is remarkably prevalent amongst the Iberians, 
 who are besides crafty in their manner, devoid of sincerity, in- 
 sidious, and predatory in their mode of life ; they are bold in 
 little adventures, but never undertake anything of magnitude, 
 
 ' Strabo, iii. 4. § 13. " lb. iv. i. § 11. = Cic. de Prov. Cons. 12. 
 ' Caes. B. G. vi. i5. ^ Strabo, iv. 4. § 5. 
 
 ° lb. iii. 3. § 5, Contrast this passage with Caes. B. C. i. 85 ; Tac. 
 Hist. ii. 67. 
 ' Strabo, iii. 4. § 13 ; Mommsen, iii. 19. ' Pint. Sert. 17. 
 
PRE-ROMAN SPAIN. 33 
 
 inasmuch as they have never formed any extended power or 
 confederacy. If they had had but the will to assist each other, 
 neither could the Carthaginians by making an incursion have 
 so easily deprived them of the greater part of their country, nor 
 before them the Tyrians, then the Kelts, now called the Kelti- 
 berians and Berones, nor after these the brigand Viriathus, and 
 Sertorius, nor any others who desired power. On this account 
 the Romans, having carried the war into Iberia, lost much time 
 by reason of the number of different sovereignties, having to 
 conquer first one, then another ; in fact it occupied nearly two 
 centuries, or even longer, before they had subdued the whole ^.' 
 Of the great number of different races in the country none 
 showed the capacity of developing a high type of civilisation 
 by itself. The 'unmitigated barbarism' which Dean Merivale^ 
 ascribes to them is perhaps too sweeping an expression if we 
 remember what Strabo tells us of the Turdetani ' ; but it cer- 
 tainly seems that the stimulus of Phenician or Greek or Roman 
 civilisation was needed to enable them to make great and per- 
 manent progress. Under Roman rule Spain was exceptionally 
 fortunate. The country was as a rule well governed * ; it en- 
 joyed profound peace " ; and it assimilated the Roman civilisation 
 perhaps more readily than any other province °. South-eastern 
 Spain was wonderfully rich and prosperous, and studded with- 
 cities which enjoyed an intense and vigorous ipunicipal life '. 
 
 It is not worth while to go through the other provinces in Pre-Roman 
 equal detail. But it may be pointed out that Britain, like Gaul o^other" 
 and Spain, was racked by incessant wars " ; that there was no provinces. 
 national feeling in the country wherewith to inspire cotirage 
 
 ' Strabo, iii. 4. § 5; Falconer's translation. * Merivale, ii. 157. 
 
 ' Strabo, iii. i. § 6; cf. Mdmmsen, ii. 207. * Mommsen, iii. 20. 
 
 > Caes. B. C. i. 85 ; Tac. Hist. ii. 67. 
 
 " Cf. Merivale, ii. 157. 
 
 ' It is curious that so much of our evidence as to the municipal arrange- 
 ments within a Roman province comes from Spain. I refer of course 
 particularly to the Lex Salpensana and Malacitana, and the Lex 
 Ursonitaua. 
 
 » Caes. B. G. V. II. 
 
34 SOMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 and union against Rome, and that the standard of civilisation 
 was a very low one'. lUyria was rendered insecure by bri- 
 gandage'* till the Romans put a stop to it, and had been a 
 perfect nest of pirates'. Numidia had been exposed to the 
 predatory excursions of the Moors*; just as Egypt had been 
 apparently to those of the Ethiopians =■ To Egypt the Roman 
 rule was a relief. She exchanged a master who was both in- 
 competent and despotic for a master who was despotic but 
 competent. In either case the rule was that of foreigners ; and 
 it would be absurd to suppose that the mass of the Egyptians 
 entertained any sentimental feelings with regard to the few last 
 vicious and feeble representatives of the line of the Ptolemies. 
 Greece, exhausted by internal dissensions, viewed the Roman 
 conquest with satisfaction ^ 'If we had not been quickly 
 ruined we should not have been saved' was the current saying, 
 which Polybios has preserved to us '. Asia Minor, protected 
 against the pirates and the barbarians, would 'have been well off 
 under Roman rule if it had not been for the tax-gatherers and 
 the usurers. 'Let Asia consider this,' says Cicero, 'that no 
 calamity of foreign war or intestine discord would have been 
 wanting to her if she were not protected by this Empire*.' 
 Rome put an end to riots in the towns ', and to brigandage in 
 the country ^^. She exacted a tribute it is true, but then, says 
 Cicero, the Asiatics paid tribute before, and some of them more 
 than they do now*^- It was no loss to the country that it 
 should be rid of its petty kings ; Roman rule at its worst was 
 better than that of a Pharnaces ^^. ' In the whole peninsula of 
 Asia Minor the Roman conquest had nowhere suppressed a 
 
 ' Strabo, iv. 5. § 2. ^ Hirtius, Bell. Alex. 42. " Mommsen, ii. 73. 
 
 ' Auct. Bell. Afr. 97. = Strabo, xvii. i. §§ 12 and 53. 
 
 " Mommsen, ii. 292, iii. 51 ; Finlay, i. 18. 
 
 ' Polybius, 3cl. 5. § 12 ; quoted by Finlay, i. 20. 
 
 ' Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. i. 11. 
 
 ° Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. i. 8 : 'NuUas esse in oppidis seditiones.' 
 
 ■" Ibid. : 'Sublata Mysiae latrocinia.' 
 
 " Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. 1. 11 ; cf. Mommsen, ii. 274 ; Finlay, i. 39, note. 
 
 « Hirtius, Bell. Alex. 41, 
 
MORAL ASPECT OF THE ROMAN RULE. 35 
 
 truly independent, rich and powerful political life, because 
 nowhere had it met with such a life \' Where such a life did 
 in some measure exist in this country, it was not national but 
 municipal, and Rome interfered to a very slight extent with the 
 internal affairs of the towns. 
 
 We are now in a better position to discuss some of the Moral 
 charges brought against the Roman rule. ' From Mummius to the Roman 
 Augustus the Roman city stands as the living mistress of the '^^• 
 dead world, and from Augustus to Theodorlc the mistress 
 becomes as lifeless as her subjects *.' ' The extension of equal 
 rights to all the subjects of a common master was after all a 
 very poor substitute for national independence or for full federal 
 or municipal freedom '.' By a ' dead world ' I understand a 
 world without any active political life, without self-government, 
 and without ambition ; a world \diich had peace and material 
 prosperity perhaps, but no freedom and no self-respect. The 
 second passage implies an answer to an objection. Does not, 
 it might be urged, the extension of the franchise through the 
 period of the Republic and the early Empire constitute an 
 object of ambition, and a means of securing independence? 
 Maybe, we are answered, but that is 'a very poor substitute 
 for national independence, or for full federal and municipal 
 freedom.' Let us consider this last point first. Ideally no 
 doubt it would be a very poor substitute ; but practically and 
 as a matter of fact was it a substitute for anything of the sort ? 
 Where was the national independence which Rome destroyed ? 
 In Macedonia, perhaps, alone of all her conquests. There was 
 no nation, we have seen, in Spain, none in Gaul, none in Britain, 
 none in Asia Minor. It is impossible not to lament the extinc- 
 tion of Macedonia*, but it must at the same time be remembered 
 
 ' Perrot, Quelqnes inscriptions des c6tes de la mer Noire, p. 30; 
 Mommsen, ii. 216, 219. 
 
 ° Freeman, Essays, 2nd Series, p. 336. 
 
 ' Ibid. p. 321. This passage refers of course directly to the Empire; 
 but it opens up several large questions which apply to the Roman rule as a 
 whole. ' Mommsen, ii. 203. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 that Rome had not provoked the struggle, and it may be ques- 
 tioned whether the Macedonian government had enough vitalit) 
 left, if quite exempt from Roman interference, to defend its 
 subjects from the perpetual encroachments of the barbarians, 
 as Rome defended them \ If then the Roman rule did not in 
 the great majority of cases destroy national independence — 
 there being none to destroy — still less did it destroy ' municipal 
 freedom.'- It is plain matter of fact that where they found mu- 
 nicipal arrangements existing, the Romans let them alone and 
 even encouraged them ; and where they did not exist they made 
 it their first object to introduce them ^ The amount of inde- 
 pendence enjoyed by these towns was considerable, and all the 
 evidence goes to prove that the life that went on in them was a 
 busy and active one ; that their elections aroused a genuine 
 political interest ; and that their magistrates were conversant 
 with affairs, and trained by the experience of public life. The 
 municipal arrangements, though terribly perverted by Constan- 
 tine and his successors, were on the whole both successful and 
 permanent ; and when, after the cloud of barbarism was passing 
 away, the 'free towns' begin to appear in Europe, we may 
 regard them as no new growth, but as derived more or less 
 directly from the provincial municipia of the Empire. 
 
 These municipal arrangements form one element in the 
 answer to the question. Were the provinces dead and stagnant, 
 or on the contrary alive and vigorous in their life ? But it may 
 be said that after all municipal life is very different and very 
 inferior to national life ; and that if the provinces had the one, 
 they in no sense possessed the other. Now national life in the 
 strict sense they had not. Those ties of like blood, like speech, 
 like interests, like traditions, which go to build up a modern 
 nation, hardly existed under Rome. But those feelings which 
 
 ^ Cic. pro Font. 20. The foreign policy of Macedonia was in this 
 period execrable. Such crimes as the sack of Cios and Abydos do much to 
 alienate our sympathies ; see Mommsen, ii. 226, 232. 
 
 ^ See Marqnardt's ist vol. passim. It is needless to give references here. 
 The municipal arrangements will be discussed later. 
 
ROME AND INDIA. 37 
 
 are the precious part of national unity, the self-respect which 
 springs from the consciousness of being part of a great and 
 powerful whole, the loyalty and the patriotism it evokes, can 
 exist apart from unity of place or even of blood. ' I indeed 
 think that both her and all municipal citizens have two father- 
 lands, the one of their birth and the other of their citizenship,' 
 says Cicero '. The liberal policy of Rome gradually extended 
 the privileges of her citizenship till it included all her subjects ; 
 and along with the/OT suffragii went of course iht Jus honorum. 
 Even under Augustus we find a Spaniard consul at Rome''; 
 and under Galba an Egyptian is governor of Egypt '. It is not 
 long before even the emperor himself is supplied by the pro- 
 vinces *. It is easy to comprehend therefore how the provincials 
 forgot the fatherland of their birth for the fatherland of their 
 citizenship. Once win the franchise, and to great capacity was 
 opened a great career. The Roman Empire came to be a 
 homogeneous mass of privileged persons, largely using the 
 same language ^, aiming at the same type of civilisation, equal 
 among themselves, but aU alike conscious of their superiority to 
 the surrounding barbarians. The Gauls of Provence and the 
 Spaniards of Boetica were more Roman even than the Ronjans 
 themselves. If we are to be so indignant with the Roman rule, 
 we ought to be still more indignant with our rule in India. 
 Political freedom and self-government is no more possessed by 
 the Hindoos than it was by the provincials ; and the Hindoos "^ 
 are worse off in that there is no prospect open to them of 
 rising to high office, or to the vice-royalty, while corresponding 
 prospects were open to the subjects of Rome. If then there 
 was, speaking broadly, no conscious inferiority to make the 
 
 ' Cic. de Legg. ii. 2. Cf. the remarks which Dio puts into the mouth of 
 Maecenas ; Dio Cassius, lii. 19. 
 
 * Cornelius Balbus. ' Tiberius Alexander ; Tac. Hist. i. 1 1 . 
 
 * Nerva was a Spaniard. 
 
 ' Claudius took away the franchise from a. Greek who could not speak 
 Latin (Suet. Claud. 16). For other instances to illustrate this point see 
 Duruy, lii. 384, note. 
 
38 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 provincials regret the past, but every reason to make them 
 aspire to the future, it would be a great mistake to regard them 
 as so many mean-spirited slaves who had not the courage to 
 resist their masters. They did not feel themselves to be slaves ; 
 and what with their share of local independence and their hopes 
 of the Roman franchise, they were not slaves. Moreover, though 
 it is possible to make too much, it is also possible to make too 
 little of the peace and material prosperity they enjoyed under 
 Rome. It was the first duty of a Roman governor to protect 
 his province from inroads from without. Caesar, though so busy 
 with his conquests in further Gaul, yet found time to protect the 
 frontier of Illyri«^m from the Pirustae ' ; and it is one of the 
 heaviest chajr^s which Cicero brings against Piso that he had 
 not protected his province against the Thracians ^. The chaos 
 into which the administration fell in the later years of the Re- 
 public caused neglect in this as in other matters ; but with the 
 Empire we see the custody of the frontiers made a point of the 
 first importance. All such impediments to trade, as those in 
 Gaul and' Spain already mentioned, were done away; and with 
 the clearance of the Mediterranean from pirates came an im- 
 mense development of commerce"- The Roman occupation 
 of Egypt gave a great impulse to the trade with India. ' I was 
 with Gallus,' says Strabo, ' at the time he was prefect of Egypt, 
 and accompanied him as far as Syene and the frontiers of 
 Ethiopia, and found that about 120 ships sail from Myos- 
 hormos to India, although in the time of the Ptolemies scarcely 
 any one would venture on this voyage and the commerce with 
 the Indies *.' So the district of Batanea (Haouran), now almost 
 impassable for European travellers, was covered with posts, and 
 rendered perfectly secure under the rule of Rome ^ Every- 
 
 ' Caes. B. G. v. i. » Cic. in Pis. 40. 
 
 * Strabo, iii. 2. § 5. 'Pacatum volitant per mare navitae,' says Horace, 
 Od. iv. 5. 
 
 ' Strabo, ii. 5. § 12 ; cf. xvii. i. § 13. 
 
 ' Boissier, L'Empire Roman en Orient, p. 119. His chief authority is 
 M. Waddington, who has traversed the district. 
 
PAX ROMANA. 39 
 
 where within the charmed circle of the Roman dominion was 
 peace ; sometimes it is true secured by stern measures, as in 
 parts of Britain * and in the valley of Aosta " ; but as a rule the 
 sternness was reserved for the barbarians without, and the peace 
 was only a blessing to the provincials. No progress was pos- 
 sible to countries distracted by petty wars which could never 
 lead to a decisive issue. Agriculture becomes impossible, and 
 all the arts. Outposts of civilisation, like the Greek cities on 
 the Black Sea, must have welcomed the Roman rule as that of 
 friends and deliverers. Ovid shows us how miserable had been 
 the condition of Tomi before the Empire asserted itself against 
 the barbarians in that region; and its ruins and inscriptions 
 show us its prosperity half a century later '. The material con- 
 dition of the provinces, partly no doubt for selfish reasons, was 
 well looked after. Parts of Algeria now wholly barren were 
 fertile and populous, owing to their unsurpassed system of irri- 
 gation * ; and their roads and bridges are still the most durable 
 memorials of their Empire. 
 
 But it must be allowed that these praises apply in strictness 
 only to one period of the Roman rule, a period of about 200 
 years from Actium. The next section will show how far these 
 duties were performed by Rome under the Republican govern- 
 ment, and will seek to show the main causes of the mal- 
 administration in the provinces, which made that government 
 equally mischievous and impossible. 
 
 ' ' Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant ; ' Tac. Agr. 30. 
 
 '' The Salassi were exterminated by Augustus; Strabo, iv. 6. § 7. The 
 severity seems to have been beyond what was neediul (cf. Finlay, i. 53), 
 though Augustus, as if foreseeing possible blame for his action in this 
 matter, expressly declares that no people was attacked wrongfully. (Mon. 
 Anc. § 26 : ' NuUi bello per injuriam inlato.') 
 
 ' Perrot, op. cit. p. 21. * Boissiere, L'Afrique Romaine, p. 73. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Period of the Republic. 
 
 Section I. Historical Outline^. 
 
 The great struggle against Hannibal left the Senate the all 
 but undisputed government of Rome. Originally a mere con- 
 sulting board, assessors of the king or consul, the Senate had 
 become the supreme executive body. That the government 
 solely by the comitia and the magistrates should by experience 
 be found wanting was as inevitable at Rome as at Athens. 
 Rome was more fortunate than Athens in that she could 
 develop a new organism to meet the need. The growth of 
 the power of the Senate was all the more natural and legitimate 
 the less it possessed strict legal standing-ground. But the fatal 
 dualism thus introduced into the constitution — the Assembly 
 governing dejure, and the Senate governing de facto —vcoAt all 
 government after a time impossible. The position of the 
 Senate being, strictly speaking, an unconstitutional one, it was 
 open to any demagogue to bring matters of foreign policy or 
 administration before an Assembly which was without continuity, 
 without special knowledge, and in which there was no debate. 
 Now, if the Senate governed badly, the Assembly ' could not 
 govern at all*;' and there could be, in. the long run, but one 
 
 ' In this sketch I have attempted to give an accoimt of the different 
 modes of appointment to provincial governorships ; of the duration of the 
 governorships ; and of the authority of the Senate. The power and duties 
 of the governor, and his subordinates; the amount of control exercised 
 over the governor ; the misery of the provinces, and its causes, require a 
 separate treatment. - 2 Mommsen, ii. 359. 
 
SICILY AND SPAIN. 41 
 
 end to the constant struggle between the two sources of 
 authority. 
 
 In the epitome of Livy, between a mention of the subjection The first 
 of Illyria (b.c. 229) and of the war against the Cisalpine ^™""'^'^^' 
 Gauls (b.c. 225) occurs the brief statement: 'The number 
 of praetors was increased to four^.' Now we know that a 
 revolt against the new Roman authority took place in Sardinia 
 in the year b.c 226. We are therefore enabled with tolerable 
 certainty to put the commencement of regular provincial 
 government in the year b.c. 227. Whether before this date 
 Sicily and Sardinia were governed by quaestors under the 
 superintendence of the consuls, as Mommsen ''■ supposes, cannot 
 be proved, but is not improbable, as Rome had a more or less 
 permanent hold on parts at all events of the two islands for 
 some years past. The names of these two provincial praetors 
 are known. They are — C. Flaminius, the same man who after- 
 wards fell at Thrasymene, for Sicily ; and M. Valerius, a man 
 not otherwise known, for Sardinia. The same authority which 
 tells us this tells us also that these two praetors cast lots for 
 their provinces ". Each had one or more quaestors given him 
 (in Sicily at all events later on there were two quaestors), who 
 were charged with the management of the income and ex- 
 penditure. The praetorships were annual, for no better reason 
 than that the city praetorships were aimual ; and of course the 
 quaestors were changed along with their superiors. The next 
 provincial governments were Hither and Further Spain, which 
 were established in the year b.c. 179. Experience had taught 
 the Romans the mistake of annual governorships in such a 
 country as Spain, and a special law had assigned two years 
 of office to the praetors sent to that country * ; but the com- 
 
 ' Epitome, lib. xx; Klein, Die Verwaltungsbeamten, &c., pp. 11, 199. 
 
 ' Mommsen, ii. 67. 
 
 ' Solin, 5. I : 'Utraque insula in Romanum arbitratum redacta iisdem 
 temporibus facta provincia, cum eodem anno Sardiniam M. Valerius, alteram 
 C. Haminius praetores sortiti sunt.' Klein, loc. cit. 
 
 ' The Lex Baebia ; Mommsen, ii. 212. 
 
42 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 petition for command in the provinces was too great for the 
 law to be maintained, and the principle of annually changing 
 the governors grew into a constitutional maxim. With these 
 two new provinces went two new praetors, and the total number 
 was now, therefore, six. Here for the present stops the 
 election of new praetors ; and it becomes therefore necessary 
 to inquire how the new functions^ established in the period 
 between the settlement of Spain and the reforms of Sulla were 
 discharged. The matter was managed by prorogation. After 
 the urban praetors and the consuls had held their year of ofiSce 
 in Italy, they were sent for a year to a province. Thus every 
 year, besides the two consuls and the six praetors, there would 
 be two ex-consuls and ex-praetors available for foreign service. 
 As there was in law no difference between a magistracy in 
 Italy and one in the provinces, there was nothing to prevent 
 this arrangement; and as the Senate could prolong a man's 
 term of office in a province for a year, or could refuse to do 
 so, it practically had a very large control over the provincial 
 appointments ^. 
 Lex Sem- These arrangements were a natural enough growth, and in 
 no way an affair of legislation ; but there was one very im- 
 portant law passed during this period, which remained in force 
 for the following century. This was the Lex Sempronia of 
 C. Gracchus so often mentioned by Cicero". It was to the 
 effect that the Senate should each year decide before the 
 election of the consuls what provinces they were to govern. 
 It did not deprive the senators of their power to decide what 
 the provinces for the consuls of the current year should be, 
 but by obliging them to decide this point be/ore the elections it 
 sought to prevent favouritism in one case aiid unfairness in 
 
 ' Five new provinces— Macedonia, Africa, Asia, Narbohensis, Cilicia ; 
 and the presidency of the new standing court of Repetundae, which had been 
 established B.C. 149 ; Mommsen, iii. 366. 
 
 ' Mommsen, ibid. 
 
 - Cic. de Prov. Cons. 2 and 7 ; Pro Balbo, 27 ; Ernesti's Index Legum, 
 p. xxix. 
 
 proma. 
 
THE SENATE. 
 
 43 
 
 another, and thereby to deprive them of means of influence ^ 
 As it turned out, the Senate had no difficulty in making use 
 of the law for their own purposes ; and when, for instance, they 
 expected the election of Caesar, they took care to provide 
 beforehand that he and his colleague should have the important 
 province of the roads and forests *. 
 
 The position of the Senate had been steadily deteriorating Position of 
 during this period. Even during the Second Punic War ^e ''^^ ^^"^"^' 
 find the comitia assuming the functions of the executive, and 
 appointing generals against Hannibal ' ; and when the Senate 
 wished to declare war against Philip, the comitia at first 
 positively refused its assent *. As every measure to have legal 
 force had in the last resort to come before the comitia '', the 
 Senate had to manoeuvre in every possible way to win the 
 comitia over to their views, to induce it for instance to sanction 
 the prolongation of Flamininus' command in Macedonia "*.• 
 The assembly was not long in dropping any feelings of awe or 
 respect it may still have felt in regard to the Senate; it only 
 needed hardihood and a certain contempt for tradition to 
 overturn a system of tacitly usurped and tacitly acknowledged 
 authority ; and when the Gracchi, with however good motives, 
 had set the example, inferior demagogues were quick to follow 
 it. The worst of it was that the government of the Senate was 
 so bad and so unequal to the ever-increasing charges of the 
 state, that there seemed good and reasonable ground for in- 
 terference. Their conduct of the Jugurthine war, for instance, 
 was so shameful that it is hardly wonderful that the people 
 should have angrily set its authority aside, and directly appointed 
 Marius to the conduct of the war. But this action, though legal, 
 was yet in the highest degree unconstitutional, and was far from 
 being justified by any superior capacity for affairs possessed by 
 
 ' Mommsen, iii. Ii8. '' Merivale, i. 172; Mommsen, iv. 203. 
 
 ' Mommsen, ii. 120, 128. * lb. ii. 233. 
 
 ° Caesar, B. C. i. 6, complains : ' In reliquas provincias praetores mittuntur : 
 neque expectant quod superioribus annis acciderat, ut de eorum imperio ad . 
 populum feratur.' ' Mommsen, ii. 243. 
 
44 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Laws, 
 
 the Assembly. It however was to a certain extent practically 
 justified by the circumstances; but when shortly afterwards 
 the Assembly gave Marius the command in Asia, though Sulla 
 had been already appointed, and though Marius was a private 
 person, it is obvious that it was using its powers simply for 
 party purposes : and to that there could be but one outcome. 
 Such interferences however were in this period still rather the 
 exception than the rule; the people had not yet completely 
 banished the consciousness of their own incapacity. On the 
 whole the Senate was left to conduct matters of foreign policy 
 and finance, and the executive generally. The Senate still 
 resolved on declarations of war, still settled new provinces 
 by its commissioners, and still exercised control over its 
 generals. The state of things typified by the Vatinian and 
 Manilian laws did not yet exist in this period ; but forces were 
 at work of which it was the natural development. 
 Sulla's The next great step in the legislation for the government 
 
 of the provinces was made by Sulla. He rai sed th e, number 
 of praetors to eight.; and made ajaw that provinc_es.5h£aild. in 
 future be , governed not by consuls arnd -praetors, but -bjt^ro- 
 consuls and propraetors, a particular province being assi gned t o 
 a proconsul or a propraetor, according^asitoieededmoxe-OrJeHisr 
 troops'. This would make ten magistrates every year eligible for 
 provincial command ; and there were at this time ten provinces ''. 
 These governorships were made strictly annual ; and there was 
 a clause to the effect that the governor must leave his province 
 within thirty days after the arrival of his successor ". Thus it 
 became impossible for the comitia to give a man direct military 
 
 ' Livy, xli. 8, says of Sardinia : ' Propter belli magnitudinem provincia 
 consularis facta est.' In Macedonia the proconsul Piso was succeeded by 
 the propraetor Q. Ancharius ; Marquardt, i. 381, note 3. 
 
 The most obvious difference between the proconsul and propraetor was 
 that the former had twelve, the latter only six fasces ; Marquardt, i. 381. 
 
 * Sicily, Sardinia, the two Spains, Macedonia, Asia, Africa, Narbonensis, 
 Cilicia, and Cisalpine Gaul ; Mommsen, iii. 368. 
 
 ' Cic. ad Fam. iii. 6 ; Mommsen, iii. 369. For other clauses of the law 
 see Ernesti's Index Legum, p. xviii. 
 
THE LARGE COMMANDS. 45 
 
 command ; and as the prorogation to the provincial governor- 
 ships still remained, strictly speaking, in the hands of the Senate, 
 Sulla meant no doubt to make a man feel that he owed his 
 appointment to it, and not to the Assembly. In this then, as 
 in his other laws, it appears that Sulla's chief aim was the re- 
 habilitation of the senatorial authority. But the Senate could 
 not be restored to what it had been; and though Pompey's 
 legislation ten years afterwards did not disturb these particular 
 arrangements, the Senate yet failed to draw any particular 
 advantage from them. In fact the Senate had already practically The extra- 
 nullified Sulla's policy and stultified themselves, when seven "^j^^J^g 
 years earlier they had given Pompey the command against 
 Sertorius, though he had previously held no curule magistracy 
 whatever'- In so doing they not only violated Sulla's laws but 
 every rule of the constitution, and had no right to be surprised 
 if the tables were before long turned upon them, and the 
 comitia imitated their own lawlessness. It was not many years 
 before Pompey received, this time from the comitia, the conduct 
 of the Pirate War, and shortly afterwards of the Mithridaticr 
 War, in each case with powers which transcended the strict 
 republican liniits altogether. The Vatinian Law giving Caesar 
 Gaul for five years, and the Trebonian Law giving Pompey 
 Spain for five years, followed in the same track; and when 
 Pompey further governed Spain from Rome by his legates^ 
 it became obvious that the foreign conquests had brought a 
 strain to bear upon the constitution which at last destroyed it. 
 
 Apart from these extraordinary commands, it had already Provincial 
 become the custom for the great majority of governors to stay coSmoniy 
 longer than the strict year in their provinces. The Senate did prolonged, 
 not send them their successors when the year was out, and so 
 they stayed where they were, like soldiers on guard, till relieved. 
 So we find Verres three years in Sicily'; Fonteius three years 
 in Gaul*; Q. Cicero three years in Asia°. In fact, Cicero's 
 
 ' Mommsen, iv. 27. ^ Plut. Pomp. 53; Mommsen, iv. 311. 
 
 " Cic. Div. in Caec. 4. ' Cic. pro Font. lo. 
 
 ' Ad Qu. Fr. i. i. Murena was in Asia from 84 to 82 B.C., Lucullusfrom 
 
46 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 example shows that a governor had to take a great deal of trouble 
 
 not to stay longer than his year in his province ; and he was 
 
 able to leave it when he did, not because a Successor was sent 
 
 him, but by leaving one of his oflficers as his representative. 
 
 The simple reason of this state of things was that two consuls 
 
 and eight praetors were not enough for fourteen provinces '. 
 
 Jobbery The provincial appointments had by this time to a large 
 
 practised in . . ' , 
 
 regard to extent become a matter of mtngue. V he legal arrangement 
 
 pointnfents. ^^^ ^^^ ^he Senate should assign what the provinces were to be 
 
 for a given year, and that then those eligible for such commands 
 
 should divide them amongst themselves by lot, the consuls 
 
 casting lots when designate, the praetors while their year of 
 
 oflSce was going on^. But if an ambitious man wanted a 
 
 particular province, there was a much simpler way of going to 
 
 work. Lucullus wanted to be appointed to the province of 
 
 Cilicia. Now the influential tribune of the year was Cethegus ; 
 
 and the person influential with Cethegus was his mistress 
 
 Praecia. So Lucullus made friends with Praecia, and induced 
 
 her to use her interest with her lover. She did so ; and a law 
 
 ; was passed, giving Lucullus what he wanted '. 
 
 Pompey's The last important law affecting the appointments to the 
 
 ment of the provinces before the Leges Juliae was a law of Pompey's, 
 
 fnTr^^?^' passed in the year 52 b.c, and arranging that provinces should 
 
 only be given after five years' interval. That is, instead of a 
 
 man being sent directly to his province after his year of office 
 
 was over, on the first of the next January, he had to wait five 
 
 years before becoming eligible *. This was primarily intended 
 
 74 to 66, Servilius Isauricus in Cilicia from 78 to 75 ; see Marquardt, i. 384, 
 note 5. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 385. In B.C. 50 there were five consular provinces — two 
 Gauls, two Spains, and Syria ; and nine praetorian. For a list of the latter 
 see Watson, p. 237, note. 
 
 ^ -In Vetr. iv. 95 ; ' Quas ob res, quid agis, Hortensi ? Consul es desig- 
 natus : provinciam sortitus es.' Marquardt, i. 382. 
 
 ' Plut. LucuU. 6. Cf. Suet. Jul. 11:' Conciliato populi favore tentavit per 
 partem tribunorum ut sibi Aegyptus provincia plebiscito daretur.' 
 
 * Suet. Jul. 28 ; Dio Cassius, xl. 56; Watson, p. 145. 
 
CAESAR AND THE PROVINCES. 47 
 
 as a blow against Caesar, as it obviated the difficulty the Senate 
 would otherwise have had in giving him a successor immediately 
 on the expiration of his command, that is on March i, 49 b.c. ; 
 but it also, for the next few years at all events, would enable 
 the Senate to control the provincial appointments pretty much 
 at its pleasure '. 
 
 When Caesar had attained supreme power this law was done Caesar's 
 away with, though afterwards restored by Augustus ^. Remember- ^n^^" 
 ing how his own power had been attained ', he took care to limit 
 the tenure of a praetorian province to one, of a consular pro- 
 vince to two years *. Other arrangements of his were to raise 
 the number of praetors to sixteen * and of quaestors to forty, half 
 of whom (both praetors and quaestors) were to be nominated by 
 himself. He assigned all the praetorian provinces, the consular 
 ones being still left nominally to the Senate*. He could also nomi- 
 nate honorary praetors who would be eligible for provinces ; he 
 decided which province should be assigned to whom ; and he 
 had the right of recall'. Above all, he was probably given pro- 
 consular power throughout the whole Empire'. The governors 
 were further controlled by the new legati legionis propraeiore, 
 all of whom he, as imperator, directly appointed '. Lastly, to 
 obviate possible opposition from the Senate, its numbers were 
 raised from 600 to 900, the new members being all men 
 devoted to his interests'". 
 
 ' Mommsen, iv. 324: Watson, p. 2%%, fin. 
 
 ' Dio Cassius, xlii. 20, liii. 14; Marquardt, i. 382, 
 
 ' This is the way Dio Cassius, xliii. 25, puts it. 
 
 * Cic. Phil. i. 8, ii. 42, iv. 3, viii. 9 ; Merivale, if 392. 
 
 ° At first from 8 to 10 ; then to 14 ; afterwards to 16. Dio Cassius, 
 xlii. 50, xliii. 47 and 51 ; Suet. Jul. 41 ; Watson, pp. 487, 489. 
 
 ' Dio Cassius, xlii. 20 ; Watson, p. 488. Of course without sortition. 
 
 ' Mommsen, iv. 480, 534. 
 
 « Ad Att. ix. 17. § I ; Dio Cassius, xli. 36 ; Watson, p. 489. 
 
 ' A probable conjecture of Mommsen, iv. 488. 
 
 " Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 5. § 2 ; Suet. Jul. 47, 76, 80; Dio Cassius, xliii. 47; 
 Watson, p. 488. 
 
48 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Section II. The Governor. 
 
 The governor of a Roman province united in his single 
 person civil and military authority. He was commander-in- 
 chief and supreme judge, and (though . this was the special 
 business of the quaestor) largely interfered in matters of 
 finance. The special feature of the Roman system was its 
 union in one single head and hand of functions which the 
 modern system takes care to separate. In this way their 
 system produced men of the most extraordinary and varied 
 capacity. The Romans, one would think, expected more 
 from human nature than it could give, but nevertheless 
 they often got what they expected; on the other hand, the 
 strain was too excessive for ordinary men, and tended to put 
 them out of the field. The Romans could not avail them- 
 selves of the services of the majority of competent men, who ' 
 may make good specialists but nothing more, so easily as we 
 can. So a Roman governor was either a wonderful success, 
 or a gigantic failure ; and the opportunities of harm possessed 
 by a vicious and incompetent administrator were beyond 
 calculation. 
 
 The first business of a Roman governor was to publish his 
 edict. Cicero wrote his at Rome^; and it was the custom for 
 it to be made known in the province before the governor 
 entered upon his office. The urban praetors exactly in the 
 same way issued their edict on entering upon their office at 
 Rome : the difference was that at Rome the edict was controlled 
 and had to adapt itself to the body of civil law, of which the 
 Twelve Tables long remained the nucleus ; while in the pro- 
 vince it was only controlled by the lex provinciae and the local 
 codes, to neither of which unfortunately was the governor 
 absolutely obliged to conform '*. In theory each new governor 
 i might issue a completely new edict ; but in practice it was not 
 
 ' Cic. ad Fam. iii. 8. § 4. 
 
 ^ For the difference between law and edict, see Cic. in Verr. ii. 42 ; 
 Mommsen, Stadtrechte von Salpensa und Malaga, p. 390 foil. 
 
THE EDICT. 49 
 
 so, partly because each governor would in this way have givenfThe gover- 
 himself a great deal of unnecessary trouble, and partly because p"^ ^ * 
 by any great innovations he would have been sure to have 
 . injured the web of complicated interests in his province, and 
 so have made enemies, and courted an accusation. Great part 
 of the edict was traditional, and passed on from praetor to 
 praetor without change ; ' edictum tralaticiuni Cicero calls it ' ; 
 and in this way a regular code of law was built up in the 
 provinces, just as the urban praetors built it up at Rome. The 
 regulations of the lex provinciae would be largely copied into the 
 annual edicts. The Lex Rupilia for instance had allowed each 
 city to use its own laws, at all events in certain cases ; and this 
 provision had been regularly copied into edict after edict, and 
 was even, in form, maintained by Verres ^- In the same way 
 we know from Cicero that it had been one of Aquillius' ar- 
 rangements that no slave in Sicily should be allowed the use of 
 weapons ; and this too was copied in all successive edicts '. 
 Moreover these provincial edicts were, as regarded many pointsl 
 of civil law, largely modelled upon the edicts of the urban 
 praetors. As regards the law of inheritance, Cicero informs us 
 that not only previous praetors of Sicily, but even Verres 
 himself, had transferred word for word into their edicts the 
 regulations accustomed to be issued at Rome*; and in that 
 famous passage which is the chief source of our knowledge for 
 this subject he says that all points which his edict does not 
 definitely mention, he will settle according to the 'urban 
 edicts ^.' The edict of a particularly good or famous governor I 
 would become a model for his successors; we find Cicero 
 for instance largely copying from that of the incorruptible 
 Scaevola*. A governor would give some idea of what his 
 government was going to be by the nature of the edict he 
 issued; all edicts for instance would deal largely with the 
 treatment of the publicani, and if the edict unduly and 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. v. 21. § ii ; ad Fam. iii. 8. § 4. 
 
 ^ Cic. in Verrem, iii. 27. ^ lb. vi. 3. * lb. ii. 46. 
 
 » Cic. ad Att. vi. i. § 15. ° lb. 
 
 E 
 
Relation 
 between in- 
 coming and 
 outgoing 
 governor. 
 
 50 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 (scandalously favoured them,, as did that of Verres S the un- 
 fortunate provincials would know what to expect. The edict, 
 again, dealt with the whole question of usury and debt; Cicero 
 fixed the rate of interest recoverable under his jurisdiction''; 
 and its provisions would therefore largely concern not only 
 the Roman bankers (negotiatores) in the province, but the 
 different towns and states, all of which were as a rule deep 
 in debt to these extortioners. A good governor would insert 
 a clause in his edict to prevent the cities ruining themselves 
 by extravagant expenditure on the complimentary deputations 
 sent to Rome in honour of his predecessor'; and above all, 
 nothing, would so clearly distinguish a good and liberal governor 
 from one of the opposite character as the amount of independ- 
 ence he left to the cities of his province'. Cicero seems to 
 have allowed them an unusual amount of autonomy, while 
 Verres overrode them in every particular °. 
 
 Directly the governor arrived in his province, the former 
 governor, even though still in the country, became by right a 
 private person. He had no authority to do any official act, 
 and Appius' conduct in holding a court of justice after Cicero's 
 arrival was so unusual as to have the character of a slight, which 
 Cicero takes credit to himself for not resenting". The new 
 governor could absolutely change and abolish the "old one's 
 acts. Thus Appius coniplained of the changes introduced by 
 Cicero ', and Pompey annulled the arrangements of LucuUus '. 
 It was a very unheard-of thing for a governor to reverse a 
 judicial decision of his predecessor, but there was nothing 
 positively to prevent it, and Verres in fact did it °. The want 
 of continuity thus inherent in the administration was a great 
 evil. That one governor should undo the arrangements of 
 another was satisfactory enough if it was a Cicero undoing the 
 
 1 Cic. in Verr. iv. 10 ; cf. ad Fam. iii. 8. § 4. 
 
 = Cic. ad Att. vi. i. § 15. " Cic. ad Fam. iii. 8. § 4. 
 
 • Cic. ad Att. vi. I. § 15, v. 21. § n. = Cic, in Verr. iii. 13. 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. v. 17 ; ad Fam. iii. 6 and 8. ' Cic. ad Att. vi. i. 
 
 ' Plut. Lucull. 36. ' Cic. in Ven-. iii. 28. 
 
Tim COVERNOJ^S FUNCTIONS. 51 
 
 arrangements of an Appius ; but it was not so satisfactory when 
 the case was reversed ; and in any case the uncertainty intro- 
 duced into life must have been, to the provincials, hateful and 
 mischievous. ' t 
 
 The duties of a governor were, as has been already said, Distribu- 
 partly military and partly civil. It is possible to make out from governOT's 
 Cicero's letters how a governor who stayed only the strict year '™^- 
 in his province spent his time. Cicero entered his province at 
 Laodicea on July 31, b.c. 51. After spending a few days in 
 hearing complaints and redressing grievances, he proceeded to 
 Iconium, which he reached Aug. 24. There he reviewed the 
 army, and set out at its head southwards, reaching Tarsus 
 Oct. 5. He then immediately set out to chastise the hostile 
 tribes of Mount Amanus, bringing the campaign to a successful 
 conclusion by Dec. 17. After spending the few remaining days 
 of the year at Tarsus he returned to Laodicea on Jan. 5, and 
 administered justice there till May 7. On that day he set out 
 again for Cilicia proper (his province extended far beyond 
 Cilicia), reached Tarsus on June 5, and remained there ad- 
 ministering justice and winding up his affairs till July 17. On 
 Aug. 3, B.C. 50, he embarked at Sida in Pamphylia^. 
 
 Whatever may have been the exact parts of the year employed 
 upon the discharge of the different civil and military functions ^, 
 there was, in provinces needing an army, always this double 
 work for the governor to discharge. Caesar in the midst of his 
 dangers and conquests found time to hurry off to Hither Gaul to 
 hold the circuits after each campaign ' ; and his civil appears to 
 have been as successful as his military administration. The 
 weight and authority which the possession of military force in 
 
 ■ Watson, pp. 147, 151, and his references. 
 
 ^ In Sicily the praetors went round their circuits administering justice / 
 
 in the summer, as then the harvest was being got in, all the labourers were 
 at work, and the tax-payers could not conceal their real property (In 
 Verr. vi. 13 and 31). But in less peaceful provinces the summer would 
 commonly be taken up with military operations, and the winter devoted to 
 the administration of justice. 
 
 ' Caes. B. G. i. 54, vi. 44, viii. 4 and 46. 
 
 K 2 
 
52 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Military 
 duties. 
 
 \ 
 
 tion. 
 
 his own person must have given a civil administrator is obvious 
 enough, but that was a doubtful advantage, for the fault of 
 the Roman system was not that the governors had too little 
 authority, but too much. 
 
 As commander-in-chief, besides directing the levies^ and 
 calling out, in case of need, any Roman veterans that might 
 be living in the province ", the governor had an immense source 
 of influence and could inflict a great deal of misery by the 
 power he possessed of quartering his troops for the winter in 
 I any town of the province he pleased. This was what the 
 [provincials dreaded more than any other oppression, and they 
 \ were willing to bribe the governor with a round sum to be 
 \ exempt from such formidable visitors, 
 jurisdic- But it was in his capacity as supreme judge that the pro- 
 
 consul must have impressed himself most strongly upon the 
 minds of the provincials. Under the Empire the provinces were 
 regularly divided into convenfus or districts for judicial purposes, 
 corresponding to our ' circuits.' Thus there were four circuits 
 in Baetica, three in Lusitania. In the republican period the 
 word is hardly yet used in this technical sense, but from the 
 first a certain number of towns were set apart as convenient 
 centres, ' where the praetor was accustomed to make a stay, and 
 hold a court ^.' To these centres the Roman citizens dwelling 
 in the neighbourhood resorted at fixed intervals, so as to form 
 a ready-made body of jurymen, from whom the praetor 
 might appoint fit persons to try the several cases brought before 
 him. It was one of the complaints brought by Cicero against 
 Verres that he repeatedly passed over these capable and re- 
 spectable persons *, and appointed judges from his own good- 
 for-nothing retinue. To these centres the cases that had 
 
 ' Hirtius, Bell. Alex. 50. 2 q^ ^ ^jt_ ^ ig_ 
 
 ^ In Verr. vi. 1 1 . § 28 : ' Ex iis oppidis in quibus consistere praetores et 
 
 conventum agere soleant.' The phrase 'forum agere' is also used in the 
 
 same sense, Cic. ad Att. v. 16 and 21. 5 9, vi. 2. 
 ' Cic. in Verr. iii . 1 3 : ' Select! e conventu aut praepositi ex negotiatoribus 
 
 nuUi.' 
 
JURISDICTION OF THE GOVERNOR. 53 
 
 arisen in a large surrounding district were brought. Cicero did 
 most of his judicial work at Laodicea, assigning one month to 
 the cases of the district of Cibyra and Apamea, and two months 
 to the cases of Synnada, Pamphylia, Lycaonia, and Isauria '. 
 
 In all cases the praetor presided, except where he delegated 
 his authority to his subordinates, but he was assisted, and no 
 doubt to a certain extent controlled, by his assessors, — always 
 apparently Romans settled in the province^, — whom he ap- 
 pointed to try the case along with him '- There was however 
 nothing to prevent a governor deciding a case simply on his own 
 authority, but it would be an unusual and excessively unpopular 
 proceeding, and even Verres hesitated before he made up his 
 mind to incur the odium of such an act *. On this occasion 
 the Roman knight who was counsel for the defendant refused 
 to conduct the case before Verres alone, and indignantly left 
 the court ^- 
 
 It must not be supposed that all cases arising in the province 
 came before the praetor. The free and allied towns had their 
 own laws, and lay, by right, wholly outside his jurisdiction. 
 Thus a charge of sacrilege was brought by a Samian against 
 a Chian, and tried by Chians. The number of cases that came 
 before the praetor as compared with those that came before the 
 
 • Cic. ad Att. v. 21. § 9. 
 
 ' In the S. C. giving freedom and immunity to Asclepiades for his 
 services in the war against the pirates, one clause specially privileges him 
 either to be tried by the laws of his own country, or if he preferred it, 
 ' before Roman magistrates, with Italians for judges.' The Latin ' apud 
 magistratus nostros Italicis judicibus' is in part a supplement, but can be 
 taken for certain, as the Greek exists in full ; — Jj iiii Tuif ^/ifTepSiv ipx^vTuv 
 iirl 'IraMKan' KpiTuiv. C. I. L. i. p. 1 10. 
 
 ' A passage of Cicero, ad Att. ii. 16. § 4, looks as if the governor was 
 assisted in his judicial decisions by a body of legal advisers, just as in 
 military matters he commonly asked the advice of his officers. The 
 ' consilium' mentioned in this passage may perhaps be a similar body to 
 that mentioned Pro Balbo, 8 and 17, whose authority was necessary to 
 legalise a general's bestowals of the franchise ; see Watson's note to ad Att. 
 ii. 16. § 4. p. 75- 
 
 * Cic. in Verr. vi. 9. ' lb. 
 
54 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Jurisdic- local courts would depend upon the arrangements of the lex 
 "°"' provinciae; upon the amount of liberty claimed by the towns ; 
 
 and last, but not least, upon the inclination of the governor to 
 respect those liberties. So the people of the little town of 
 Bidis in Sicily had apparently a right to settle legacy cases by 
 their own municipal law, but Verres ignored the rights Another 
 rjght granted to the Sicilians was that no man should be forced 
 to give security to appear in any court (forum) but that of his 
 own district. It would of course have been ruin to a poor man 
 to have to leave his business, and make a journey, and appear 
 in a court held at the other end of the island. This right too 
 Verres disregarded ^. In those provinces in which there were 
 numbers of Roman colonies and municipia, the jurisdiction of 
 the governors and of the towns existed side by side, each 
 keeping no doubt within its accurately defined limits. The 
 lex. Rubria, by which Caesar organised the municipia of Cis- 
 alpine Gaul, empowered the municipal magistrates to decide 
 all civil cases where the money involved did not exceed 
 15,000 sesterces'. The lex Julia Municipalis contained a 
 similar provision*, and not improbably allowed the duumviri 
 criminal jurisdiction over slaves ^. This lex Julia was probably 
 the norm for the municipal charters of Roman and Latin towns 
 in the provinces; and in the law of Malaga published under 
 Domitian we find the following clause : ' In the case of money 
 demanded in the name of the municipium from any citizen ' or 
 settler ', if the sum is not less than 1 000 sesterces, and not so 
 great as to [come within the jurisdiction of the proconsul, let 
 the duumvir or prefect decide about it*].' It appears then that 
 the more important civil cases and the great mass of the 
 
 ' Cic. in Verr. iii. 22, 24, 25. 2 lb. iv. 15, 40. 
 
 ' The existing fragments of the Lex Rubria are printed ; C. I. L. i. p. 115. 
 
 ' This can be made out from § 116 of the law ; C. I. L. i. p. 119. 
 
 ^ This is a conjecture of Mommsen, but is supported by the analogy of 
 the Pro Cluentio, 64-66. 
 
 6 ' Municeps.' ' < Incola.' 
 
 * § 69 of the Lex Malacitana ; C. I. L. i. p. 360. The words in brackets 
 are the certain supplement of Mommsen. 
 
OTHER POWERS OF THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 criminal cases would regularly come before the Roman gover- 
 nor, and the minor civil cases, the ordinary law business of daily 
 life, before the duumvirs of the towns of Roman constitution, or 
 the other local magistrates of non-Roman towns; while the 
 difficulties of having two different codes of law existing side 
 by side gradually disappeared, as the provincial towns adopted 
 the Roman law in preference to their own ^, and so paved the 
 way for the bestowal upon them of the regular municipal 
 constitution. 
 
 In the performance of his judicial functions the governor 
 was armed with absolute powers. In theory, though no doubt 
 this was much mitigated in practice, the provinces were per- 
 petually under martial law. The governor was, in the first 
 place and before all, commander-in-chief, and the rods and 
 axes which had to be laid down on his return to Rome 
 attended him everywhere throughout his province. So he 
 could punish with imprisonment or death ; and no one, unless ' 
 he were a Roman citizen, would in strictness have a right of 
 appeal. This was perhaps the chief advantage of being a 
 Roman citizen in the provinces, and the: one most coveted by 
 the provincials. In civil cases, however, it appears that some- 
 times a second trial was allowed by a ne\V governor, on 
 security for double the amount at issue being deposited by the 
 appellant '^. 
 
 The governor had also large powers in the matter of finance. Finance. 
 It was the quaestor who kept the accounts ; but it depended 
 mainly upon the governor whether the sums transmitted to Rome\ 
 were large or small'; and it was in his power to remit* and 
 probably to impose taxation. Above all, his dealings with the 
 farmers of the taxes were most important for the welfare or 
 misery of his province. In Cicero's opinion the right manage- / 
 
 ' Cic. pro Balbo, 8 ; Ortolan's Roman Law, Part I. § 187. 
 
 ' Cic. pro Flacco, 31. 
 
 ' In Sicily, for instance, this would depend upon how the tithes were sold ; 
 and the whole of the Verrines shows the influence the governor had in this 
 respect. * Cic. in Verr. v. 9 ; ad Fam. iii. 7. 
 
56 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 ment of these gentry was the prime difficulty of a governor. 
 It was dangerous and troublesome to quarrel with them ; and 
 on the other hand, if left to their own devices, there was no' 
 hope for the provincials \ There are indications that Cicero 
 himself was not resolute enough to control them as he should 
 have done^; just as ,he was certainly too indulgent to those 
 other harpies of the provinces, the Roman bankers. 
 Absolute p The authority possessed by the governor was then, in its 
 the'^over- ' reference to the provincials at all events, essentially absolute. 
 "i°y^'"^*°"It was recognised to be such by the Romans themselves ' ; and 
 the restrictions which they sought to put upon his action shows 
 this in a clear light. It was apparently illegal, or at all events 
 invidious, for a governor to buy anything in his province ; and 
 to obviate the necessity of his doing so, he was provided with 
 everything that he could be supposed to want at the public 
 'expense*. Why was this? 'Because they thought it a theft, 
 not a purchase, when the seller could not sell at his own price. 
 And they knew very well that if a provincial governor wanted 
 to purchase something that was in another man's possession, 
 and was allowed to do so, that it would come to this, that he 
 would get whatever he pleased, whether it was for sale or not, 
 
 1 AdQu. Fr. i. i. 13. 
 
 ^ Cic. ad Att. vi. i. § 16; vi. 2 and 3. Such phrases as 'cumulate 
 publicanis satisfactum,' ' publicanis in oculis sumus,' ' publicanos habeo 
 in deliciis ' are significant. 
 
 = Cic. in Verr. iv. jy ; ad Qu. Fr. i. i. 8. 
 
 ' It is commonly said that the governors were not salaried in this period, 
 and in the strict sense they were not. In theory the provincial as the 
 urban magistrates were sufficiently compensated for their labours by the 
 glory of being allowed to serve their country. But besides that they had 
 no expenses of maintenance or travel (Dio Cassius, lii. 1 5 ; Cic. in Verr. v. 
 5, vi. 18 and 32 ; Mommsen, ii. 338), the sums allowed them for the 
 expenses of the administration were on so lavish a scale that it was easy to 
 save largely out of them, and probably few governors acted like Cicero in 
 refusing to keep what thus remained over, either for himself or his retinue 
 (Cic. adAtt. vii. I. § 6). The vasarium or outfit of Piso, governor of Macedonia, 
 was 18 million sesterces. Cic. in Pis. 35 : ' Nonne sestertium centies et 
 octogies, quod, quasi vasarii nomine, in venditione mei capitis ascripseras, 
 ex aerario tibi attributum, Romae in quaestu reliquisti ?' 
 
THE GOVERNORS SUBORDINATES. 57 
 
 at whatever price he chose to give for it \' The same thing 
 is illustrated by the story Cicero tells of the conduct of Lucius 
 Piso, when praetor of Further Spain ^ He had lost his gold 
 ring ; so he sent for a goldsmith, while seated on his tribunal 
 at Corduba, and weighed him out the necessary amount of 
 gold. He then ordered the man to set up his bench in the 
 forum, and there and then make the ring in the presence of 
 every one. This was affectation no doubt, but affectation is not 
 often so significant. The fact is that in his province the] 
 governor was a king ; the praetor of Sicily indeed lived in| 
 Hiero's palace '^ Cicero takes credit to himself that he did not, 
 like other governors, make difficulties about admitting any one 
 to audience, and employed no chamberlain whose interven- 
 tion it was first necessary to secure*. He speaks exactly as 
 a Louis XIV might have spoken. A formidable and impressive\ 
 figure must a governor, even a good one, have been to thel 
 provincials, holding as he did in his hands the issues of life and I 
 death, and all powerful for worldly weal and worldly woe.| 
 They familiarised themselves with that austere figure later on, 
 when better protected against its will. They even came close 
 enough to it to discover that if the sword was steel the rest of 
 the figure was sometimes of clay ; but they never quite lost 
 the spell, in this period so strong, of the 
 
 Heart-shaking sound of consul Romanus. 
 
 Section III. The Governor's Subordinates. 
 
 I . The provincial quaestors were perhaps originally instituted 
 with the idea of lessening the power of the governor by sub- 
 ducting from it all financial functions ^. In Sicily there were 
 two quaestors, and one in every other province. We do not 
 
 ' Cic. in Verr. v. 5. " lb. v. 25. . " lb. vi. 12. 
 
 • Cic ad Att. vi. 2. § 5 ; cf. ad Qu. Fr. i. i. 8. § 25. 
 ° This is Mommsen's view, ii. 67. 
 
58 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 The certainly know their full number before Sulla ^ ; but only that 
 
 quaestor, j^^ ^^.^^^ .^ ^^ twenty ; and Caesar after him to forty. When 
 the quaestor left Rome he took with him the chest containing 
 the money which was to supply all the expenses of the adminis- 
 tration, and into which the taxes of the province were paid : of 
 all these at the end of his term of oflfice he had to render 
 account ^. He had his own jurisdiction, corresponding to that 
 of the aediles at Rome ^ ; or the governor could if he pleased 
 delegate to him his judicial authority. Thus we find young 
 Caesar sent round Baetica by his praetor for the administration 
 of justice *- The quaestor also had military duties, partly con- 
 nected with the levying and equipment of troops '^, and partly 
 with the direct leadership of men, at all events in times of 
 emergency "- Cicero left his quaestor as governor of the pro- 
 vince, in the interval between his own departure and the arrival 
 of his successor ' ; and under the Empire we find a quaestor 
 governing a province for ten years continuously *■ The quaes- 
 tors were not directly appointed by the governors, but' assigned 
 to the different provinces by lot *•. Caesar and Pompey were 
 guilty of a considerable irregularity when they directly appointed 
 their quaestors without the previous observance of this form '°- 
 Though their appointment was of this fortuitous character, the 
 Romans laid great stress upon the almost paternal relationship 
 which existed or should exist between the quaestor and his 
 superior ^^. This was natural enough, considering that the 
 quaestors were always quite young men at the outset of their 
 career; but it had important practical consequences. It was, 
 for instance, an impossible impiety for a quaestor to give 
 evidence against the consul or praetor under whom he had 
 
 ' Mommsen, iii. 360, note, 369, note. Tac, Ann. xi. 22, gives a sort of 
 history of the quaestorship. 
 
 "^ Cic. in Verr. ii. 14. ' Gains, i. 6 ; Marquardt, i. 390. 
 
 * Suet. Jul. 7 ; Cic. Div. in Caec. 17. = Plut. Sert. 4. 
 
 6 Cic. Phil. X. 6. ' Cic. ad Att. vi. 6. § 3. « Suet. Otho, 3. 
 
 ° Marquardt, i. 388, and his authorities. '" Cic. ad Att. vi. 6. § 4. 
 
 " Add to Marquardt's references, Pliny, Epist. iv. 15. 
 
LEG ATI AND COMITES. 59 
 
 served in a province '. At the same time it was expected of 
 him that he should exercise some sort of control upon a tyran- 
 nical superior ^ ; and the governor was accustomed to take his 
 advice in important matters '. On the other hand, his superior 
 could quash a legal decision of his ', and could even (though 
 this would be an extreme course), if he chose, dismiss him ^. 
 
 2. There were, as a rule, three legates in a consular, one in The 
 
 a praetorian province. Their appointment was an indefeasible ^^*"' 
 privilege of the Senate, which could vary their number at plea- 
 sure, and in special cases increased it to ten, and even fifteen. 
 The governor would however let the Senate know whom he 
 wished appointed, and as a rule no doubt his request would be 
 complied with. The governor generally proposed relatives or 
 friends for the oflSce ; they were his subordinates and he was 
 responsible for them. If they proved incompetent he dropped 
 them; if the contrary, they received a district to look after, 
 with the fasces but without the axe, possessing jurisdiction in 
 civil cases but not in criminal. If a legate won a victory it was 
 the governor who received the credit of it, as the legate could 
 not take his own ' auspices °.' The harm an ill-disposed legate 
 could do was very considerable; Verres was nearly as mis- 
 chievous when legate, as he was when praetor ' ; and if the 
 provincials complained, the governor refused to decide the 
 matter himself, as not within his jurisdiction, but referred them 
 to Rome *- 
 
 3. The comites were something like our attaches or secre- The 
 taries of legation, young Romans of birth who were taken '^°""'^^' 
 into the provinces to learn the business of administration. So 
 Cicero took with him his son, his nephew, and a relation of 
 Atticus. Catullus was a comes of C. Memmius in Bithynia. 
 
 The comites were chosen by the governor, who was responsible 
 for their good behaviour. They were supported at the public 
 
 ' Cic. Div. in Caec. i8, 19. ^ lb. 10. = Cic. in Verr. vi. 44. 
 
 « Cic. Div. in Caec. 17. " Cic. in Verr. iv. 58. 
 
 « Summarised from Marquardt, i. 387, and his authorities. 
 ' Cic. in Verr. i. 4, ii. 16. . ' lb. ii. 19. 
 
6o ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 charge, and their number could be controlled by the Senate '. 
 A position as comes gave a man a good opportunity of 
 looking after any property he might possess in the pro- 
 vince ^ ; or was accepted with the undisguised motive of 
 ', making a little money. Catullus' object in expatriating himself 
 
 to Bithynia seems to have been nothing more respectable ^ and 
 Cicero apparently transgressed use and wont when he refused 
 to divide the £8000 saved from the allowance made for a:dmi- 
 nistration, among his subordinaites *- Their influence in the 
 province may be gathered from the epithets applied to them by 
 Horace ^ ; and on the other hand from the remark of Cicero, 
 that Verres' retinue did Sicily more harm than would have been 
 done by a hundred troops of fugitive slaves °- 
 The 4. Besides other minor ofScials, the dragomans, interpreters, 
 
 pre ec s. ^j^jufg^ lictors, architects '' (meaning rather what we should call 
 engineers), there were also the prefects. Strictly speaking, 
 these were three in number, and all of a military character ' ; 
 but the prefecture, for which Scaptius asked Cicero, and which 
 Cicero refused to give to any Roman negotiator, seems to have 
 had judicial duties connected with it. The L. Volusius whom 
 Cicero sent to Cyprus to administer justice ' was not a legate, 
 for we know the names of Cicero's four legates from another 
 passage '", but probably a praefectus, and it was for the post 
 which he held that Scaptius asked. Roman money-lenders 
 asked for these appointments for the sake of the small military 
 force that went with them, and which enabled them to put 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 391, and his authorities. '^ Cic. pro Caelio, 30. 
 
 ^ Catullus, ix. 9. 13, xxviii. 6. 9 ; Ellis' Commentary, p. 1. 
 
 * Cic. ad Att. vii. i. 6. 
 
 '' 'Stellasque salubres Appellat-comites ;' Horace, Sat. i. 7. 24. 
 
 ^ Cic. in Verr. iii. 10. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 393 : also among the attendants of a colonial commission ; 
 ibid. 429 ; see Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii. 12 and 13. Under the Empire, at all 
 events, local talent is used ; see Pliny, Epist. x. 49. 
 
 ' Sociorum, castrorum, fabrorum, is Watson's note to Cic. ad Fam. 
 vji. 5. p. 188. 
 
 " Cic. ad Att. v. 21. § 6. '° Cic. ad Fam. xv. 4. § 8. 
 
THE GOVERNOR AND THE SENATE. 6i 
 
 the screw on procrastinating debtors '. And no doubt most 
 governors were laxer in giving them than was Cicero. 
 
 Seqtion IV. The control of the Governor by the Senate. 
 
 Besides the fact that in the great majority of cases a governor 
 owed his appointment to the Senate, there were a number of 
 ways in which the Senate could control and influence his action. 
 The Senate supplied him with the money for his troops '^, and 
 it was their decision which settled how large a force his was to 
 be. Cicero, for instance, complained to the Senate of the in- 
 sufficient number of troops provided him"- A governor was 
 expected to keep up a regular correspondence with the Senate *, 
 and was lia.ble to have his policy altered or overridden at their 
 decree ^. A governor setting out for his province received thejt 
 definite-insiructions, . especially with regard to the conduct he 
 was to follow with allied states or princes ° ; and on his return 
 had to give in his acco unts _to the Senate ', besides leaving one 
 or more copies in the province' The Senate could also 
 bestow or refuse the coveted honours of the triumph or suppli- 
 cation ; and a governor's arrangements needed their confirmation 
 to be valid'", ^ny extraordinary illegality on the part of a„ 
 governor couldJbe.met by their special decree." ; and it was not 
 apparently in the power of a governor to make requisitions 
 of ships or money without their consent '''. 
 
 Here are the eleme ntsof an efficjent control; jet^^m practice -pr; 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. v. 2 1. § lo. Such praefecii are of course quite different from 
 the prefects of islands, and other small appointments to which it was not 
 worth while to send a regular governor. These latter were directly appointed 
 by the Senate with full powers. There was, for instance, a praefect of the 
 Balearic Islands ; see Mommsen, ii. 74. 
 
 " Plut. Pomp. 20. ' Cic. ad Fam. xv. 2. * Cic. in Pis. 16. 
 
 ' Cf. Mommsen, ii. 269. 
 
 • Caes. B. G. i. 35 ; Cic. ad Fam. xv. 2. § 4. ' Cic. in. Pis. 25. 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. vi. 7. ' Cic. de Prov. Cons. 7 ; in Pis. 19. 
 
 II Mommsen, iv. 195 ; Pompey's case. '' Cic. in Verrem, iii. 39. 
 
 " Cic. pro Flacco, 1 2 ; Mommsen, ii. 298. 
 
62 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. . 
 
 j Inefficiency the_ senatori al supervision was absurdly inadequate. The Senate 
 toriaicon- was called to two tasks at once, either of which singly would 
 ' - perhaps have exceeded its powers, — the management namely 
 of the provinces, and the struggle against the democracy. Just 
 ^Jjen the utmost watchfulness, concentration, and^unaniniity 
 were needed for foreign affairs, the Senate was distracte^^and 
 divided by the party politics of Rome. The i nstinct of self- 
 preseryation made her turn chiefly to what seemed most nearly 
 to concern herown welfare.;_and the JSJns of empire be^an 
 to slip__from her slackened grasp^ The unauthoris ed raid of 
 Manlius Vulsp. up-on Galatia, shows this at an early date"; later 
 on comes Gabinius' impudent entry into forbidden Egypt ^. 
 The magistrates gained__steadily— upcux -the Senate. Extraor- 
 dinary and prplojig ed co mmands followed one another in quick 
 succession ; and such commanders did not trouble themselves 
 to send in reports or ask advice. Without continuous or efficient 
 control, the administration became a chaos. Cicero complains 
 of ' the neglect of provincial affairs '' ;' and in so far as they 
 were attended to, they were made the stalking-horse by_which 
 ,one political party .attacked another. To administer rightly the 
 heterogeneous mass of Roman subjects needed unwearied 
 diligence at least, and an organisation in thorough working 
 order. 3^^^-^'Sis,.S§-iSa much jnterested_m the o ther game 
 •""it had to play to give itself this enormous trouble ; jajsLnSt. 
 -- J , withstanding, disconnected efforts here and there, the governors 
 „--S J£-*^y -'SfeSSS; . practically exemptiljOIB-itajaQJlttDl. 
 
 Section V. The control of the Governor by his Proviitce. 
 
 Apart from the definite protection of the law, it was a great 
 advantage to a provincial to be under the patronage of some 
 powerful Roman. The governor of the province would be 
 careful of injuring persons thus protected : ' the Spanish 
 governors felt that no one could with impunity maltreat the 
 
 ' Cic. in Pis. 21. = Cic. pro Plancio, 26. 
 
THE PATRONATE. 63 
 
 clients of Cato '.' It was a common thing for whole peoples Patrons 
 to become the clients of the Roman generals who had first ^""^ clients. 
 conquered them "- Thus we find a Fabius patron of the AUo- 
 broges""; the Marcelli of Sicily*; and the elder Cato of Spaing 
 This patronate was often hereditary; it was so for instance in 
 the case of the Marcelli, the Fabii, and the Minucii ° ; and in 
 the inscriptions recording the clientship of towns or individuals 
 the relationship is often acknowledged on both sides as valid 
 for their posterity ^. The duty of a patron to his clients was 
 recognised as clearly as in the old days when both patron and 
 cUent were Romans '- In particular a patron was expected to 
 further his client's interests, if any business, legal or other, 
 brought the latter to Rome. The patron of a provincial town 
 was anxious to secure its advantage " ; and the tie must have 
 been a close and real one if Bononia was specially thanked by 
 Octavian for joining with the rest of Italy to take his side in the 
 civil war, regardless of the hereditary clientship between itself 
 and the Antonii "". 
 
 But the protection of the patronate was shadowy and unsub- The 
 stantial compared with the privileges attached to the possession franchise. 
 of the Roman citizenship. The martial law under which all 
 other provincials lay, did not apply to him who could say with 
 
 ' Mommsen, ii. 339. 
 
 ' Cic. de Off. i. 11. § 3S : 'Ut ii qui civitates aut nationes devictas bello 
 in fidem recepissent, eorum patroni essent more majorum.' Mommsen, 
 Romische Forschungen, p. 361. 
 
 » Appian, B. C. ii. 4 ; Merivale, i. 216. 
 
 * Liv..xxvi. 32 ; Cic. in Verr. ii. 49. 
 
 ' Cic. Div. in Caec. 20. Under the Empire we find >• patron of Nar- 
 bonensis, Henzen, 6954 ; Britain, Orelli, 366 ; not to mention others. 
 Caesar had been patron of Baetica. 
 
 " Minucius Rufus is mentioned as patron of the Ligurians ; C. I. L. i. p. 73. 
 no. 199 ; a position he owed to his father having conquered the country. 
 
 ' Cic. pro Flacco, 22 ; in Verr. v. 41. The common form in the inscrip- 
 tions is, ' eum cum liberis posterisque suis patronum cooptaverunt "... 
 ' liberos posterosque eorum in fidem clientelamque suam recepit.' 
 
 * Cic. in Verrem, iii. 47 ; Plin. Ep. iii. 4. 
 
 » Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 64. "■ Suet. Aug. 17. 
 
64 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 St. Paul 'I am a Roman.' At least four laws were passed 
 to secure Roman citizens from the rods and axes of the 
 magistrate '■ ; and a lex Julia of B.C. 8 punished the magistrate 
 guilty of putting to death, torturing, flogging or imprisoning a 
 Roman citizen who had appealed, by outlawry, or, in other words, 
 ' interdiction from fire and water ^.' Only a Roman citizen could 
 appeal against a decision of the governor"; and the trial of 
 Rabirius and the banishment of Cicero made it evident that not 
 even a consul, acting with the authority of the Senate, could 
 put a citizen to death without trial. It was a minor advantage 
 that the harbour or octroi duties levied by a free town were 
 not paid by Roman citizens*; and that they had the almost 
 exclusive right to serve on provincial juries. The flagrant 
 violation of all these rights by Verres is in Cicero's eyes perhaps 
 his most atrocious crime, as it would be the one which would 
 most surely rouse the indignation of the people of Rome. 
 Cicero says that wars have been waged (as we waged our little 
 war with Abyssinia) ' because Roman citizens were said to have 
 been ill-used, or Roman vessels detained, or Roman merchants 
 robbed^;' and his indignation becomes scathing and terrible, 
 as he relates how Roman citizens had been tortured, executed, 
 even crucified by the orders of a Roman governor. 
 
 Unfortunately, though the whole of Italy gained the franchise 
 in this period, it gained it not otherwise than at the sword's 
 point ; and this great concession was not, for a long time, 
 followed by similar indulgences to the provincials. Individuals 
 here and there who had done Rome notable services were 
 rewarded with the franchise all through this period ; but Caesar 
 was the first Roman statesman who bestowed it upon whole 
 provinces. It was generally bestowed for military services. 
 
 ' A leu Valeria and three leges Porciae ; C. I. L. i. p. ^i : also, apparently, 
 a Sempronian Law; Cic. in Verr. vi. 63. 
 
 ' This was the crime of ' vis publica,' mentioned by Tac. Ann. iv. 13; 
 see Church and Brodribb's note, p. 346. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 396, and his authorities. 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 263. = Cic. in Verr. vi. 58. 
 
THE ROMAN FRANCHISE. 65 
 
 Marius for instance, who was perhaps the first Roman general 
 to give it without direct senatorial authority, rewarded his Gallic 
 soldiers with it after Vercellae. Sulla seems to have been 
 liberal in this respect ' ; and Pompey claimed the acknowledged 
 right of a Roman general to make it the reward of loyal service. 
 The oration delivered by Cicero for Cornelius Palbus, as also 
 that for the poet Archias, turns upon this question of the 
 franchise. Apparently the claim of a general to bestow it, 
 unless he was specially authorised by a previous law'', was 
 in strictness invalid, and actions might be brought against the 
 enfranchised person. But Cicero does not hesitate to assert 
 that ' no one ever lost his action who was proved to have been 
 presented with the franchise by any one of our generals '.' The 
 advantages to Rome of being able to reward distinguished 
 military service by so coveted a prize, are too obvious to need 
 recommendation by the eloquence of Cicero ' ; more remarkable 
 is the fact of its being made the reward for an accuser who had 
 secured a conviction for extortion °. But Julius Caesar after all 
 was the first to give it with a liberal hand. He enfranchised the 
 soldiers of his Alaudae legion ^ ; and, if Antony may be trusted, 
 intended to give Sicily at all events the Latin right '. He also 
 encouraged learning by enfranchising ' all professors of medicine 
 at Rome, and all teachers of liberal knowledge '.' If this policy 
 had been begun earlier, and carried out boldly by a succession 
 of statesmen, some of the worst miseries under which the pro- 
 vincials in this period laboured would probably have been 
 averted. 
 
 The provincial deputations so frequently mentioned in Cicero Provincial 
 do not seem to have been of much consequence, unless they ^^^^^^' 
 came for the express purpose of setting the law in motion 
 against a governor. In one case we find it mentioned that a 
 
 ' Cic. pro Scauro, /lassjm ; in Verr. v. 17. ^ Cic. pro Balbo, 8. 
 
 ' Ibid. 23. * Ibid. 9, 13, and 21. 
 
 = Ibid. 13 and 22. This was a provision of the severe Lex Servilia. 
 » Suet. Jul. 24. 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. xiv. 12 ; Phil. i. 10 ; Merivale, ii. 394. ' Suet. Jul. 42. 
 
 F 
 
66 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 provincial deputation, sent for a quite different purpose, had 
 attended to the courts and there supported by their presence a 
 former quaestor of the province who was undergoing trial \ 
 But such cases must have been rare ; and in any case it does 
 not appear that such demonstrations, even if permitted, could 
 have been of practical assistance. Equally futile but more 
 humiliating were the encomia which a province was wont to send 
 after its governor, on his leaving the province. These were 
 most eagerly sought for, perhaps most punctiliously exacted by 
 the worst governors. Appius had his from the Cilicia which he 
 had 'plundered and all but ruined";' and even Verres received 
 one from Spacuse. The Senate knew very well what these 
 forced praises were worth, and, Cicero hints, paid very little 
 attention to the deputies who brought them ". 
 Leges But if the laws had only been carried out, there would have 
 
 daram!"" ^een little need of anything else to protect the provinces. 
 From an early date there had been laws passed against extortion, 
 and in these there was no lack of severity. The first of them 
 was the Calpurnian Law passed in the year e.g. 149. 'Lucius 
 Piso, tribune of the plebs, was the first to pass a law about 
 extortion,' is Cicero's account *. ' The avarice of the magistrates 
 gave birth to the Calpurnian laws,' says Tacitus "- The, Lex 
 Junta, which followed, passed between b.c. 149 and 124, is 
 only known by its being mentioned in the Lex Acilia. This 
 latter law, passed probably in the year B.C. 125, is more than 
 once noticed by Cicero as having been exceptionally severe, 
 and is probably the law of which considerable fragments still 
 remain to us. Next followed the Lex Servilia of b.c. in. 
 Under this law were the two infamous accusations of Scaurus 
 and Rutilius, the knights being then in possession of the juries. 
 One of its provisions was that curious one already mentioned, 
 that an accuser who secured a conviction should be rewarded 
 with the Roman franchise. Sulla b.c. 79 passed a law dealing 
 
 ' Cic. pro Plancio, 11. ^ Cic. ad Att. v. 15. ' Cic. ad Fam. iii. 8. 
 • Cic. Brutus, 27. s Tac. Ann. xv. 20. 
 
THE LEX ACILIA. 
 
 67 
 
 with the secases, but nothing is known of its contents except 
 what may be indirectly gathered from the notices we possess 
 of the later Julian law. This Lex Julia clearly laid down what 
 requisitions a governor might make upon his province. He 
 could claim wood, salt and hay, besides shelter, when travelling, 
 but was required to pay for everything else '. It also followed 
 the Servilian and Cornelian laws in ordaining that if the accused 
 could not upon condemnation restore what he had extorted, 
 those who had received any part of the proceeds from him 
 might be prosecuted for it ''. . It also expressly forbade pro- 
 vincial governors to leave their province to enter a neighbouring 
 kingdom, unless specially authorised by the home government ; 
 doubtless with a view of preventing such excursions as that of 
 Gabinius into Egypt '. It seems to have been full of excellent 
 provisions, and still stricter than any of the previous laws on 
 the same class of offences '. 
 
 But it is possible to go more into detail than this. We The Lex 
 possess a good part of the Lex Acilia, from which at all events "''^' 
 the following points can be made out : — 
 
 The persons liable to accusation are these — dictator, consul, 
 praetor, master of the horse, censor, aedile, tribune of the plebs, 
 quaestor, triumvir capHalis, triumvir agris dandis assignandis, 
 tribune of the soldiers ". None of these could be accused 
 while their term of office lasted. An accuser could ask the 
 praetor for a lawyer to plead his case, and could refuse the 
 lawyer offered. The necessary 650 jurymen were to be chosen 
 by the praetor peregrinus within ten days after the passing of 
 the law. They had to be of not less census than 400,000 
 sesterces. No one who was or had been tribune of the plebs, 
 quaestor, triumvir capitalis, tribune of the soldiers, to be chosen ; 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. v. 16 ; Watson, p. 225. ^ Cic. pro Rabirio Postumo, 4. 
 s Cic. in Pis. 21. 
 
 * Cic. pro Rab. Post. 4. A list of these laws in chronological order is 
 given by Mommsen, C. I. L. i. p. 54. 
 
 ' Equites therefore were not liable ; cf. Cic. pro Rab. Post. 5. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 no present or past senator ' ; no gladiator, actor or convict ; no 
 one under thirty or over sixty years of age ; no one living more 
 than a mile outside Rome ; no father, brother, or son of one 
 of the above-named magistrates, or of a senator. Twenty days 
 after the accuser had given in the name to the praetor, one 
 hundred were to be chosen by the praetor out of the 650 
 jurymen. No relation of the accused was allowed to be on 
 the bench ; and the praetor had to swear that he had chosen 
 no man witR any sinister motive. Then the praetor was to 
 tell the accused that he might pick fifty out of the hundred 
 jurymen ; and if the accused did not avail himself of this 
 privilege the accuser might do so. The jury were to be told 
 to estimate the damages; which went on the principle of re- 
 storing the same amount as had been extorted, if extorted 
 lefore this law; but if after this law, a double amount. The 
 money was to be got out of the man's goods or his bail, and 
 lodged by the quaestor in the treasury, and then if claimed, 
 paid over to the persons injured ''■- If not claimed within five 
 years, the money was to remain in the treasury. The accuser, 
 or that one of the accusers who was considered by the jury to 
 have done most to secure the condemnation, was to be made 
 a Roman citizen, he and his sons, and lineal posterity ; and to 
 be incorporated in the tribe to which the condemned man had 
 belonged. If such an accuser did not care to accept the 
 franchise, still the right of appeal was to be given him, just as 
 if he had been a citizen. 
 
 ' ' Quive in senatu siet fueritve.' 
 
 " The essence of these suits, as their name (de repetundis) denotes, lay in 
 the restitution of wrongfully acquired property. In the trial of Verres the 
 damages were laid at one hundred million sesterces (Cic. div. in Caec. 5) ; 
 in that of C. Cato at only 18,000 sesterces (in Verr. \^. 10) ; in that of 
 Dolabella at three million sesterces (Cic. in Verr. ii. 3 and 38). Even 
 when quadruple of the original exaction was paid, Zumpt — de legibus 
 judiciisque repetundarum, Berlin, 1847 — thinks, and it is probable enough, 
 that the whole sum was paid over to the provincials to make up for the 
 great expenses of a prosecution; cf. Tac. Ann. iv. 20; Plin. Ep. iii. 9; 
 Cic. in Verr. ii. 3, v. 8. 
 
NULLITY OF THESE LAWS. 69 
 
 Exceptional difficulties might no doubt now and then be Facilities 
 put in the way of provincials desirous to avail themselves of !!!°J^1'° 
 tnese laws ' ; and it is possible that none but very bad cases 
 of extortion were tried under them ; but it cannot be said that 
 on the whole the task of the accuser was rendered unduly 
 difficult. On the contrary, any possible trouble or danger of 
 the provincials were lightened if not removed by the practice 
 which Cicero '\ Tacitus ' and Plutarch* notice of yoiing Romans 
 making their ddbut in public life by one of these accusations. 
 When Cicero is defending a provincial governor thus accused, 
 he hints pretty openly that the accuser's motive was often 
 nothing better than mere notoriety; and if the zeal shown in 
 such cases was often as excessive as that which he ascribes to 
 the accuser of Flaccus ^ the suggestion was probably a well- 
 grounded one. If an accuser wished to secure conviction, he 
 visited the province in person, and went about from town to town 
 collecting evidence". He was armed apparently with special 
 powers, could subpoena any one to attend at the trial and give 
 evidence, and if difficulties were made about the production of 
 any municipal document could positively insist upon its being 
 shown to him ''. 
 
 But though the laws were good enough, and though there PoUtical 
 was superabundant machinery to keep them effective, they yet ^S™'""'^^ 
 in fact accomplished little or nothing. The reason of this -^2i^iudicia. 
 that the struggle of parties going on all during this period was 
 fought out in the domain of the law-courts ; the judicia were 
 coveted as an instrument of political power. The original 
 arrangement was that the Senate supplied the judges for the 
 courts, and that therefore a senator on his return from his 
 province was, if accused, brought to trial before fellow-senators 
 most of whom would in their turn some day command a 
 province, and would then perhaps need for themselves the 
 
 ' Cic. in Verrem, iii. 4, 27. " Cic. pro Caelio, 30. 
 
 » Tac. de Orat. 43, fin. * Plut. LucuU. 3. 
 
 " Cic. pro Flacco, 5, 8, 15. ' Ibid. ' Cic. in Verr. v. 66. 
 
70, ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 indulgencejwWek,- tkeiL ifieni- exp.ected^--rf-them. Caius 
 dracdms^ casting about for a weapon against the Senate, saw 
 that he could wound them most effectually through the law- 
 courts. He therefore passed a law to transfer thsjudicia from 
 the Senate to the Knights. In the fifty years between Gracchus' 
 legislation and that of Sulla several attempts were made to 
 admit the Senate at all events to an equal share of these 
 privileges, but without effect \ Sulla summarily deprived the 
 equites of all judicial authority whatever, and transferred it 
 wholly to the Senate (b.c. 8i). This only lasted a decade; 
 and then Pompey had the Lex Aurelia (b.c. 70) passed, which 
 divided the whole body of jurymen between senators, knights, 
 and tribuni aerarii. Lastly, Caesar (b.c. 46) excluded this third 
 class, and divided the appointments equally between the Senate 
 and the Knights '■'. 
 The Sena- It is obvious that in these changes the interest of the pro- 
 lquite°'ls vincials was not the main object in view. It is diflHcult to say 
 judges whether they suffered most when the Knights were judges 
 alone or when the senators alone. Cicero claims a decided 
 superiority for the decisions of the Knights, and contrasts their 
 incorruptibility with the shameless venality of the Senate '. It 
 is very possible that they were less accessible to bribes ; but 
 that did not of necessity make their hold of the courts an 
 advantage to the provincials. These latter only exchanged the 
 whips of the governor for the scorpions of the publicani. 
 Publicanus and eques are in fact identical terms ; and as long 
 as the governor let the farmers of the taxes do exacdy what 
 they wanted, there was no fear of his being condemned on his 
 return. On the other hand, if a governor endeavoured, to 
 
 ' A Lex Servilia of this period divided them between both orders, but 
 was either not passed, or soon abrogated ; Mommsen, iii. 135. Drusus con- 
 templated a law to the same effect. 
 
 ^ Augustus restored the trib. aerarii, and added a fourth decuiy ; 
 Caligula added a fifth. 
 
 ' Pseudo-Ascon. in Caec. Divin. 8 says the Knights were better than the 
 Senators; Appian, B. C. i. 22, says they were not; see Merivale, i. 63. 
 
MISERY OF THE PROVINCES. 
 
 protect the unfortunate provincials against their oppressors, 
 he exposed himself to great danger. One of the best governors 
 the province of Asia ever had, Rutilius Rufus, was condemned 
 and banished for extortion ; and LucuUus lost his command 
 through similar endeavours to control them. 
 
 Perhaps however the ten years' exclusive possession of the 
 courts by the Senate after Sulla's and before Pompey's legisla- 
 tion were the black-letter years of the provinces. In these ten 
 years fall the trials of Cn. Dolabella, C. Antonius, and Verres. 
 The trial of the latter was perhaps one of the immediate causes 
 which brought about the Lex Aurelia ^/ and it is possible that 
 Cicero, when he published the five orations against Verres 
 which he had not spoken, had this result in view ''. 
 
 Section VI. The condition of the Provinces. 
 
 'AH the provinces are mourning, all the free peoples are 
 complaining ; all kingdoms remonstrate with us for our covetous- 
 ness and our wrong-doing ; on this side of the ocean there 
 is no spot so distant or so remote that in these latter times the 
 lust and wickedness of our countrymen have not penetrated to 
 it. The Roman people can no longer withstand, I do not say 
 the violence, the arms, the warfare of all nations, but their 
 complaints, their lamentations, and their tears.' Such is the 
 picture given by a Roman of one period of the Roman rule '. 
 But they are the words of a great rhetorician on a great 
 occasion, and it may be doubted how far they represent the 
 literal truth. Unhappily there is too much definite evidence to 
 leave any doubt, and other strong passages of the same author, 
 where there can be no question of deliberate rhetoric, point in 
 the same direction. When Cicero says that the ' mildness and 
 self-denial ' which he showed in Cilicia seemed ' incredible ' to 
 
 1 Watson, p. 5. ^0-- — ■ ' Cf. Cic. in Verr. i. 13. is 
 
 2 Cic. in Verr. iv. %'J\ ci. pro lege Manilia, 22: 'Difficile est dictu, 
 Quirites, quanto in odio simus apud exteras nationes propter eonim, quos 
 ad eas per hos annos cum imperio misimus, injurias ac libibines.' 
 
72 
 
 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Deteriora- 
 tion of the 
 Roman 
 rule. 
 
 Roman 
 theory of 
 their rule. 
 
 the provincials^, he indirectly passes the worst condemnation 
 on the Roman rule. In the same spirit is that passage of his 
 letter to his brother Quintus in which he speaks of the cities 
 receiving in him ' a guardian, not a tyrant,' the households ' a 
 guest and not a pillager ^' Even in writing a formal letter to 
 the Senate, where, if anywhere, one might suppose unpleasant 
 truths would be kept out of sight, Cicero speaks casually and 
 by the way of the ' harshness and injustice of our rule'.' 
 
 There was, if Cicero may be trusted, a regular deterioration 
 visible in this rule. It was much better in the earlier years of 
 foreign dominion than it was in his own generation*. The 
 praises which Polybios gives to the incorruptibility of the first 
 Roman governors of Greece confirm his view°; and it was 
 very natural that the Romans should take some little time to be 
 wholly corrupted by the seductive influences of absolute power 
 and easily-acquired richest But from the first, if we except 
 perhaps the philhellene tendencies which made educated 
 Romans look tenderly upon Greece, there was little or no idea 
 that Rome had duties to the provincials as well as rights. If 
 a governor spared them, it was more often from his self-respect 
 and feeling of what was due to his own dignity and character 
 than from humanity. The theory of the Romans as to the 
 provinces was that they were the ' estates of the Roman 
 people'.' Their importance for the State lay wholly in the 
 revenues derived from them. So the well-being of the inha- 
 bitants, except so far as it affected their tax-paying power, was 
 not of much consequence ; but the well-being of the land was 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. v. i8 : ' Quibus incredibilis videtur et nostra mansuetudoet 
 abstinentia.' 
 
 ^ Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. i. i: 'Quum urbs custodem non tyrannum, domus 
 hospitem non expilatorem recepisse videatur.' 
 
 ^ Cic. ad Fam. xv. i ; ' Acerbitatem atque injurias imperii nostri.' 
 
 * Cic. in Verr. ii. 22. 
 
 = Polybios, vi. 56. 13 ; Finlay, i. 24 ; Mommsen, ii. 298, 330. 
 
 « Tac, Ann.'ii. 54, states with force the view as to the corruption of the 
 Roman character by foreign conquest. 
 
 ' 'Praedia populi Romani;' Cic. in Verr. iii. 3, 
 
THE GOVERNOR. 73 
 
 of the greatest. To this was in part due the special attention 
 paid by the Romans to tillage, to the building and main- 
 tenance of roads, and to the establishment of commercial 
 centres. To pretend, as Cicero ^ does, that the motive of the 
 Romans was humanity was nonsense ; but if the former motive, 
 however selfish ''■, had been kept steadily in view, the provinces 
 would have been well off'. It would be a great mistake to 
 suppose that the misgovernment of the provinces was regarded 
 with toleration either by public opinion or by the law. Un- 
 fortunately the men whose collective opinion was so meritorious, 
 were not equally sound as individuals. The temptations were 
 too strong and the control too imperfect for the average man 
 not to yield to the one and to take advantage of the other. 
 
 . The_govejnor as possessing the- most power with the least Miseries 
 responsibility hati it in. his power to inflict the greafesf amount ^J'^the^ 
 ,of misery. The jobbery connected with the appointments told governor, 
 severely in the last resort upon the provinces. If a manjiaid \ 1 
 heavilj_io .geL his province, he expected to recoup himself C 
 duiinghis-adminiatrationjiE.it. 3ut th£n_he could not do that '' 
 «dthout-exposing— himself to a trial for extortion. TJie judges,. 
 hnvjpvpr on such trials were not above a liberal bribe : all_that 
 was^ necessary therefore was to ijjake enough, out of the pro-, 
 yince to hg,ye. «3meihing to offer to them,. Verres ruled Sicily 
 forthree years ; and according to Cicero he boasted that the 
 gains of the first year would be enough for himself, those of the 
 second year for his friends and patrons, those of the third year, 
 which was the most productive of all, for the judges*. So 
 these trials were turned from a defence of the provincials into 
 their worst scourge ; and Cicero says that he expects deputa- 
 tions to the Senate to beg for their abolition ^. In any case it 
 
 ' Cic. div. in Caec. 5 ; in Verr. vi. 44. 
 
 ^ Passages which illustrate the selfishness of the motive are — Cic. in 
 Verr. iv. 50 and 55 ; Pro lege Manilla, 6 ; De Leg. Agr. ii. 30, where 
 Cicero shows that the tribute always ceased with war or other disturbance. 
 
 ' .See Marquardt, i. 398. 
 
 • Cic. in Verr. i. 14 ; of. iv. 19, sub fin. * Cic. in Verr. i. 14. 
 
74 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION 
 
 was well understood that a man did not expatriate himself from 
 the pleasures of Rome for nothing ' : to get a province was the 
 recognised means of setting a bankrupt on his legs again ^. 
 So regular were the extortions of the governor, that when 
 Cicero was eccentric enough to abstain from them, the grateful 
 people of Salamis told him that they had been able to pay 
 their debts with ' the praetor's fund ',' with the money, that is to 
 say, which had hitherto been yearly laid aside to conciliate their 
 master's good- will. And even if the governor was himself well- 
 intentioned, it was very difScjilt for him to resi st the impor- 
 tunities of his dependents"and^ acquaintances. The CQUUtes. for 
 instance came _tQ the province to make money, and would 
 regard any unusual rectitude or honesty in the governor as an 
 eccentricity mischievous tb their interests. Besides this he was 
 continually being pestered by the letters, of Jnflueatial JRonians, 
 begging him to get in a debt for them, or to send themwild 
 beasts for the show^or jtQ exempt aomfc laada-o£ih.ei r a.in tEe 
 country from the municipal taxes.^, It seemed as if a, governor 
 was sent to a province not in the interests of the State, but to 
 carry out the wishes of a pack of spendthrifts and usurers. 
 Progresses. If we wish to go more into details, the varieties of ill-usage 
 endured by the provincials are so numerous as to be embar- 
 rassing. Even when on his way to his province, and before he 
 had yet actually reached it, a Roman governor might be if he 
 chose a burden to the cities through which he passed. Some 
 of Verres' worst enormities were perpetrated in Achaia'', 
 though he was merely passing through that country on his 
 way to Cilicia : and the immense credit which Cicero takes to 
 himself for demanding little or nothing from the places 
 through which he passed on his way to his province would be 
 
 ' Apparently the Romans regarded a provincial command- as a great 
 nuisance. ' Hujus molestiae ' is the phrase used by Cicero in writing to 
 his brother (ad Qu. Fr. i. I. i) ; and when Cicero was himself in Cilicia, 
 he was always longing to be back in Rome again. 
 
 ^ Cic. in Pis. 6. ' Cic. ad Att. v. 2 1 ; 'In vectigali praetorio.' 
 
 * Cic. ad Fam. viii. 4, 6. ' lb. viii. 9. ' Cic. in Verr. ii. 1 7. 
 
TRAVELLING MADE EASY. 75 
 
 by itself a proof that other governors did not observe a similar 
 moderation *. 
 
 But it was not only the governor and his staff who had the i>egationes 
 right to claim lodging and entertainment without paying for it. ' ^^'^' 
 If a senator could get a hgatio libera granted him by his fellow- 
 senators, he could travel in the provinces in this way, armed 
 with the authority of a regular legate, though without either 
 duties or responsibilities, and for as long a time as suited his 
 convenience. Money-lending, and in fact all business, being 
 of a personal character, and almost always managed directly by 
 the principals, it was a common thing for a senator to get one 
 of these lieutenancies given him in order to hunt up a debtor "^ 
 or a legacy' in some distant province. That these persons 
 abused their authority, and were burdensome and almost in- 
 tolerable to the provincials, is expressly told us by Cicero '. 
 Cicero himself did his best to put an end to so disgraceful an 
 anomaly, and would have had a senaius consullum. passed for 
 their total abolition, if a tribune had not interposed his veto. 
 So he contented himself with limiting their duration to one 
 year °, a period which Caesar afterwards extended to five *. It 
 was one of the benefits of the Empire that it got rid of these 
 vexatious and harassing appointments'. 
 
 Somewhat analogous but far worse mischiefs were caused by Quartering 
 the billeting of troops in this or that city of a province for° ^"P^- 
 winter quarters. In his speech for the Manilian law Cicero 
 doubts whether more cities of the enemy have in late years 
 been destroyed by arms, than friendly states by this system of 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. v. 10, 16, 21. For the billeting of the governor, &c. on a 
 journey withiahis province, see Cic. in Verr. ii. 24, 25. 
 
 " Cic. pro Flacco, 34. ' Cic. de Lege Agr. i. 3. § 8. 
 
 * De Lege Agr. i. 3 : ' Hereditatum obeundarum causa, quibus vos 
 legationes dedistis, qui et privati et ad privatum negotium exierunt, non 
 maximis opibus neque summi auctoritate praediti, tamen auditis profecto 
 quam graves eorum adventus sociis vestris esse soleant.' Cf. de Lege Agr. 
 ii. 17. 
 
 = Cic. deLegg. iii. 8. ' Cic. ad Att. xv. 11. 
 
 ' See also Mommsen, iv. 158 ; Marquardt, i. 418. 
 
76 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 quartering'- It is one of the special praises which Plutarch 
 gives LucuUus, that he never once quartered his troops upon a 
 friendly Greek city ^ ; whereof, he adds, the soldiers much com- 
 plained. Sertorius won the hearts of the Spaniards by not 
 quartering his troops upon them ' ; and when Caesar did so, he 
 did it avowedly to punish a town* or to bribe his men". It 
 can easily be imagined what misery and shame might be 
 inflicted by the excesses of a rough soldiery, bent upon making 
 up for the fatigues of the campaign by a winter of idleness and 
 debauch. In a law giving freedom to the people of Thermessus 
 in Pisidia, one of the provisions is that no Roman governor 
 shall be allowed to quarter troops upon them except by special 
 authority of the Senate"; and rich towns in the province of 
 Cilicia (and no doubt also iri other provinces) regularly paid 
 the governor large sums to be excused this terrible visitation. 
 The people of Cyprus, for instance, paid 200 Attic talents 
 (nearly £50,000)'. 
 Other petty The petty oppressions of different kinds which the governor 
 °Io^T' ^^^ ^'^ ™ ^^^ power to inflict were" innurnerable. It was ap- 
 parently the practice in certain provinces to make requisitions 
 of wilsLbeasts for the Roman shows ; and the natives could be 
 set to a compulsory hunt after them*. Still worse was the 
 
 '■ Cic. pro Lege Manilia, 13. ' Hut. LucuU. 33. 
 
 ' Plut. Sert. 6 ; and for the insolence of the soldiers quartered at Castulo, 
 ib. 3. 
 
 * Caesar, Bell. Civ. ii. 18. = Ibid. 31. 
 
 ° C. I. L. i. p. 114. No. 204: 'Nei quis magistratus prove magistratu 
 legatus neive quis alius milites in oppidum Thermessum majorum 
 Pisidarum agrum Thermensium majorum Pisidarum hiemaudi causa 
 introducito, neive facito quo quis eo milites introducat quove ibi milites 
 hiement, nisei senatus nominatim utei Thermessum majorum Pisidarum in 
 hibernacula milites deducantur decreverit.' 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. v. 21. § 7. Plutarch, Sert. 24, speaks of Asia as 
 ^apvvofiivrjj' §€ raTs Tr\eov€^iais kol vTT€p7j(pavlais tujv imaKrjvSiv. 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. vi. 1. § 20 ; ad Fam. viii. 9. In the long run the beasts 
 were almost exterminated, and districts rendered habitable vifhich vfould 
 otherwise have been too dangerous; cf. Strabo, xvii. 3. § 15 ; Mon. Anc. 
 § 22. Augustus accounted for 3500 African wild beasts ; Titus showed 
 jooo beasts in one day; Suet. Tit. 7 ; cf. Spartian, Hadr. 7 and 19. 
 
THE PUSLICANI. 77 
 
 common exaction of money from the cities under pretence of 
 its being ST voHntary contriBution towards the expenses of the 
 aedile at Rome. This is probably the purpose for which 
 Caelius begs Cicero to get him a sum of money out of the 
 cities of his province '■. These contributions were so regular 
 a thing that they had a tecKiicat name {aurum aediltcium).^ 
 Cicero speaks of them as a ' severe and iniquitous tax ^ ; ' and 
 if we may argue from one known case, as much as 200,000 
 sesterces was got out of the cities of a single province as their 
 contribution to the pleasures of the sovereign people '- Per- 
 haps still more vexatious were the expenses incurred by the 
 cities on temples, statues^ commemoratory festivals in honour 
 perhaps of an infamous scoundrel who had fattened upon their 
 miseries ' The deputations to Rome to sing the praises of 
 such a governor were another source of expense which an- 
 honest man like Cicero would either abolish or greatly curtail,- 
 even at the risk of offending his predecessor ^- Then there - 
 were the ' compliments,' in reality compulsory presents, to the 
 governor on the occasion of the valuing of the corn which a 
 province had to supply * ; an^thejumberless_ opjoitunities of 
 extortion which a governor possessed in virtue of his supreme 
 authority over the taxatiojj. 
 
 But the collectors of the taxes were more^ formidable even The 
 than the governor." The system of middle-men which the " '°^°'' 
 Romans had adopted saved trouble in the jidministration no 
 doubt, but at a ,tejaible expense to the provincials. In some 
 provinces, for instance Spain, fixed payments had been intro- 
 duced immediately upon conquest ; and for these therefore no 
 middle-men were necessary. But i i^ other s, such as Sicily, 
 Sardinia, and Asia, the chief tax, sras not a fixed one, but 
 consisted in a tjthe. pi3x&- annual -produce. . So. there jKej:e,_cif 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. vi. i. § 20. 
 
 ^ ' Gravi et iniquo aediliciorum vectigali ; ' Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. i . 9. § 26. 
 
 ' Cic. ibid. ; of. Mommsen, ii. 338. 
 
 * There was a festival called Verrea in Sicily ; Cic. in Verr. iii. 63. 
 
 ' Cic. ad Fan. iii. 8. § 2. • Cic. in Verr. iv. 38, 42 ; in Pis. 35. 
 
78 J ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 course^..va,riatipns jn its amouBt; and it seemed simpler and 
 more convenient that the administration should be assured of a 
 definite sum beforehand without being dependent upon the 
 goodness or badness of the harvests. Sojt ^was the practice to 
 let out such taxes to a society, of rich men, perhaps invariably 
 Roman knights, for a period of five years. Such a society then 
 paid over the lurrip sum at which the taxes had beeii .let_.out t,0, 
 it7 and sent some of its memJDgrs to the prpyince^JiQ .act .the, 
 jjart of tax-gatherers., If the harvests were good during the 
 period they would gain largely on "their original payments; if 
 they were bad ^^1 would-.nQminaUy4ose. Such contracts were 
 therefore of a speculative character; and indeed Mommsen 
 regards the publicani as corresponding to the stock-brokers 
 {Borsenspeculanten) of a modern capital. But as a matter of 
 fact they. secured themselves with tolerable certainty a gainst 
 losses, ^t the expense of the tax-payers. Their power in the 
 provinces was so great that even Cicero hints to his brother 
 Quintus to advise the provincials not to insist too rigorously 
 upon their legal rights against them, lest worse should befall 
 them '. It is only too probable that they habitually and as a 
 matter, of course exacted more than theiFdue'* ; and the.fiontrol 
 of the governor, who alone had authority- over ,theni^,,was 
 wholly inefficient _.,ILa_gayemQr_kept them to their-legaLcght 
 theii^ hatreds to him inew no bounds * ; and they could_^ 
 exceedingly dangerous to him,, particularly when the Judicia 
 were in their hands, on hi$ return to Rome. LucuUus owed 
 his recall to their determined ill-will ; and Rutilius his banish- 
 ment. §0 most governors ^ted^IikeVerres, j,nd_s^red the 
 plunder with them. The law expressly forbade any governor 
 to invest money in their societies ; but Verres did so " ; and 
 
 ' Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. i. I2. 
 
 ^ Cf. Appian, B. C. v. 4 : Tfii' S^ toSt-o irapi t^s iSouX^s juaBoviUvav 
 fvv0pL^6vTQJV u/uV KOL TToKit ■tr\eiova aiTo^vTotv ; St. Luke iii. 13. 
 
 ' Verres threatened to make them pay eight-fold if they exacted more 
 than their due ; In Verr. iv. 8, 10, 21, 47. 
 
 * Cic. pro Plancio, 13, illustrates this in the case of Scaevola. 
 
 ' Cic. in Verr. iv. 56. 
 
THE PUB Lie Am. 79 
 
 even if the law was not thus impudently broken, the vast 
 majority of governors were shamefully subservient to them^. 
 Thegovernor could do a great deal for them by forcing the- 
 cities_ofJtiis^ province to pa^HapIflESr arrears ^ ; or by support- 
 ing them wjth . military force '. ; and in the exceptional cases in 
 which a governor from good or bad motives was unfriendly to 
 their interests, he could apparently do them a good deal of 
 mischief* If a debtor c ould not or would not pay, they had 
 legal power to~put in their claim and take temporary possession 
 (of his property^; and, it is hinted, the actual mearsures they 
 tooE"were often far more violent and summary than this". 
 Besides the tithes, the customs' duties were regularly farmed to 
 these middle-men, even in countries where all the other taxes 
 were got in by the direct system. Such dues were paid in the 
 Italian harbours till far down in the life of Cicero, and were 
 regularly collected by the publicani who had contracted for 
 them. The complaints of their rapacity were great even in 
 privileged Italy, and Cicero says he can ' imagine what is the 
 fate of the allies in remote provinces when even in Italy I hear 
 the complaints of Roman citizens'.' They had the right Of 
 search*; and were in fact custom-house officers, the dif- 
 ference being that they were considerably stricter and more 
 arbitrary than is possible for such officials now. Their interests 
 were so much more directly involved, that this is not at all 
 surprising. 
 
 The miseries which the publicani inflicted might be gathered 
 from the bitter hatredjjfhic^jsagjgjjjpr lij^fflt,'. When Cicero 
 wishes to give his hearers a strong impression of the loyalty and 
 
 ' Cic. in Verr. iv. 41. 
 
 '^ Cic. ad Fam. ii. 13 ; ad Att. vi. 2. § 5 ; pro Plancio, 26. We find even 
 Cicero condescending to apply to provincial governors, who were friends of 
 his, to further their interests ; ad Fam. xiii. 9, 65. 
 
 ' Cicero, de Prov. Cons. 5, speaks of garrisons for their protection. 
 
 * Cic. in Pis. 17. One could almost forgive Piso his other sins for this ! 
 
 ' Cic. in Verr. iv. 11. • Ibid. ' Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. i. 13. 
 
 ' Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii. 23 ; Marquardt, ii. 262, and his authorities. 
 
 ' If direct evidence is viranted, see Plut. Lucull. 7. 
 
8o ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 tiatores. 
 
 friendliness of the Sicilians, he tells them that ' they are so fond 
 of our nation that they are the only people where neither a 
 publican nor a money-lender is an object of detestation \' The 
 Romans fully allowed that this hatred was deserved. Livy tells 
 us that the Senate actually gave up the working of some mines 
 in Macedonia and other lands which brought in a great revenue, 
 ' because .they could not be managed without the publicani, and 
 wheresoever there was a publican, there either the law was a 
 dead letter, or the allies were no better than slaves.' 
 The Nego- The negptiatores or money-lenders were the complement of 
 the publicani. They were often knights like them^; and held 
 a similar, perhaps slightly inferior, .sociaL position. They could 
 not be senators, as thelaw expressly forbade senators-t©-.«Hg.age 
 in such business ' ; but were often the agents of s.eija|Qj§,^£ 
 "stayed at Rome and pocTcefed the prpfits oL their__sbai^M_ 
 |rade. That they were not looked down upon by public 
 opinion is shown by a passage in which Cicero describes how 
 a negotiator in Sicily was accustomed to entertain the governor 
 and other oflScials of the province, apparently almost on a 
 footing of equality* They were in fact as a rule those 
 knights or moneyed men for whom there was no room in the 
 societies of the publicani. There was an immense deal of 
 capital at Rome which could neither be absorbed by the only 
 two recognised modes of employment for it in Italy — farming 
 and money-lending — nor by investing it in a society of pub- 
 licani. This surplus capital poured itself out upon the provinces 
 in a golden stream, only to return to Rome in still larger 
 volume before long. The rne fl_fif -business, who settled theajr, 
 selves in the provinces jiler^the soldiers had- done -theii—woik 
 were bankers, brokers, money-lenders, money-changers, any- 
 ' thing in fact but legitimate traders. That in this period they 
 never were, though under the Empire the word negotiator is no 
 doubt more loosely used, and with a wider meaning ^. The 
 
 ' Cic. in Verr. iii. 3, vi. 3. ^ lb. v. 30. " Marquardt, i. 401. 
 
 ' This was Cn. Calidius ; Cic. in Verr. v. 20. 
 
 ^ Ernesti first clearly pointed out the definite technical sense in which the 
 
THE NEGOTIATORES. 8l 
 
 same man could not be publicanus and negotiator at the same 
 time ', but there was nothing whatever to prevent him being 
 both at different periods '■' The amount of money invested in 
 this way was so large that when the outbreak of the Mithridatic 
 war dislocated all business operations in Asia, credit at Rome 
 was seriously affected'. There were such numbers of these 
 bankers in Gaul that, according to Cicero, not a single payment 
 passed from hand to hand without the intervention of one of 
 them *. They were ^ particularly n umerous and influential in 
 Africa °.. Cato formed three hundred of them into a" council 
 for the government of Thapsus"; and they furnished the' 
 Pompeian generals with money'- As they had taken the 
 losing side, Caesar made them pay heavily . for their mistake. 
 Their contribution was two million sesterces ; five million 
 sesterces were required from the Roman settlers of Adru- 
 metum; and it is especially noticeable that in each case the 
 sum paid by the Romans settled in the place was larger than 
 that imposed on the citizens themselves *. 
 
 These bankers had of course large dealings with private 
 persons; but they had also to do with foreign princes, and 
 with provincial towns. P. Sittius, afterwards the well-known 
 condottiere in Africa, had dealings of this sort, in particular with 
 the king of Mauretania ' ; and Brutus and Pompey had both 
 lent money to the unfortunate Ariobazanes ^''. Similarly the 
 Rabirius Postumus, whom Cicero defended, had the king of 
 Egypt among his debtors^'- But much more frequent and 
 
 word is used during this period. His views are summarised in his Clavis 
 Ciceroniana, sub voc. 
 
 • ' Distinguuntur publicani a negotiatoribus,' says Ernesti, and refers to 
 Cic. in Verr. ii. 3 ; pro Flac. 16 ; pro Lege Manil. 7 ; ad Att. ii. 16. He 
 does not however add the necessary qualification of the text. 
 
 = Cic. pro Rab: Post. 2 ; Suet. Vesp. i. ' Cic. pro Legi Manil. 7. 
 
 • Cic. pro Fonteio, i. § 11. ° Sail. Jug. 65 ; Boissiere, pp. 183, 184. 
 « Plut. Cat. Min. 59 ; Merivale, ii. 359. ' Hirtius, Bell. Afr. 90. 
 ' Merivale, ii. 367. » Cic. pro Sulla, 20 ; Merivale, ii. 350. 
 " Cic. ad Att. vi. i. § 3. 
 
 " Cic. pro Rab. Post. 2. 
 
 G 
 
82 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 much more important were their dealings with the provincial 
 towns. What with the legal taxation an d the illegal exactio ns 
 olibs. publlcani, the, towns _of_A«a, Minor (to take the instance 
 with which we are most familiar) were unable to pay their taxes. 
 There were two ways of raising_the money, by imposing a 
 tribute upon their own citizens, ox Jby- borrowing ^ Unfor- 
 tunately the latter_fatal course was too often adopted, and the 
 town fell into the hands of one of the numerous negotiatores, who 
 were ever on the watch for such an opportunity. There was 
 ngJaw--to-rpgiilateJJie-jaXe--aLiiiterestin-4he-proviaeeSr-as there 
 was in Italy, and it often rose to 24, 36, or even 48 per cent. 
 The latter was the rate claimed by Scaptius from the Sala- 
 minians. Th?^ ho£eless__and_miseraHeJ.n^btednes§. brought 
 about by such a state of things was not viewed with entire 
 satisfaction at Rome, and a law was passed (Lex Gabinid) to 
 make such loans to to,wns illegal. Buf flie law w9iS_^ a^ dead 
 letter; it was in one case at a,U events evaded, by spedal 
 senatorial decree ^ and the unholy system was still in full force 
 under the early Empire ^ The sums owed were often very ■ 
 large. Nicaea in Bithynia owed eight million sesterces to a 
 ward of Cicero's * ; and it was worth the while of the people of 
 ApoUonia to bribe their governor with' two hundred talents to 
 prevent being obliged to pay what Cicero calls 'their just 
 debts'.' A governor could do a great deal to relieve the 
 cities of his province of old debts and to discourage them 
 from contracting new ones°; but he more often p rpfprrfd__t£) 
 give their creditors the AUE£arLa[Jiis_iffltllfixiiy, when they 
 demanded payment. This might be done by comparatively 
 gentle means, and ostensibly at all events by moral influence ' ; 
 but more often, it is probable, by doing what Verres promised to 
 do, namely by putting the h£tQj:S-.al the service of a ^etediter^r- 
 
 ' Cic. pro Flacco, 9 : ' In aerario nihil habent civitates, nihil in vectigali- 
 bus ; duo rationes conficiendae pecuniae aut versura aut tribute.' 
 " €ic. ad Att. vi. 2. § 1. s Tac. Ann. iii. 40. 
 
 * Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 61 ; of. lb. xiii. 56. = Cic. in Pis. 35. 
 
 * Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. i. 8. ' Cic. pro Murena, 20. ^ Cic. in Verr. ii. 29. 
 
THE MITHRIDATIC AND CIVIL WARS. 83 
 
 The indebted cities were really in a state of absolute bondage 
 to such creditors as these. A wealthy Roman negotiator in a 
 little country town which owed him money was worse than an 
 Eastern tyrant. To read such a story as that which Cicero tells 
 of the ruin and shame thus brought upon the little town of 
 Apollonides in Asia is enough to sicken the heart and fire the 
 blood with idle though righteous indignation. Even in a well- 
 known and prominent place like Salamis in Cyprus, five of 
 the municipal senators were locked up and starved to death 
 by that same Scaptius who sought to get a prefecture from 
 Cicero, in order to enact again, if it seemed profitable, a 
 similar tragedy. And it is right to remember tha,t Scaptius 
 was but the tool of no less a man than Brutus. An agent 
 is not bound to have a conscience; and it is impossible to 
 acquit Brutus of a heavy share of guilt in this miserable 
 business. And yet it cannot be supposed that Brutus was 
 worse, or even as bad, as many other money-lenders. With 
 such facts as these in view it is no wonder that the negoti- 
 atores w ere detested in all th e_2royinces, _an4, Jhat. a J£wjlt.- 
 generally began by a massacre of them '._, 
 
 ''~' But ainHis"was'as nothing compared to the state of things The effects 
 caused by the Mithridatic and Civil Wars ='. The miseries oi°l^^^ '" 
 the people of Asia are proved by the enthusiasm with which 
 they welcomed Mithridates, and by the terrible massacre of the 
 Roman citizens of the province'. But their sufferings were 
 all the worse in the end. Their country was made a battle- 
 ground of the contending armies ; the licentious and mutinous 
 soldiers of Fimbria were let loose upon them to work their 
 will unchecked; and when Sulla had brought the campaign 
 to a successful conclusion he imposed a fine of 20,000 talents 
 upon their cities*. Still worse than this was their lot in the 
 Civil Wars. Pompey and his lieutenants needed money, and 
 
 ' Caesar, B. G. vii. 3, 42 ; Tac. Hist. iv. 15. 
 
 ^ Besides the instances mentioned in the text, lUyria seems to have 
 suffered largely from the civil dissensions ; Hirtius, Bell. Alex. 42. 
 
 ' Appian, Mith. 61 ; Val. Max. ix. 2. ' Plut. LucuU. 4. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 made requisitions which had to be obeyed ^ : it was fortunate 
 that Caesar proved a milder conqueror than they had reason 
 to expect. The treatment they received from Brutus and 
 Cassius, and afterwards from Antony, filled up the measure of 
 their sufferings. Brutus made them pay over ten years' tribute 
 in one year, and when Antony -visited them after Phihppi, he 
 demanded a similar sum ^. The unfortunate cities represented 
 to him their absolute inability to pay it ; and he with difiSculty 
 consented to its being changed into nine years' tribute payable 
 in three yearly instalments. These incredible exactions proved 
 too much even for the wealth of Asia", broken and ruined as the 
 country had been by a succession of the most terrible mis- 
 fortunes ; and a universal bankruptcy followed *, which Augustus 
 had to meet by a remission of taxes, and even by a general 
 cancelling of debts ^■ 
 Greece. The condition of Greece was not much better. Athens in 
 
 particular stood a long siege from Sulla, and when taken was 
 treated with the most terrible severity ''. There was such a 
 massacre that very few of the original citizens survived. When, 
 under Tiberius, Piso passed through the place on his way to 
 Syria, he ' terrified the citizens of Athens in a bitter speech, 
 with indirect reflections on Germanicus, who he said had 
 derogated from the honour of the Roman name in having 
 treated with excessive courtesy, not the people of Athens, who 
 indeed had been exterminated by repeated disasters, but a 
 miserable medley of tribes '.' Sulla also treated Boeotia with 
 great severity", and though the Greek cities found comparatively 
 merciful masters in Caesar and Augustus, it was unfortunate 
 
 ' Caesar, B. C. iii. 3, 31, 32. 
 
 " Appian, B. C. v. 4 ; Marquardt, ii. 197. 
 
 ' Cicero, pro Leg. Manil. 6, illustrates that wealth. 
 
 * Dio Chrys. i. p. 601 R ; Marquardt, i. 400, note 5. 
 
 " Marquardt, ii. 199. To all the other naisfortunes of Asia we may add 
 (if it is possible to argue from the cities of Cilicia — Cic. ad Att. vi. 2. § 5 — 
 to the cities of Asia) that their own municipal magistrates plundered the 
 local revenues. 
 
 " Finlay, i. 26 and 54. ' Tac. Ann. ii. 55. = Finlay, i. 54. 
 
THE WESTERN PROVINCES. 85 
 
 that the great majority of them took the losing side in the Civil 
 Wars ^. Greece fell rapidly into a state of decline, from which 
 it did not recover '^. The poor soil of the country needed a full 
 population and all the advantages of peace and wealth to keep it 
 cultivated; and even under the early Empire, Greece is that 
 part of the Roman dominions on which it is least pleasant to y ■ 
 dwell '. 
 
 Even in the western half of the Empire the provinces were Spain, 
 badly off, though their sufferings were not to be compared to 
 those of Greece or Asia. Spain was alienated by a succession 
 of bad governors *, and so was not unwilling to throw in its lot 
 with a rebel like Sertorius. The account of the governorship 
 of Cassius Longinus, which we happen to possess, lets in a 
 lurid light upon the possible misdoings of a governor even 
 in a province generally so well treated as that of Spain. 
 It is significant however that the citizens of Italica (Santi- 
 ponce) made a plot against him, in which part of his own 
 army joined, and very nearly succeeded in assassinating him. 
 The Spaniards had still enough of their high spirit left to 
 make it dangerous to oppress them; and this, along with 
 their fortunate exemption from the publicani, contributed 
 greatly no doubt to the general good treatment which they 
 enjoyed. Sicily seems to have been tolerably treated on the Sicily. 
 whole" But the three years of Verres' rule were years 
 of unexampled misery and wrong; and Lepidus, the third 
 member of the second triumvirate, did his best to follow in 
 his footsteps. There is indeed no part of the Roman world 
 
 ' Sparta was an exception, as it sent troops to Octavius. Brutus 
 promised his soldiers the sack of Sparta and Thessalonica in the event of 
 victory ; Finlay, ibid. 
 
 ' Cf. the well-known letter of Sulpicius to Cicero. 
 
 ' X^ifi feet that the circumstances of Greece were in many respects 
 exceptional is to be borne in mind in reading the strictures on the Early 
 Empire in Finlay's first vol. 
 
 * Plut. Sert. 6. 
 
 ° The island had brought no accusations against its governors before that 
 against Verres. 
 
86 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 where some infamous governor had not left his mark. ' There 
 have been many guilty magistrates in Asia, many in Spain, in 
 Gaul, in Sardinia, even in Sicily itself,' says Cicero ^ A Gabi- 
 nius ill-used Syria ^ a Piso or a C. Antonius Macedonia ^ And 
 even if such a governor was exiled for extortion, he had it in 
 his power to make the people who received him miserable *. 
 General Such an administration as that which I have attempted to 
 
 rGiii3.rks 
 
 on thft describe could not in the nature of things be permanent. Its 
 S^miSs-'^^" machinery was bad, and its agents were worse. If a govern- 
 tration. ment Can avail itself of men of high character and capacity, 
 an imperfect system can be made to work tolerably well ; but 
 there can be no hope when both the system and the men are 
 equally wanting. The system had at least three cardinal faults: — 
 the inadequacy of the senatorial control ; the thoroughly bad and 
 unscientific system of taxation ° ; and the annual change of 
 governor. The imperfect execution of the laws intended to 
 control the governor is hardly a fault of the system. The laws 
 themselves were good enough, but men could not be found who 
 could be trusted to carry them out honestly without fear or 
 favour. It was indispensable that the interests of the judges 
 and of the executive should be divorced from the interests of 
 the governors, before reform was possible. Collision was at all 
 events better than collusion of interests. 
 Incapacity Events at Rome co-operated with the misgovernment of the 
 Senate. provinces to put an end to the authority of the Senate. Sheer 
 disorder and incompetence must, after a time, become intoler- 
 able to every one ; and the fact that it was not possible to take 
 a sea-voyage without danger can hardly have been viewed with 
 much patience '. It was also becoming evident that the pro- 
 
 ' Cic. in Verr. iii. 65 ; cf. vi. 48. 2 q^^ j^ pjg jj 
 
 ' Cic. in Pis. 40 ; Finlay, i. 38. 
 
 * e. g. C. Antonius in Cephallenia ; Strabo, x. 2 ; quoted by Finlay, i. 47. 
 
 ' The only country in Europe which maintains the system of tithes and 
 middle-men is Turkey, and there are signs that Turkey is giving it up. 
 ' The Porte has resolved upon trying in one vilayet the conversion of the 
 tithes into a land-tax;' Reuter's telegram, in Daily News, Oct. 10, 1878. 
 
 " Cic. in Verr. vi. 25, 38 ; ad Att. xvi. 2. 
 
FORESHADO WINGS OF THE EMPIRE. 87 
 
 vinces could not much longer supply the taxation, unless they 
 were better treated. We find repeated hints in Cicero of the 
 ' existing difficulties of the treasury ',' and those Romans who 
 could look at all beyond the immediate present could not fail 
 to perceive the dangers in store for them, unless their admi- 
 nistration was in every part drawn together and strengthened , 
 and held in control. As the Senate had proved its absolute 
 incompetence in the judgment of every one, was the Assembly 
 to be the supreme executive body? That was still more out 
 of the question; and what then remained except a military 
 despotism which should at all events secure peace and good 
 management ? 
 
 The large and protracted commands, instances of which had The large 
 long been frequent, pointed in this direction. Nominally the 
 idea of each province as a separate aiid independent unit still 
 existed ; it was a special favour when one governor admitted 
 another into his province'', unless the step was dictated by 
 military necessities'. But such a system would not work in 
 practice. On special occasions we find several provinces 
 lumped together under one command; Greece for instance 
 with Macedonia and lUyria*; or Further with Hither Gaul. 
 Military reasons would of necessity bring about this violation 
 of the traditional mode of regarding the provinces. In so far 
 as the Republican government discharged its paramount duty 
 of protecting the provinces from external enemies, it did so by 
 means of large commands which violated both the letter and 
 the spirit of the existing constitution. Pompey's command 
 against the pirates involved the subordination to him of all 
 governors into whose province the war might carry him, and he 
 was permitted to appoint legates to represent him, each of 
 whom in virtue of such appointment acquired the imperium ^. 
 This surely was change enough; but when Pompey further 
 ruled the province from Rome by means of legates, we see 
 
 ' Cic. de Prov. Cons. 5 ; pro Balbo, 27. ' Cf. Cic. in Verr. ii. 29 
 
 s Cic. ad Att. vi. 5. * Cic. Phil. x. 11. 
 
 ' Plut. Pomp. 25 ; Mommsen, iv. 104. 
 
88 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 the regular imperial system in full bloom. The commands 
 given to Caesar, to Crassus ', and those proposed to be given 
 by the Agrarian Law — which Cicero combated — to a commission 
 of Ten^ were equally unconstitutional. The Senate saw its 
 authority threatened by such commands, and regarded them 
 with great jealousy", while the democrats supported them on 
 that account with all the greater zeal. Their, as a rule, signal 
 success induced even moderate men to regard them at all 
 events as an unavoidable necessity. 
 Necessity With the rapid extension of the Roman dominion, the need 
 the^army.'" f°r "^ Strong and compact military administration had become 
 more and more pressing. At present there was no such thing 
 as a Roman army, but only detachments of troops stationed in 
 the different provinces, practically owing obedience only to the 
 governor, and without organic cohesion of any kind. The 
 necessity for re-organisation betrayed itself here perhaps more 
 clearly than in any part of the system, and the need was both 
 recognised and met by Augustus. But in every part of the 
 administration the same phenomena were visible. The pro- 
 vinces had been governed without any definite scheme or 
 purpose, in accordance with the pressing needs of the passing 
 hour; and ^a retrospect of the past, reconsideration of the 
 present, and anxious deliberation for the future could be no 
 longer delayed. One of those critical points had arrived at 
 which long-existent forces finally and overpoweringly assert 
 themselves, and from which must date a new departure. 
 
 ' Merivale, ii. 7. ^ Cic de Leg. Agr. ; Mommsen, iv. 171. 
 
 ' Cic. pro Leg. Manil. 9. He is defending Lucullus' recall : ' Vestro jussu 
 coactus qui imperii diutumitati modum statuendum vetere exemplo 
 putavistis ; ' of. Cic. Phil. xi. 7, 8. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Period of the Early "Empire. 
 
 Julius Caesar had shown a capacity of rising to the needs of The policy 
 his time, which makes us all the more regret his untimely death, caesar ; 
 Such radical and beneficent reforms as that of the abolition of 
 the tithes in Sicily and Asia ; such comprehensive measures as 
 his Lex Julia Municipalis ; such practical improvements as those 
 involved in the survey which he ordered, and in his reformation 
 of the Calendar; all these and many more were the work of 
 eighteen months of Empire. He had shown a wise economy 
 in his restriction of the corn largesses, and an unexpected con- 
 servatism in his dealings with the law courts. Above all, his 
 immense system of colonisation, along wjth his liberality in the 
 bestowal of the franchise and his treatment of the Senate, shows 
 how fully he had grasped the idea of an equally-privileged and 
 homeogenous Empire, and how he sought on the one hand to 
 send Rome into the provinces, and" on the other hand to bring 
 the provinces to Rome. 
 
 Augustus with his narrower intellect was not equally capable of Au- 
 of taking advantage of his unexampled opportunity. He ^^ "^' 
 regarded it as his duty to follow out the lines of his adoptive" 
 father's policy; but he had a talent for details rather than a 
 genius for great combinations, and he deserted his guidance just 
 where he should most closely have followed it. An examination 
 of the measures which the two emperors either proposed or 
 carried out, in so far as they affected the provinces directly or 
 indirectly, is indispensable for an understanding of the period. 
 
 Julius saw that one great cause of the misery of the provinces \ 
 lay in the iniquitous system of taxation. He therefore, besides 
 remitting for the present half of the taxation of Asia, aboLshed j 
 
 
go ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 \ the tithes altogether ; and did the same probably also in Sicily. 
 This meant an immense deal, for besides that definite sums 
 known beforehand were substituted for an ever-varying tithe, 
 the publicani, except for the custom?' duties and other indirect 
 taxes of mmor importance, were done away with^ Augustus 
 maintained, this arrangement, and though we still hear complaints - 
 of the publicani under his successors,. iheir--opporturuties. for 
 '"'wrongdoing were greatly (Jjnijoigilied, and a great decline sets in 
 from the position of consideration and social dignity which, in 
 the eyes of the Romans at all events, they had formerly enjoyed. 
 The Of still greater importance in respect of the taxation was the 
 
 census. The great fault of the taxation of the eajlier,periojlliad_ 
 ^ been its irregular and arbitrary character. This largely pro- 
 ceeded fr om the want o f any definite register of property, which 
 wouldmake a fair apgprtionment possible. And if this was 
 injurious to the provincials, it _was_ alsoji fatal impediment to 
 gooTgoyernment that it wa^s impossible to calculate with any" 
 ^exactness the revenue Jbefoceiiajid. But to take a census implied 
 immense "and continued preliminary labours. The only country 
 which had been adequately surveyed before the Romans took 
 the work in hand was Egypt ; and here the Romans were 
 content to leave well alone. But in the other, particularly the 
 Western provinces, the work had to be done from the be- 
 ginning ; and in the hurry and confusion of the last years of 
 the Republic it could not be even considered. But with the 
 accession of Caesar comes a momentary rest and lull ; and 
 Caesar seems at once to have put his hand to the commence- 
 ment of this great work. His Lex Julia Municipalis settled the 
 census arrangements for Italy ^ It was to be taken in each 
 municipium or colony by the chief municipal magistrates ; and 
 deputies sent with the result to Rome, fifty days before the day 
 fixed for the conclusion of the census in the capital. If a man 
 had houses in more than one municipium, he could have his 
 census taken at Rome ; but all other Italians must have it taken 
 in their own municipium. It is noticeable that nothing is said 
 ' See § 142-158 of the Law ; C. I. L. i. p. 120. 
 
THE SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 
 
 here of those smaller towns, fora or conciliabula, which along 
 with municipia, coloniae, 2Sid pre/eciurae make up an exhaustive 
 classification of the political units recognised by Rome. The 
 fact was that they had no magistrates capable of taking the 
 census — no quinquennales — and so were attached for these 
 purposes no doubt to a neighbouring municipium. 
 
 There is here no question of a survey. The agrimensores 
 had indeed done their work long ago in every part of Italy; 
 and the whole country was thoroughly mapped out. But before 
 a census could be taken in the provinces, the first surveys had 
 of necessity to be made. A survey of the whole Empire was 
 ordered by Caesar ^ and carried out by Augustus. 
 
 The necessary labours commenced in the year B.C. 48, and The 
 did not end till late in the reign of Augustus. Zenodotus, ^"'^^^''' 
 entrusted with the survey of the East, terminated his labours in 
 the year B.C. 3 1 ; Theodotus, to whom was given the North, in 
 the year b.c. 25 ; Didymus, in the West, in the year b.c. 27 '•' ; 
 and Polycletus, who had the South, in the second or third year 
 of the Christian era. Simultaneously the collection of geo- 
 graphical materials of every kind had been actively proceeded 
 with ; and from them under Agrippa's supervision^ had been 
 made a map, the model of such subsequent ones as that of 
 Peutinger or the Itinerarium. Augustus had also ordered these 
 materials to be made into a book under thp title of Chorogra- 
 phia ; and this was used by Strabo and Pliny. 
 
 ' The earliest mention of this survey is unfortunately very late, occurring 
 as it does in an interpolated passage of the geographer Julius Honorius, 
 whose date is certainly before 540 a.d., when he is mentioned by Cas- 
 siodorus, but probably not earlier than a.d. 450. (See Riese, p. xxi.) The 
 passage reappears with additions in the Cosmographia generally known 
 under the name of Ethicus Hister, who in other parts of his ' absurda 
 confusio' (Riese's title for his work) borrows from Orosius. He probably 
 lived in the latter part of the fifth century, shortly after Honorius and 
 Orosius. (Riese, p. xxviii.) The treatises of Honorius and Ethicus are 
 given in full in Riese's Geographi Latini minores (Heilbronn, 1878). Both 
 Riese and Marquardt accept the famous passage on the survey of the Empire 
 as of historical value. 
 
 * Riese, pp. 21 and 72. ' See Pliny, N. H. iii. l,fin. 
 
Census. 
 
 92 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 After the survey was completed, it was possible to take a 
 census, so as to ascertain both the population and the paying 
 power of the Empire. The main positive authority for this 
 universal census is the Monumentum Ancyranum'; but it is 
 possible to point to several occasions on which a partial or 
 The local census was taken. We know that Augustus himself held 
 
 a census (b.c. 27) in the three Gauls which was afterwards 
 taken by Drusus (b.c. 12) and Germanicus (a.d. 14); and 
 again later on under Nero (a.d. 61) and Domitian. In the 
 case of Judaea again, the census was taken on its being united 
 to the province of Syria ; and the same measure was carried 
 out, notwithstanding its unpopularity, in other provinces imme- 
 diately on their formation, for instance in Britain and Dacia. 
 
 The census— as already hinted — was a much easier matter in 
 the senatorial provinces, which already had for the most part 
 something of the kind, than in the imperial provinces, where 
 were few towns and little civilisation. Labours of great diffi-. 
 culty had to be carried out in these provinces, to make a census 
 possible, but once started it was a regular business enough, 
 carried out by imperial officials in all provinces — senatorial as 
 -well as imperial. These oflScials fall into three classes: — 
 r. The district officers who made out the lists or, when this was 
 done by the local magistrates, had a revising power. They 
 were called adjuior ad census — censor or censitor. So we find 
 the census of the free state of the Remi (Rheims) taken all by 
 itself, and its censor named. The oflicials of the second class 
 could not of course do the work of the whole province, and so 
 it had to be thus parcelled out. In this way is to be explained 
 the curious inscription which calls a man censitor provinciae 
 Lugdunensis, Hem Lugduni — meaning that to a general supervi- 
 sion of the lists of the whole province, this oflScial joined the 
 • special duty of taking the census in Lyons itself. Where the 
 towns were not so large and important as this, one man could 
 of course take the census in a considerable number. Thus we 
 
 ' Mon. Anc. § 12. In the years b.c. 28, 8, and a.d. 14. 
 
THE CENSUS OFFICIALS. 93 
 
 find one man — in this case nothing but a cavalry officer — 
 taking the census of forty-four civitates in Africa'. No such 
 officials interfered with whatever towns of Roman or Latin con- 
 stitution there might be in the province. In all such, whether 
 colonies or municipia, the quinquennales (so called because, 
 though they only held office for one year, there was always a 
 five years' interval from one census to another) took the census 
 themselves, and sent in the results to the provincial censor'*. 
 It will be noticed how closely these arrangements are copied 
 from those of the Lex Julia Municipalis. 2. A provincial 
 censor in each province, who can be pointed out at all events 
 in the three Gauls, Lower Germany, Tarraconensis, Lusitania, 
 Gallaecia, Pannonia, Thracia, Mauretania, among imperial ; 
 and in Narbonensis and Macedonia among senatorial provinces. 
 The lists of his province were deposited in the archives of his 
 capital, and a copy forwarded to Rome. These oflBcials were 
 at first always of senatorial rank ; the first Roman knight who 
 was entrusted with the duty i^prinw umquam JEq. Rom. censibus 
 accipiendis ' runs the inscription) is probably not much earlier 
 than the year a.d. aoo. These later equestrian censors are dis- 
 tinguishable by being always called procurator, whereas the title 
 of the eariier provincial censor of senatorial rank was legatus^. 
 3. The supreme control lay with the emperor, to whom were 
 addressed petitions about the tribute, and who increased or 
 diminished the payments. His minister for this work was no 
 doubt the one called magister a censibus or magistera libellis*. 
 
 With the materials gained mainly through the surveys and The ■ 
 the census, Augustus was able to compile that £reviartum i^^^^j 
 Imperii which Tiberius read to the assembled Senate after the 
 death of its author. ' This contained a description of the 
 resources of the State, of the number of citizens and allies 
 imder arms, of the fleets, subject kingdoms, provinces, taxes 
 
 ' Henzen, 6946. 
 
 " See Marquardt, i. 486, for the Quinquennales, but, especially, Henzen, 
 7075, p. 423. = Henzen, 6944. 
 
 * See Renier, Melanges, pp. 46-70 ; Marquardt, ii. 210 foil. 
 
94 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 direct and indirect, necessary expenses and customary bounties'.' 
 A similar account is given by Suetonius^ and Dio Cassius', 
 with the addition that along with this Breviarium, and with the 
 directions as to his funeral, went another volume containing 
 that 'Record of his achievements' (Index rerum gestarum) 
 which we know under the name of the Monumentum Ancyranum. 
 In this way a regular budget came into existence which kept 
 the government regularly informed of its probable revenues, 
 and tended to control undue exactions. It was no longer open 
 to a governor to send as much or as little from his province as 
 he pleased. The regularity and method thus introduced into 
 the administration enabled a largely increased amount of taxa- 
 tion to be obtained from the provinces without oppression. 
 But it is not possible to regard with entire satisfaction the first 
 beginnings of that perfectly organised and terribly effective 
 machine of taxation which in the end destroyed the Empire and 
 strangled the provincials in its iron grasp. These effects how- 
 ever, though they then for the first time appeared perhaps in 
 germ, took two centuries to become formidable, and meanwhile 
 the arrangements of Augustus secured a regular and fairly 
 equitable system. It is in these arrangements, impressive by 
 their enormous scale, that Augustus best understood and 
 carried out Caesar's design. 
 Trans- The system of transmarine colonisation commenced by 
 
 ralonies. 1"'^"^ was actively carried out by Augustus. The objects of the 
 systeni wreJojKoyideJbr_the_ superabundant poo r population 
 STtaly, and to hold out a prospect toTfir soldiers afte^ they had_ 
 sefve3'°ffieitjirne. Caesar settled in all 80,000 Italians across 
 the sea* ; and in particular Corinth and C.arthage, which the 
 Republic had destroyed, were colonised by the first emperor '■- 
 Augustus in the Monumentum Ancyranum records : ' About 
 . . . thousand Roman citizens served under my standard, of 
 whom I planted more than 30,000 in colonies V Again : 'I 
 
 • Tac. Ann. i. 11. =" Suet. Aug. loi. = Dio, Ivi. 33. 
 
 * Suet. Jul. 42. = Dio, xliii. 50 ; Plut. Caes. 60. « Mon. Anc. § 3. 
 
AUGUSTUS TRANSMARINE COLONISATION. 95 
 
 planted military colonies in Africa, Sicily, both Spains, Achaea, 
 Asia, Syria, Gallia Narbonensis, Pisidia^' The numerous 
 colonies calling themselves by the title of Julia Augusta are 
 among those thus founded by Augustus '■. In the majority of 
 cases these new settlers were attached to existing cities, which 
 were thereby raised to the rank of colonies, and not settled in 
 entirely new foundations'. Unfortunately Augustus' arrange- 
 ments seem to have been marked by a good deal of unnecessary 
 and mischievous arbitrariness. Thus the colony of Nicopolis, 
 founded in memory of Actium, was formed by compelling 
 Epirots, Aetolians, and Acarnanians to desert their existing 
 homes and settle in it whether they wished or no*- On the 
 other hand, it must be put down to the credit of Augustus that 
 he paid for all lands on which he settled his colonists, both in 
 Italy and in the provinces. According to his own account he 
 was the first who ever did so. ' That I did, first and alone of 
 all men who planted military colonies in Italy or the provinces ^' 
 
 In this way something was done to^dieck_th£-.pauperism of The I 
 
 ItaiyTto provide a future'for the soidiers^, an4 to Romanise the ^1^^°™^ ^ ,, 
 "provinces. But itJStafr-aU-of-Jittle- use if it did not go along franchise. 
 withaJiberalJiesto»iaLo£ the, franchise, .Otherwise the founding 
 of theje_piivU6ged- colonies in the centra of-an unprivileged 
 district_couldjyjly intensify the hateful feeling iif. legal inferiority, 
 as mischievous to the Roman as to the provincial, which it 
 should have been the object of a great statesman to do all in 
 his power to eradicate. Julius had seen this clearly, and all 
 the evidence goes to show that he had evety intention of doing 
 all that in him lay to put an end to this invidious and fatal dif- 
 ference between Rome and her subjects. It was by such 
 extension of her franchise and such incorporation of new 
 elements that Rome had become great ; and every principle of 
 statesmanship urged her to continue in the same path. j^ugustus,_ 
 howev^r,,jMQke__5dJ;bL,.ttiese._tra^tionS; Partly from financial 
 
 ' Mon. Anc. § 28. ^ Perrot, de Galatia provincia Romana, p. 144. 
 
 s This appears from a comparison of § 16 with § 3 of the Mon. Anc. 
 * Finlaj', i. 61. ° Mou. Anc. § 16. 
 
g6 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 causes, partly from that ultra-Roman sentiment which was both 
 natural to him and diligently cultivated, he drewt^ line ^sharp 
 between the conqueror and. the conquered ^ So the process 
 was" made a slciiand,^graiBal one.'ana" only accomplished by 
 Caracalla in the third century, when, but for the timid conser- 
 vatism of Augustus, it might have been accomplished in the 
 first. The number of citizens in the year B.C. 70 was .150i222,^ 
 in B.C. 28 it was over 4^000,000. This shows the immensity 
 of its extension in that period of forty-two years, and a large 
 share of this good work is to be ascribed to Julius. The Monu- 
 mentum Ancyranum permits us to see in great detail what was 
 the part played by Augustus. In the year bx.^ 28 was taken 
 the first census; the number of Roman citizens was 4,0655000^ 
 A second was taken in b.c. 8|. the number was 4j23Pj000. A 
 third in a.d. 13; the number was 4^^37,000 ^.^ That is to say, 
 in forty-one- years the, increase was only ,900,000, a number 
 which can belBxjijained entireljf by the natura,l growth of popu- 
 Jatiani, and whjch compels us to suppose that the franchise^ 
 was given very sparingly ". 
 Augustus The same tendencies appear in Augustus' treatment of the 
 Sena'te^ Senate. Julius had raised its numbers, had largely admitted 
 provincials, and, in so far as he paid it any attention at all, 
 appears to have aimed at making it representative of all classes 
 of the State *. The same policy is shown by creating at his 
 simple will and pleasure a number of new patrician families ' 
 Augustus changed all this. He admitted no one into the Senate 
 who did not possess at all events 1,200,000 sesterces (about 
 £10,000); he entertained the idea of restoring it to its primi- 
 tive number of 300 * ; and did at all events reduce it from the 
 number at which it had been left by Caesar, to 600. He gave 
 
 ' If the wise and liberal sentiments which Dio puts into the mouth of 
 Maecenas were ever uttered, Augustus certainly paid no attention to them. 
 ^ Livy, Epit. 98 ; Duruy, ii. 506. ^ yia^^ Anc. | 8. 
 
 * At its present rate the population of England doubles in 52 years. 
 ^ Under Claudius the number was 5,984,072 ; Tac. Ann. xi. 25. 
 « Suet. Jul. 41, 80. ' lb. 41. » Dio, liv. \i,. 
 
THE SENATE UNDER THE EMPIRE. 97 
 
 it a great deal of nominal power and dignity; and put this 
 plutocratic assembly more in the forefront of the State than 
 ever. He appears to have regarded himself as a reformer 
 entirely in the conservative interest ; and now that the comitia 
 had been practically reduced to a nullity, the emperor and the 
 Senate were left confronting one another as the sovereign powers 
 of the State. But in reality the power of the emperor rested on 
 something very real, the arms, namely, of his soldiers ; and the 
 power and dignity of the Senate on nothing but' his will. 
 Augfustus, however, handed over to the Senate a large share of 
 the administration; and Tiberius followed in the same track. 
 The trials for extortion, the complaints and demands of the pro- 
 vinces, in fact the chief judicial and executive business, came 
 regularly before the Senate. It is not long before it also became 
 the chief legislative chamber. The last regular law was passed 
 in the year a.d. 97 ^, and after that date the legislation of the 
 Empire took the shape either of senatus consulta or of imperial 
 edicts. It is not till the reign of Septimius Severus that 
 a senatus consultum Was passed for the last time^. But the 
 elaborate make-beheve of Augustus could not be concealed for 
 long ; he himself had to compel the possessors of the necessary 
 census to enter the Senate against their will ' ; and the upshot 
 of his policy was to give the Senate an outward dignity and 
 apparent power which not only made it sometimes misunder- 
 stand its real position, but inevitably made it an object of 
 jealousy and suspicion to a bad emperor. Tiberius, making 
 it a sort of religion to follow in his adoptive father's steps, 
 imitated him in his treatment of the Senate *, and, in form at 
 all events, referred to it all important matters. Caligula was 
 the first emperor to show plainly his suspicion of it and aver- 
 sion from it ' ; and after him every wicked emperor regularly 
 made a sacrifice of its best members. Claudius paid it a great 
 
 ' Under Nerva ; see Poste's Gaius, p. 18. Preuss however, p. 3, says 
 under 'Sero. I have not been able to find the authority of either statement. 
 " Ortolan, Part i. § 350. * Dio, liv. 26. 
 
 * Tac. Ann. iil. 10, iv. 15 ; Suet. Tib. 30. ' Suet. Calig. 49. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Relation of 
 Augustus' 
 policy to 
 that of 
 Julius in 
 other 
 respects. 
 
 deal of respect ^ and on his accession Nero promised to observe 
 the same policy ^. But before long we find him vowing that he 
 would be rid of it " ; no important matter was referred to it * ; 
 and its members — men like Poetus Thrasea — were sacrificed 
 to his insane jealousy. If we regard simply the interests of the 
 senators themselves, Augustus' attempted rehabilitation of their 
 authority does not seem to have been an unmixed advantage to 
 them. The utter want of dignity and self-control which Pliny 
 describes as characterising their meetings in the time of Trajan ^ 
 is what we should expect of an assembly which was the victim 
 of a bad emperor and the spoilt child of a good one. 
 
 In some minor points Augustus partly imitated and partly 
 deviated from Caesar's policy. He restored to the tribuni 
 aerarii the place in the juries which Julius had taken from 
 them ; and the principle of the five years' interval between urban 
 and provincial office again became the law ^. Julius' brilliant 
 idea ' of codifying the undigested mass of Roman law does not 
 seem to have made any impression on Augustus ; and it was 
 left to Hadrian to commence and to Justinian to complete the 
 work. On the other hand, he saw himself obliged, as Julius 
 had been obliged, to maintain the ruinous and hateful system 
 of corn largesses. Caesar had reduced the number of recipients 
 to 150,000°- Augustus fixed it at 200,000"; and at that 
 number it remained till the time of Alexander Severus. It would 
 be superfluous to dwell upoji the mischiefs of the system, as per- 
 petuating and emphasising the odious position of superior privi- 
 lege enjoyed by the Roman mob, as destroying the agriculture of 
 Italy, and as establishing a heavy drain upon the corn-producing 
 provinces. But on the other hand, it must be remembered that 
 the strength of the tie thus established between Rome and the 
 
 ' Suet. Claud. 12. ^ Tac. Ann. xiii. 4. = Suet. Nero, 37. 
 
 ' Tac. Hist. Iv. 9. ' Plin. Ep. iii. 20, iv. 25, viii. 14. 
 
 * Dio, liii. 14; Marquardt, i. 382. ' Suet. Jul. 44. 
 
 ' Suet. Jul. 41 ; Mommsen, iv. 475. The number had been 320,000 — 
 figures which permit us to argue to the population of Rome. Marquardt 
 puts it at 1,600,000. « Mon. Anc. § 15. 
 
THE ARMY. 99 
 
 provinces which fed her ^ brought selfish motives into play on 
 the side of equity and indulgence, and prevented even the worst 
 and most careless of emperors from tolerating misconduct 
 in the governors of the land which grew the ' sacred corn ^.' 
 
 There seems to have been no comprehensive plan left byOrganisa- 
 
 T v . . . , • . ■ r , tion of the 
 
 Julius to assist Augustus m his organisation or the army. Army. 
 The great commander no doubt perceived the necessity of 
 an organised defence of the frontiers, but preferred to settle for 
 himself what these frontiers should be before defending them '. 
 So the whole scheme must be taken to be the work of Augustus, 
 assisted doubtless by the advice of Maecenas and by the prac- 
 tical co-operation of Agrippa *. A famous passage of Tacitus 
 gives the number of the legions in each province in the reign 
 of Tiberius". There were twenty-five in all, divided tolerably 
 equally among the frontier provinces, with the exception that 
 the Rhine was guarded by the extraordinarily powerful force of 
 eight legions. The number of auxiliaries was about the same 
 as that of the legions, and we are able to argue to a total force 
 of about 320,000 men. Besides this, there were the three fleets 
 which guarded the eastern and western coasts of Italy and the 
 southern coasts of Gaul ° Their respective stations were 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xii. 43. The necessity of the foreign supplies to Rome was 
 so absolute that the shipovraers were specially exempted from taxation 
 (Tac. Ann. xiii. 51). Regular fleets, belonging to the State, the cloisis 
 Alexandrina and classis Africana, brought the corn to Rome (Stephan, Das 
 Verkehrsleben, &c. p. 41). Under the Republic this necessity obliged 
 Octavian to come to terms with Sext. Pompey (Merivale, iii. 250). 
 Vespasian had the idea of starving Italy into submission by holding 
 Egypt ; see Tac. Hist. iii. 8, 48, iv. 52. 
 
 " 'Anironae sanctae;' Orelli, 1810 ; Henzen, 5320, Sec; quoted by 
 Boissiere, p. 66, note 2. 
 
 ' It is well known that Caesar entertained the widest schemes of 
 conquest, and was preparing for a Parthian expedition when assassinated. 
 
 * For the value of Agrippa, see Dio, liv. 28 ; Duruy, iii. 285. 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. iv. 5. 
 
 ' Ibid. ; Suet. Aug. 49. The praefeclo Julimsium mentioned in an inscrip- 
 tion, Henzen, 6943, was probably not a mere municipal prefect, as all his 
 other titles are military, and as the place was of great military importance. 
 Henzen supposes him to have been of the nature of a curator, assigned to 
 
 H 2 
 
lOO ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Ravenna, Misenum, and Forojulium. There were, further, 
 the troops stationed in Italy, of which the most famous were 
 the praetorian guards, but these do not at present concern us. 
 
 For many years the Roman forces had been tending to the 
 condition of a standing army. The continuous campaigns 
 in the East or in the Gauls had not admitted of the men being 
 ^disbanded for many years together^; and with the decay 
 of the old martial spirit it had become more and more difficult 
 and even impossible to attract men of any means or standing 
 to the ranks. Marius had admitted the proletariate, and since 
 his day military service had hardened more and more into 
 a regular profession. A civic soldiery is only possible where 
 the campaigns are brief and tolerably decisive, and not too far 
 distant from home. It may be doubted whether any continental 
 nation could raise its armies by conscription if, like England, 
 it had to send its soldiers for a term of years to India. Augustus 
 systematised and regulated these tendencies, and we are not 
 wrong therefore in regarding him as the author of the standing 
 army. The passage in Maecenas' speech in which he gives his 
 advice to Augustus about the army, is in reality a summary of 
 what Augustus actually effected " ; and there, as in the corre- 
 sponding passage of Suetonius ^, it is clearly brought out that 
 the great change Augustus made was to define strictly the 
 duration and the conditions of service *. The time of service 
 was probably fixed at twenty years '', though in some cases the 
 veterans were kept under the standards for a longer period ; and 
 
 the place by the emperor with authority .transcending that of the duoviri, 
 and, I presume, specially responsible for the dockyards and arsenals. 
 
 1 Merivale, iii. 45, 46, gives instances of this. 
 
 ' Dio, Iii. 27 ; Egger, p. 63- ' Suet. Aug. 49. 
 
 * Xp6vov raicT&v aTpareviiivovs, says Dio. 'Ad certam stipendiorum 
 praemionimque formulam. Definitis . . temporibus militiae et commodis 
 missionum,' says Suetonius. 
 
 ^ Twenty years ia the legions, twenty-five in the auxiliary forces, twenty- 
 six in the fleets, were the regular periods ; Bruns, p. 178. Cf. Mon. Anc. 
 §17:' Qui vicena plurave stipendia memissent.' For longer periods, cf. 
 Tac. Ann. i. 18 ; Suet. Tib. 48, 
 
EXPENSES OF THE ARMY. loi 
 
 at its expiration a man was given his honourable discharge 
 (honesta missio), received the promised bounty (3,000 sesterces), 
 was commonly enfranchised — he and any one whom he might 
 marry — if not already a Roman citizen*, and was settled on land, 
 of the quality of which there were frequent complaints, in the 
 neighbourhood of the frontier he had helped to guard. The great 
 expenses of these bounties, though necessary to give the com- 
 mander a hold upon his soldiers and to make them content 
 with their position, could not be met without special measures. 
 Augustus accordingly instituted the military treasury (aerarium The 
 militare). ' In the consulship of M. Lepidus and L. Arruntius '^ut^T. 
 I paid 100,700,000 sesterces in the name of Tib. Caesar and 
 myself into the military treasury which was established by my 
 design to pay bounties to soldiers who had served twenty or 
 more campaigns ^' This was the original endowment of the 
 fund ; but it was also supported by the proceeds of two new 
 taxes, the tax of five per cent, on all legacies, except those left 
 to near relatives or those of less value than 100,000 sesterces, 
 and the tax of one per cent, on all goods bought or sold in 
 Italy. Both caused great complaints, as their practical effect 
 was to do away with the exclusive privileges Italy had hitherto 
 enjoyed ; but Augustus insisted, and in course of time both 
 were extended to the provinces. Augustus appears to have 
 made a hobby of his new treasury, and besides his own 
 contributions to it received promises of subscriptions from 
 foreign kings and peoples ^ Other extraordinary sources of its 
 revenue are sometimes mentioned. For instance, when Agrippa 
 Postumus was banished his confiscated property was devoted 
 to it *. Its administration was entrusted to three men of prae- 
 torian rank, appointed by lot, and serving for a term of three 
 years "*- In the third century these officials were chosen directly 
 by the emperor ^ 
 
 ' Cf. the diplomala printed in Bruns, p. 177. Fifty-seven such diplomata 
 have been found in the different provinces. 
 
 2 Men. Anc. § 17. ' Dio, Iv. 25. * lb. Iv. 32. ' lb. Iv. 25. 
 « lb. Iv. 25. 
 
r02 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Services of In these ways, though not without difficulty ', sufficient money 
 was procured to discharge these payments. But as the soldiers 
 had also to be regularly paid and fed and equipped, these sums- 
 by no means represented the one item of expenditure upon the 
 army. But anything was worth paying for peace and security; 
 and this the standing army secured for nearly 200 years. Nor 
 are these the only services by which the army discharged the 
 debit side of its account. Marius' canal in Narbon Gaul was 
 the first of a great series of works by which the natural facilities 
 of the provinces were improved. The soldiers were pioneers 
 and road-makers as much as fighting men, and the spade 
 and the sword were equally familiar to them. Drusus" and 
 Corbulo'' carried out similar works to that of Marius; and 
 if the idea of making a canal between the Saone and the 
 Moselle * had bSen carried out, it would have been a work of 
 the most brilliant utility. Such works as these, or the building 
 of amphitheatres ", or still more frequently the making of roads 
 and bridges ^ were ordered by the generals partly for purposes 
 of discipline and partly with the conscious intention of im- 
 proving the material condition of the province '. Less pre- 
 meditated but not less welcome was the development of towns 
 out of the legionary camps. The towns of Leon in Spain and 
 Caerleon in England * are two instances out of the multitude that 
 might be adduced. Posted on the frontiers during their time 
 of service, or settled on lands near it after their dismissal, the 
 soldiers acted in both capacities as a centre from which Roman 
 civilisation could extend itself. The army also acted as a 
 medium for bringing the most different races of the world into 
 close acquaintanceship. Tacitus is perhaps too uncompromising^ 
 when he says that ' all that is sound in the armies is foreign ^"^ 
 
 ' Suet. Tib. 48. ' Suet. Claud, i. = Tac. Ann. xi. 20. 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xiii. 53. = Boissiere, p. 133. « Tac. Ann. i. 20. 
 
 ' To previous references add Suet. Aug. 18 ; Tac. Ann. xvi. 23. 
 
 ' The first being certainly, and the termination of Caerleon probably, 
 derived from Legio ; see Renier, Inscriptions de Troesmis, in the Rev. Archeol. 
 xii. p. 414, note i. 
 
 ' Preuss, p. 7, seems to be of this opinion. " Tac. Ann. iii. 40. 
 
PAX ROMAMA. 103 
 
 and that ' it is by the blood of the provinces that the provinces 
 are conquered ' ;' but there can be no question of the immense 
 foreign element in the army even from an early date. It was 
 the general practice to post troops raised in one country in 
 a far distant one. Thus we find Spaniards in Switzerland '*, 
 Swiss (Rauraci) in Britain', Pannonians in Africa*, lUyrians 
 in Armenia *- 
 
 It is noticeable that in all cases the troops were on the No troops 
 frontiers. Rome did not find it necessary to keep garrisons provinces, 
 in the interiors of her provinces, as we are obliged to do in 
 India. The whole of Gaul was held by a single garrison of 
 1200 men at Lugdunum"; the eight legions on the Rhine 
 were busied solely with the defence of the frontier against the 
 Germans. Strabo tells us the same thing of Egypt; the 
 frontier had to be guarded against the Ethiopians, but there 
 were hardly any troops in the interior ' of the country. Not 
 one of the 500 towns of Asia had a garrison *. Such a state of 
 things can be fairly put down to the credit of the Roman rule. 
 It was partly no doubt due to the tremendous severity of her 
 conquests ', but still more to the fact that she bestowed upon 
 the conquered very positive advantages. She had the art of 
 making her subjects emulate and copy her own civilisation. 
 The peace which her arms secured put a spade in the hands 
 of the peoples instead of a sword, and allowed the labouring 
 millions to trade and dig and bring the waste lands under 
 tillage, without thought for their own defence. The pro- 
 vincials seem to have been generally disarmed, according to 
 the advice which Dio puts in the mouth of Maecenas ^°- We 
 find traces of a local militia here and there ; for instance, in the 
 
 ' Tac. Hist. iv. 17. ^ Mommsen; Mon. Anc. p. 46 
 
 ' C. I. L. vii. No. 66 ; Mottmsen, Schweiz, p. 25. * Tac. Ann. iii. 9. 
 
 ' lb. XV. 26. ' Desjardins, La Gaule Rotnaine, p. 12. 
 
 ' Strabo, xvii. ' Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 16. 
 
 ' The cold and clear narrative of Caesar yet leaves a nightmare impres- 
 sion of the awful bloodshed by which his results were obtained. Cf. 
 Merivale, ii. 74. 
 
 '" Dio, hi. 27. 
 
104 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 law of the colony of Ursao ' ; but the general principle was 
 that enunciated by Maecenas, that the provincials should have 
 all their fighting done for them by the Roman army''. The 
 result of this was that the provincials lost the military spirit, 
 and without any kind of military organisation could make but 
 a very imperfect resistance to the barbarians, once the troops 
 on the frontier failed them'- The stress of events so far 
 proved the Roman policy a failure, but before condemning it 
 too unconditionally it would be necessary to convince our- 
 selves that if arms had been put in their hands, the provinces 
 would have been secure from internecine discord. 
 Partition of But perhaps the most conspicuous of Augustus' changes was 
 between^ the partition of the provinces between himself and the Senate *- 
 Senate arid "phg nrinciple of division was that those provinces which 
 
 Emperor. *- '^ -. '■ — ' "" — ' — ■ 
 
 enjoyed absolute peace, ..the older provinces, such as Sicily,- 
 Narbonensis, and Asia, should be entrusted, {0_!j he Senate, 
 while the frontier provinces, which needed military force, went 
 4iamrall^Jja.J;lielcQmman4er-in-chief. In this way Augustus 
 pretended to reheve the Senate of the cares and dangers of 
 Empire, while leaving it its advantages, but in fact secured 
 himself the reality of power. The division was an eminently 
 natural one, and had been anticipated under the Republic by 
 the distinction made between consular and praetorian pro- 
 vinces. All new provinces, as requiring, at first at all events, 
 the presence of troops, came as a matter of course under the 
 emperor; and thus the original number of twelve imperial, as 
 compared with ten senatorial provinces, was continually being 
 increased. The emperor reserved to himself the right of 
 modifying these arrangements if he thought fit. Thus Achaia 
 
 ' Cf. § 103 of the law, and § 98; Bruns, p. III. (The law was only dis- 
 covered in 1870, and is not in the Corpus.) 
 
 2 Cf. Finlay, i. 28. 
 
 ' The gallant resistance of Autun to the usurper Tetricus seems to show 
 that a good deal could have been done by the provincials if they had had 
 any sort of military organisation. 
 
 ' The authorities are Suet. Aug. 47 ; Strabo, xvii. 3. § 25 ; Dio, liii. 1 2. 
 
GOVERNORS OF SENATORIAL PROVINCES. 105 
 
 and Macedonia were transferred by Tiberius from the sena- 
 torial to the imperial category ' ; and again restored to their 
 old position by Claudius ■'- Moreover, the proconsular impe- 
 rium possessed by the emperor over the whole Empire enabled 
 him to interfere at will with the senatorial provinces. Thus 
 when Vologeses invaded Asia, the governor, Avidius Cassius, 
 was directly appointed by the emperor^; and if a proconsul 
 died during his year of ofiBce the emperor could directly nomi- 
 nate his successor *. The Senate of itself requested the emperor 
 to appoint a proconsul to a province in which there was any- 
 thing hke a serious war to be apprehended ; Tiberius appointed 
 the proconsul to conduct the war against Tacfarinas " ; and in 
 exceptional circumstances a legate could be sent to assume the 
 governorship of a proconsular province °. 
 
 The governors of the senatorial provinces were appointed Mode of 
 in much the same way as they had been under the Republic, ^int'to' 
 
 Pompey's arranarement of the five years' interval was main- senatonal 
 ^ ■> ° J provinces. 
 
 tained as the minimum; but after Augustus' death we find it 
 extended to ten or even thirteen years. These provinces were 
 assigned by lot as under the old system ' ; as a rule, after the 
 previous grades of aedile, quaestor, and the higher urban offices 
 had been passed through and held only for a year. The two 
 oldest consulars cast lots for the consular, the praetors also by 
 seniority for the praetorian provinces. Two provinces, Asia 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. i. 76. 
 
 ° Suet. Claud. 25. Sardinia had been senatorial and became imperial ; 
 Henzen, 5419 ; Boissiere, p. 295. Bithjinia became definitely imperial 
 under Hadrian. 
 
 ' Zumpt, Comm. Epig. ii. 92. 
 
 ' Orelli, 3651 ; an inscription of the time ofVespasian, part of which runs 
 as follows : ' Proc. provinciae Asiae quam mandatu principis vice defuncti 
 Procos. rexit.' 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. iii. 32. 
 
 " Pliny was thus sent to Bithynia ; cf. Plin. Ep. x. 1 2, where Pliny 
 thanks Trajan for granting a relative the proeomuUhip of Bithynia. 
 
 ' Suet. Aug. 47 : ' Ceteras proconsulibus sortito permissit.' Tac. Ann. 
 iii. 71. The quaestor too by lot; Suet. Vesp. 2; Tac. Agr. 6 and 42. 
 Quaestors of course were only in senatorial provinces. 
 
lo6 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 and Africa, remained consular, and the appointments to these 
 were the most dignified and the best paid ; the rest were prae- 
 torian. But whether the provinces were consular or praetorian, 
 and whether the governors were men of consular or praetorian 
 rank, in any case all governors of senatorial provinces were 
 called indifferently proconsuls ^, just as all governors of imperial 
 provinces were called by the historians indifferently, though in- 
 accurately, propraetors^- In outward dignity the proconsuls 
 Were far above the imperial legates; they had ten or even twelve 
 fasces, whereas the legate had only five ' ; but they had little of the 
 reality of power. As they had no military authority they did 
 not possess the power of life and death over any soldiers in 
 their province ; and as their office was merely annual they 
 made a very different impression to the imperial legate who 
 scarcely ever stayed less than three, and sometimes as much 
 as eight or ten or even more years in his province. It is no 
 wonder, therefore, that Tiberius found a difficulty in inducing 
 capable persons to stand for such appointments * ; and if we 
 still find traces of the old feeling which regarded a province as 
 a prize ", it must have been rather for the salary connected with 
 it than for any power or special profit to be obtained from it. 
 An ambitious man would rather covet a post as imperial legatus, 
 and if a man wanted to become rich the surest way of doing so 
 would be through a procuratorship *. 
 The In-Jheory .the -emgerorwas himself the^gqvernor^f ^Hiis 
 
 of Imperial ^vinces J but jsJie_muldjnoLbsJfl--twdife-diiereat places„at_ 
 provinces. oricx^lTe appointedjn eacii jJfigat©-t®-s«pjKsenLh^ The full 
 tide^X-SUch goy&cnox&.-M&sJegaius„,Aiigu&ii.-pro.4iiJa&i(u:e; and 
 this is the way they are invariably designated in the inscriptions. 
 
 ' Cf. the passage of Suet, quoted in the above note ; Perrot, de Galatia 
 prov. Rom. p. lij. 
 
 ^ Tac. Ann. xv. 32, where propraetors and proconsuls is an exhaustive 
 classification of provincial governors ; Marquardt, i. 409, note 4. 
 
 * ' Quinquefascalis dum ageremj' Ephemeris Epig. p. 205. 
 
 * Tac. Ann. vi. 27. ° Ibid. xv. 19 ; Hist. iv. 39. 
 
 * Ibid. xvi. 17; Suet. Vesp. 16. 
 
GOVERNORS OF IMPERIAL PROVINCES. 107 
 
 They might be either of consular or praetorian rank; and 
 the provinces to which they were assigned were themselves 
 also either consular or praetorian — an arrangement which was 
 so far of importance that if consular legates had been sent to a 
 province in the iirst instance, it was only very rarely that prae- 
 torian legates were substituted, and vice versa ^. The provinces 
 in which there were several legions, were,,al\Kays governed by 
 consular legates ; a;id it became commoa,-and would no doubt 
 be welcome, t o address such_ Jegates.-,sijBj;iLK as. .' congulares V 
 thus clearly distinguishing them from the legates of praetorian 
 rank. 
 
 These legates were appointed directly by the emperor, and 
 for as long a time as he pleased. Dio makes Maecenas give 
 the advice to Augustus not to let any legate of his rule a 
 province less than three years or more than five, for so they 
 would stay long enough to know their province thoroughly, 
 not long enough to become dangerous'. And this was perhaps 
 the generally observed rule*; Agricola, for instance, was three 
 years in Aquitania". But the exceptions are very numerous. 
 Galba governed Spain for eight years ", Sabinus was in Moesia 
 for seven', and we find C. Silius legate in Gaul a.d. 14, and 
 still in Gaul ten years afterwards "- Sometimes these appoint- 
 ments lasted even for life " : Tiberius in particular was famous 
 for keeping his governors long at their posts". It was a still 
 greater innovation when a suspicious emperor like Tiberius did 
 not allow a legate or proconsul to proceed to his province at 
 all, and the ' farce of governing ' was gone through, while the 
 governor remained at Rome " 
 
 What constituted the vital difference between these legates 
 
 ' Perrot, Galatia, p. 68. 
 
 ^ So we find that attes~A,iigustusJti3i.CDnsulaj;aiid-prast,<si5H provinces are ' 
 meant imperial^-Jiy. procgnsular proyinces-ars jnesat^^gtiatftaal- Cf. Capitol. 
 M. Aurelius, 22", Marq. i. 409, note 5. 
 
 ' Dio, liii. 23. * This is Zumpt's opinion; Comm. Epig. ii. 87. 
 
 ' Tac. Agr. 9. " Plut. Galba, 4. "• Tac. Hist. iii. 7,s. 
 
 ' Ann. i. 31 and iv. 18. " Ann. i. 80. " Josephus, Antiq. xviii. 6. 
 
 " Ann. i. 80, vi. 27 ; Hist. ii. 65, 97 ; Suet. Tib. 63. 
 
io8 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 The legate and the proconsuls was not merely the longer duration of their 
 proconsul, power, but stiU more their possession of military force. The 
 senatorial provinces being without troops counted for nothing 
 in such a period of civil war as the terrible year of the three 
 emperors (a.d. 69). ' The unarmed provinces with Italy at 
 their head were exposed to any kind of slavery, and were ready 
 to become the prize of victory,' says Tacitus ^. The only 
 exception to the rule that a proconsular was divorced from 
 a military command was Africa; and even here, in cases of 
 special emergency, we find the governor appointed by the 
 emperor. Still as a rule, in the reign of Augustus and Tiberius 
 the proconsul of Africa disposed of troops, and was not elected 
 by the emperor; a contradiction to the usual state of things 
 which was sure before long to awake the susceptibilities of a 
 jealous emperor ^. Caligula in fact, on his accession, at once 
 put an end to it, took the troops from the proconsul, and gave 
 them to the legate whom he estabhshed by his side, with the 
 exceptional title, explained by the exceptional circumstances, of 
 legatus Augusti pro praeiore legionis '. Henceforth the legate 
 was continually encroaching upon his rival, whose position of 
 superior dignity and real weakness exposed him to the most 
 galling affronts. The legate felt that he was the emperor's 
 man, and was sent there to assert his supreme authority in his 
 own person. Caligula had made disputes inevitable. ' The 
 patronage was equally divided between the two officers. A 
 source of disagreement was thus studiously sought in the con- 
 tinual clashing of their authority, and it was further developed 
 by an unprincipled rivalry. The power of the legates grew 
 through their lengthened tenure of office, and perhaps because- 
 an inferior feels a greater interest in such a competition*.' 
 Even if actual violence was not shown (Piso was put to death 
 
 ' Hist. i. II. Their unarmed condition is illustrated by Hist. ii. 81 and 83. 
 ^ Cf. Cicero's expressions about Africa, Pro Ligario, 7 : ' Africam, om- 
 nium provinciarum arcem, natam ad bellum contra h*c urbem gereudum.' 
 ' Tac. Hist. iv. 48, a very interesting and important chapter. 
 ' Hist. iv. 48. 
 
THE PROCURATORS. . 109 
 
 by Festxis' order, a.d. 70 \ the proconsul was always liable to 
 the interference of the legate in the internal affairs of his own 
 province. The emperors made it their special business to look 
 after the roads both in Italy and in the provinces ^. So if a 
 road was wanted from the boundary of Numidia to a place far 
 within the senatorial province, the legate was commissioned to 
 superintend the making of it ; and his oflicers must have been 
 constantly on the spot while his soldiers were engaged upon 
 the work '. The yearly tenure also of the proconsul must have 
 gone far to put him into a subordinate position. ' Between this 
 annual proconsul, this governor of a dozen months who put in 
 an appearance at Carthage, and was scarcely arrived in his 
 province before he was gone again, and this legate who on 
 the contrary settled himself in Africa, and from his camp at 
 Lambesis saw the proconsuls pass and disappear, what a 
 difference in real authority, what inequality in power * ! ' 
 
 If the legate was the emperor's man, still more was this the The 
 character of the procurato r. There were no quaestors in the™^™^- 
 i mperial provinces, all the accounts being kept and money '°''^- 
 matters. in. general being managed by pnej)Xjhese officials. 
 But we also^find_them jn_the senajiixial provinces. While the 
 \djolejEield„pf finance was cQp)niitte,i.ia them in their own 
 proper provinces, moneys jejtaiiiing. to the fisc were managed 
 b;^_ErO£!iratfilS in all provinces alike without distinction. They 
 were practically iodependent ofjhe, senatorial governor. ' In 
 any question of fiscal moneys, which concerns the procurator 
 of the prince, the proconsul will do best if he keeps clear of it ^.' 
 
 ' Hist. iv. 50. 
 
 ' The epigraphic evidence on this point is very large. The following 
 references may be given : Suet. Aug. 30 ; Mon. Anc. § 20 ; Mommsen's 
 Mon. Anc. p. 59 ; Kandler, No. 524 ; Bergier, i. 64-67. 
 
 ' e. g. the road from Carthage, the capital of the proconsular province, to 
 Thevesta was made by the legate (ajj. 124), and in the inscription which 
 commemorates it there is no mention of the proconsul ; Boissiere, p. 254. 
 
 • Boissiire, L'Afrique Romaine, p. 252. I have made much use of 
 M. Boissiire's admirable discussion of this subject. 
 
 ' Dig. i. 18. 9 ; Marquardt, i. 414, note 4. 
 
no ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Such taxes as the picesima heredilaium, when applied to the 
 
 , provinces, were under the superintendence of a procurator, whose 
 
 powers extended over several provinces at once'; and in a 
 
 Jate£ period ofthe Empire there were procurators to manage 
 
 every conceivable source of income. 
 
 These officials as constituted by Augustus had, properly 
 speaking, nojudicial author ity. But the y_began-to-presume 
 upon their position as the emperor's nominees from an early 
 ~^ate. ~ Under Tiberius a procurator of Asia was accused by 
 his province, and the emperor supported the accusation, vehe- 
 mently asseverating that the authority which he had given him 
 extended only to slaves and to his own private moneys ^. It 
 was however doubtless found inconvenient in practice that 
 officialg entrusted with such important duties should not have 
 wider powers; and at .Qiudius' request the Senate ^ave them 
 authority » to_decjde_ suits, — a power which must have extended 
 at all events. tp^alLcases .connected _ vith the^Jsfi In the 
 imperial provinces it is possible to trace a similar process of 
 encroachment. Here their position corresponding to that held 
 formerly by the quaestors, legitimately gave them wide powers, 
 which they took care to maintain and increase. ' A single king 
 once ruled us ; now two are set over us ; a legate to tyrannise 
 over our lives, a procurator to tjTannise over our property.' 
 Such is the complaint which Tacitus puts into the mouths of 
 the Britons* The rapacity of a procurator goaded Britain 
 into rebellion"; and when Galba was governor of Tarra- 
 conensis he was obliged to witness similar conduct on the part 
 of his procurator, apparently without the power to check it ^ 
 It was so regular a thing for the legate and the governor to 
 
 ' Henzen, 6940, is a good instance; Marquardt, ii. 305, for a full 
 account. 
 
 " Tac. Ann. iv. 15. 
 
 ^ Suet. Claud. 12. Claudius seems to have been a great patron of the 
 procurators. Cf. Suet. Claud. 24. 
 
 * Tac. Agr. 15. s Tac. Ann. xiv. 32. 
 
 " Plut. Galba, 4. As Galba sympathised with the Spaniards, it is to be 
 supposed he would have done so if he could. 
 
INCREASING POWER OF THE PROCURATORS, iii 
 
 quarrel, that Tacitus specially praises Agricola for having had 
 no ' contention with his procurator ' when he was governor of 
 Aquitania ; and so sharp was the dissension between Suetonius 
 the legate of Britain, and his procurator, that Nero sent a 
 freedman to endeavour to arrange the difference between them. 
 It is significant that the upshot of their business was that a 
 substitute was found, not for Classicanus, but for Suetonius '. 
 The fact is that the pr ocurator seems to have ,,begn designedly 
 used, at all evejitS-JbjLba<Lemperors, as. a spy upc^l,the.Ieg3;te,-47 
 and7if need were, as an instrument againstjthgiji. Being in 
 theory nothing BiitTKe^emperor's stewards ''■, and being wholly 
 dgEgadenLJ^iQn-Jiis-JayQur.fojLiHCCfiSS-iSL. lheir care er ', they 
 were absolutely devoted to h i p intere-sts. A legate, might revolt 
 agahist_hia_jaa£ter,Ji.,,£rocurato jieve^^^^^ It is the procurator 
 who lets the emperor k now of rebellious movements in his 
 province^ and it is in the pro curator Jthat .the. emperor,x.Qn- 
 fides if he wants a_ legate- put out ©f the way °- At least one 
 instance occurs of a senatorial governor being actually put 
 to death by his procurator"- The whole t£2denc2__isj^the 
 authority _of_ the procuratQj, lQ-.£J!ifind„and. Strengthen„itself till 
 he and the legate are left confronting one another as almost 
 equal powers. That they could, in emerggiicy j^a^,evei),ts, 
 dispose of military force is provea by the appeal of the 
 Romans of Camuloduiiurii to Catus Decianus ' ; and in times of 
 disturbance we find them only too ready to try their hands at 
 military measures " It is not at all inconsistent with what has 
 
 ' Tac. Ann, xiv. 38. ^ See Hirschfeld, p. 242. 
 
 ' A Spanish inscription (C. I. L. ii. 556) shows how tjiese procurators 
 ■were sent all over Europe. 
 
 * Tac. Hist. i. 12. 
 
 " Suet. Galba, 9 ; ' Nam et mandata Neronis de nece sua ad procuratores 
 clam missa deprehenderat.' 
 
 « Tac. Hist. i. 7. 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xiv. 32. They asked him for military aid. He sent only 200 
 men. Tacitus' language implies blame for this conduct ; therefore he 
 could have sent more if he had chosen. 
 
 * e.g. the procurator of Corsica; Tac. Hist. ii. 16. 
 
112 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 been said that in settled times and under good and capable 
 emperors the procurators were obliged to maintain their proper 
 subordinate position ; and had for instance to request a testi- 
 monial from the governor to the emperor on leaving the 
 province ^. 
 
 Procura- Besides these officials of the imperial exchequer there were 
 tors as . . 1 1 1 ■ 1 1 
 
 governors, also a certam number of proyijices juled directly -b y .a pro- 
 
 ^^ curator,", possessing the. powers ..of an ordinary g-nvpmnr- 
 Pontius Pilate was one of these minor governors^- These 
 governorships were of a provisional character, and when the 
 countries to which they had been applied had been thoroughly 
 Romanised, or had lost the peculiarities which had made an 
 exceptional treatment advisable, we find them organised like 
 ordinary provinces. This happened for instance in the case 
 of Thracia, Rhaetia, and Judaea itself. Such provinces as 
 these formed a class by themselves. In one passage Tacitus 
 puts together a number of them, — ' Mauritania, Rhaetia, No- 
 ricum, and Thrace, and the other provinces governed by 
 procurators ' ;' and we are also able to point to procurators 
 of Cappadocia^, of the Maritime Alps^, and of the Alps of 
 Savoy ''. ft 3[ag. ho\yesei;.-Jinderstood that these pr ocurators 
 were subordinate, to the regular governor of the -neighbouring - 
 province V- This subordination was natural enouglj^ seeing 
 that though they had son^e. sort, of military force — perhaps a 
 few cohorts or a legion ' — enough to protect their, persons 
 
 " Pliny, Ep. x. 36. 
 
 '^ Wien Finlay, i. 36, argues to the irregular and arbitrary character of the 
 government from the case of Pontius Pilate he does not seem quite to 
 understand the exceptional character of these procurators. They were in 
 fact governors, and we find the procurator of Judaea also called praepositus ; 
 Suet. Vesp. 4. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 413. ' Hist. i. 11. 
 
 5 Ann. xii. 49. ' Hist. ii. 12 ; iii. 42. 
 
 ' ' Proc. Alpium Atrectinarum et Poeninarum ; ' Orelli, 3888 ; Mommsen, 
 Schuieiz, 6. 
 
 ' See Zumpt, Comm. Epig. ii. 127, 133. 
 
 * Pontius Pilate certainly had troops, which would be very necessary in 
 an unruly province like Judaea. 
 
THE GOVERNMENT OF EGYPT. 113 
 
 and assert their authority within the province, they yet had 
 nothing that could be called an army, and couldTnot defend 
 tEeif province against attack from without. So under Claudius, 
 when an incompetent procurator of Cappadocia raised auxiliary 
 troops and ventured to meddle with the very crux and mystery 
 of Roman foreign policy, the crown of Armenia, he was 
 promptly recalled to his senses by the arrival of a lieutenant 
 with a legion from Quadratus the governor of Syria. In this 
 case it is the governor of Syria who interferes ; but as a rule it 
 was the legate of Galatia who was responsible for Cappadocia ^ ; 
 while Judaea was under the special control of the governor of 
 Syria. Judaea however was definitely annexed to Syria on the 
 death of its last king Agrippa'''; and the constant inroads of 
 the barbarians compelled Vespasian to substitute a consular 
 legate with troops for the equestrian procurator in Cappadocia'. 
 
 The government of Egypt was analogous to that of such Egypt, 
 provinces as these, but was in many points wholly exceptional. 
 Julius Caesar had deliberately abstained from making a pro- 
 vince of the country ' ; and when Augustus added it to the 
 Empire after Actium*, he subjected it to an altogether ex- 
 ceptional treatment. The country was his private property, 
 or rather the emperor's private property ; it passed as a tnatter 
 of course, that is, from emperor to emperor*. Augustus 
 appointed a praefectus to represent him in the province, just 
 as in earlier times the urban praetors had sent prefects to 
 represent them in the municipalities of Italy'. This prefect 
 
 ' Perrot, Galatia, p. 98. 
 
 '' Ann. xii. 23 (a. d. 41) ; and again put under a procurator from 44 
 to 70. See Marquardt, i. 335. 
 
 ' Suet. Vesp. 8 ; Perrot, ib. 
 
 * Suet. Jul. 35: 'Veritus provinciam facere, ne quandoque violentiorem 
 praesidem nacta novarum rerum materia esset.' 
 
 ' 'iEgyptum imperio populi Romani adjeci ;' Mon. Anc. § 27. 
 
 ' That is, it was patrimonium Caesaris, but not res familiaris. See 
 Marquardt, ii. 249, 300 ; i. 284. 
 
 ' Other praefecti are those of islands — already mentioned — of Mesopo- 
 tamia under the later Empire, of Berenicis ; Marq. i. 413, note 2; Strabo, 
 iv. 6. § 4. 
 
 I 
 
114 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 was of equestrian, and not the highest equestrian rank'; no 
 senators were admitted into the province; and the greatest 
 jealousy was shown of the smallest interference with it^ By 
 the side of the praefect were two other high officials, the 
 idiologm'^ or imperial procurator, and the juridicus of Alex- 
 andria*. The name of the former was that which had been 
 held by the steward of the Ptolemies; and the latter was a 
 municipal magistrate with very exceptional powers, appointed 
 directly by the emperor, as Napoleon III directly appointed the 
 mayors of important French country towns. The reasons for 
 the special jealousy of Egypt shown by Augustus and his 
 successors were partly the great defensibility of the , country, 
 partly its immense importance as the granary of Rome. ' It 
 was an accepted principle with our fathers,' says Pliny ^ ' that 
 our city could not possibly be fed and maintained without the 
 resources of Egypt.' Egypt did in fact feed Rome for four 
 months in the year. 
 The Of the subordinates of the governors either in the senatorial 
 
 subordi-J or imperial provinces it is not necessary to say much. The 
 juridici that occur in different parts of Spain and in Britain 
 were assistants of the imperial legates, not appointed by the 
 legates, — for how could a deputy appoint deputies.' — but 
 directly by the emperor ^. The legal council mentioned under 
 the Republic as assisting the governor became a regular body 
 under the title of assessors '. The comites still existed, and 
 
 ' Ann. xii. 60, ii. 59. His powers were great ; cf. Hist. i. 11. 
 
 ^ Ann. ii. 59. 
 
 " Marquardt, ii. 300. He is mentioned in tlie decree of Tiberius Alex- 
 ander : Ttfhs Ta liicf \6yiv Teray/iivov. Cf. Strabo, xvii. I. § 1 2, where Stiabo 
 makes him to be only procurator a caducis. 
 
 * Henzen, 6924, 6925. = Pliny, Panegyr. 31. 
 
 " Henzen, 6487, 6489, 11 78, 6490, 7420, and a complete list, Mar- 
 quardt, i. 411, note. They occur of course only in imperial provinces, and 
 are quite distinct from the juridici of Italy (instituted by M. Aurelius), as 
 from the Juridicus Alexandriae. For the whole subject, see Zumpt, ii. 
 40-55 ; Henzen, p. 113 of his indices, where are full references, and p. 397. 
 
 ' Plin. Ep. X. 19. See an inscription given by Boissi-fere (unfortunately 
 only in a French translation), p. 241, note. 
 
 nates. 
 
STRICTER SUPERVISION OF THE GOVERNORS. 115 
 
 though doubtless under better control, are sometimes com- 
 plained of in much the same terms as they were under the 
 Republic' The quaestors still performed their duties in the 
 senatorial provinces; but were thrown into the shade by the 
 rapid rise and great extension of the class of procurators. The 
 cases which sometimes occur of governorships being given to 
 centurions "^ or even to ordinary veterans " are in each case so ^1 
 obviously due to special circumstances as not to require a i\7 
 closer examination. "[/ 
 
 The__great_and benefi£ent__changg ^ which re sulted from The 
 Augustus' ar iangements-jtas-Jthe .much stricter~ rojilrorin s^?eme ^^ 
 which t he governors were no w held. The emperors nwde ^^'^^ °^ *^ 
 
 . ~, . — . — —— . _ — , — K — «„..:^.jKs provincial 
 
 It their business^ to_ make t hgms elves well acquainted with their administra- 
 Em^irej^ of the eighteen years aif!er'lhe'~Battle of Actiuni"™' 
 Augustus spent eleven out of Italy*, and the only two pro- 
 vinces which he had not visited were Africa and Sardinia ^ 
 It was not their interest to tolerate misgovemment or oppres- 
 sion. ' Everywhere it is the rule that the owner spares the soil, 
 while the tenant exhausts it'.' Undisturbed by domestic 
 politics they had leisure to devote their unwearied industry 
 to the interests of the Empire as a whole'. The governors 
 were regularly paid', and consequently lost the excuses for 
 exaction which they could have offered under the Republic. 
 It was expected that the governors should regularly report to 
 the emperor on any matters of importance that occurred in 
 their province " ; and the number of questions referred to his 
 decision was constantly on the increase. At the end of the 
 decree in which he regulates an immense amount of details 
 
 ' Hist. iv. 14 : ' Gravi quidem comitatu.' 
 
 ' A centurion governed the Frisii; Ann. iv. 72. Batavi apparently; Civilis 
 complains of it ; Hist. iv. 14. 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. ii. 66. 
 
 ' Duruy, iii. 230. ■■ Suet. Aug. 47. ^ Boissiere, p. I2t. 
 
 ' Cf. Suet. Vesp. 21 ; Plin. Ep. iii. 5, for Vespasian's labours. 
 
 ' Dio, Iii. 23, liii. 15; Suet. Aug. 38; Marquardt, i. 416; Merivale, iv. 
 25. The proconsul of Africa had an income of a million sesterces. 
 
 ' Euseb. H. E. ii. 2; Marquardt, i. 417. 
 
 I 2 
 
u6 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 connected with the financial administration of the country, 
 Tiberius Alexander, prefect of Egypt under Galba, says he 
 will not decide a particular question himself, but ' I will write 
 to the Emperor Augustus, and I will make known to him any 
 other points of consequence, as he alone can wholly eradicate 
 such abuses.' Boundary disputes^, petitions for the right of 
 sanctuary ^, petitions for the restoration of a temple ^, all such 
 and many more were referred to his decision. All such 
 matters would previously have been settled in a summary 
 manner by the governor, and their reference to Rome shows 
 the tendency to limit and define his absolute authority. The 
 extent to which Pliny when legate of Bithynia refers to Trajan 
 for directions is almost painful. To strengthen and secure 
 this direct and immediate control of provincial aifairs Augustus 
 established an elaborate postal system, by which he might be 
 informed with the greatest possible celerity of everything which 
 occurred. Such misgovernment as had been frequent under 
 the Republic was in part due to the remoteness of the governors 
 from Rome ; and to the inadequacy of the communication. 
 The telegraph and the steamship have immensely strengthened 
 the control which a modern country can exercise over its 
 dependencies. Augustus had not these, but he made the best 
 use of what facilities he had, and eveiything points to the 
 much readier and speedier communication* between the pro- 
 vinces and Rome. And the emperor exercised this control 
 not only over his legates, but, in virtue of his proconsular 
 power, over the senatorial governors as well. The emperor's 
 will overrode the edicts of the governors ^ ; and where largp 
 questions arose connected with the administration of a province, 
 an imperial ' constitution' laid down the rule to be followed, 
 and so, in a sense, constituted its lex provinciae^. A special 
 
 ' Ann. iv. 43. Cf. Vespasian's letter to the Vanacini in Sardinia ; Bmns,' 
 
 P- 173- 
 
 ' Ann. iv. 14. ^ lb. iv. 43. 
 
 ' For the new postal system, see Suet. Aug. 49 ; Marquardt, i. 418. 
 ■' Plin. i. 109. « lb. X. 71, 72. 
 
THE CAREER OF A LEGATE. ii'j 
 
 body was set aside for the hearing of provincial appeals '■ ; and 
 the Senate, so far as it had any authority left, was busied almost 
 entirely with their administration. In exceptional cases the 
 emperor, without superseding the governor, sent a special 
 official to examine the affairs of a province"; and, where 
 there was a peculiar need, could appoint a peculiar governor '. 
 If there were mistakes in this supreme administration, they 
 arose not from mere laxity and incompetence as under the 
 Republic, but from excessive interference and over-central- 
 isation. New organs were developed on all sides to meet the 
 necessities of Empire. Thus the emperor was assisted by his 
 cabinet; and his secretaries for the conduct of the different 
 branches of the administration became ministers of state. 
 
 The provinces which were directly in the emperor's hands The go- 
 appear to have been particularly well governed. The splendid J'^^i^perfai 
 career open to a legate of capacity who was favoured by the provinces, 
 emperor would be endangered if not forfeited by yielding to 
 the mean covetousness which had disgraced the governors of 
 the Republic. A man had more to gain by keeping his hands 
 clean than by fouling them. Staying as they did for a period of 
 years in the province, of which they were often natives, the legates 
 did not regard their period of government as a banishment, as 
 Cicero had regarded it. They became familiar with the needs 
 and peculiarities of their province, and ruled its inhabitants as 
 one of themselves. So much better was the condition of the 
 imperial provinces than that of the senatorial ones, that when 
 Achaia and Macedonia begged for relief from their burdens 
 (pnera deprecantes), their prayer was thought to be sufficiently 
 answered by their transference from the rule of the Senate to 
 that of the emperor. The legates were as a rule men of great 
 
 ' Suet. Aug. 33 ; Marquardt, i. 403. 
 
 ^ Ann. xiv. 39. Not that this freedman of Nero did or was meant to 
 do any good, but if the system was used once it was probably used often 
 in better circumstances. 
 
 ' When the cities of Bithynia were in trouble Trajan sent Pliny there as 
 legate, instead of the usual proconsul. 
 
governors. 
 
 Ii8 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 capacity, equally at home in the camp and in the business of 
 civil government, and to read a bare list of the commands 
 which many of them held is enough to justify the expression 
 of a modern writer when he calls them 'the glory of the 
 Empire'.' 
 
 It is not to be supposed that there were no bad governors 
 under Augustus and his successors. A Licinius and a LoUius 
 are there to undeceive us. But the d anger which.-w.as_aow run 
 made such governors the exception instead of the rule. Putting 
 together the accusations pf,. provincial governors mentioned in 
 the Annals and History of Tacitus and in the Letters of Pliny, 
 we get a complete list of twenty-seven'-' governors thus accused; 
 q£these "seven were acquitted arid twenty, condernQgd^, Augustus_ 
 juigggjf showed great severity to guilty governors, banishing Cor- 
 nelius Gallus, and actually drowning the tutor and other attendants 
 of the young Caius in Asia '- The case of Licinius is a less 
 favourable one ; but, as has been said, if it shows that ij> excep- 
 i4onj,l cases,a governor_could rob wU!h impunity, it shows that it 
 was at all events impossible to make a profit of the robbery *. 
 
 ' Prof. Seeley in his Essays, p. 20. I subjoin a cursvs honorum, one of 
 hundreds of similar ones, taken from Renier, Melanges, p. 79 : ' T. Caesemio 
 Quinctio Macedoni Quinctiano consuli, sodali Augustali, curatori viae 
 Appiae, praefecto alimentorum, legato legionis Piae fidelis, comiti divi Veri 
 per Orientem, praetori candidate inter cives et peregrinos, tribune plebis 
 candidate, legato per Africam Mauretapiam, quaestori candidate, tribune 
 militum legionis trigesimo Ulpiae Victricis, triumvire auro argento aeri 
 flande feriundo, patrono coloniae, decrete decurionum. Servilius . . . amico 
 Optimo.' 
 
 As a rule a man's whole life can be traced on these inscriptions, as they 
 commonly begin with the first office he held, and go on in chronological 
 order. In this case the office last held and of highest rank comes first, 
 probably because the man had just been made consul, and his friend wished 
 to flatter him by drawing special attention to the honour. 
 
 The case of Vespasian is an interesting one; Suet. Vesp. 2 and 4; cf. 
 Suet. Tit. 4. 
 
 ' Twenty-one in the Annals, of which sixteen were condemned, five 
 acquitted. One in the Histories,— condemned ; five in Pliny, of which three 
 were condemned and two acquitted. 
 
 5 Suet. Aug. 67. 4. • Duruy, iii. 227. 
 
AUGUSTUS AS A PEACE-MAKER. 119 
 
 The regular court for trying cases of repetundae was still Accusations 
 in form kept up, and cases might occasionally be referred to ciafgover- 
 it, if the Senate did not wish to try them '. But as a r ule all """^s- 
 such accusations came before the Senate, who had_the power 
 to decide'ThemTBuT no doubt settled each case in accordance _ 
 wiTF jHe .known_wishes of the emperor. The province could 
 request the Senate to give them this or that advocate to plead 
 their cause ^ and in some cases appear to have relied upon the 
 talents of their own orators. Thus in one case the ' most 
 eloquent orators of Asia ' ' pleaded before the Senate, probably 
 in Greek, as the use of that language was specially permitted *. 
 Now that the Senate had little else to do^ihese ,trialsjKeie--tke 
 q Eief businggg^^that came before jt^ and^ it is no wonder that 
 very special attention was paid to them ''. Pliny in his letters 
 gives far fuller and more elaborate accounts of these trials than 
 he does of any other matter ; and to judge from his description 
 they must have presented striking and impressive scenes *. 
 
 Above all, Augustus was the great peace-maker. This is the The Empire 
 light in which he is most proud to represent himself; and when peace. 
 on his return from Spain and Gaul the Senate consecrated an 
 altar in the Campus Martins to Pax Augusta, they paid him 
 the best and most appropriate of compliments * This is the 
 final justification of the Empire as against the Republic, that it 
 succeeded in this first duty of securing peace. Even under 
 Nero we read, ' never had there been so profound a peace ' ; ' 
 and it was in this aspect that the Empire most powerfully 
 impressed both Romans and provincials ". The fault was that 
 the peace did not last long enough. After all, the Romans 
 ought not to have failed in keeping back the barbarians. 
 
 ^ This seems to be made out from Pliny, Ep. iv. 9. 
 ' Pliny, 11. 12, lii. 9 ; Marquardt, 1. 416, note 9. 
 
 ' Ann. ill. 66. , * Marquardt, i. 47. 
 
 ' This is Zumpt's remark; Comm. Eplg. 11. 51. 
 
 » See esp. Plin. Ep. ill. 9. ' Mon. Anc. § 13. ' lb. § 12. 
 
 ° Ann. XV. 46. 
 
 '" Strabo, Iv. 6. § 9, and passim In Books ill and iv ; Tac. Hist. iv. 74 ; 
 Pliny, N. H. lii. 6. 
 
1.20 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Perhaps Augustus was wrong when he dissuaded any attack 
 upon Germany ^ ; for if that country had once been held and 
 civilised, the balance of power would have inclined to the side 
 of the Empire, and not to the side of the Northern races which 
 overwhelmed it. But the fault lay deeper, and was one in- 
 separable from any despotism however well planned and skil- 
 fully administered. Ideally Rome's true aim should have been 
 to prepare the peoples to stand by themselves, to civilise and 
 organise them so as to be fit for freedom. The wholesome 
 tendency was in the direction of independence, the dangerous 
 and fatal tendency was in the direction of a bureaucratic 
 centralisation. It was however inevitable that the latter 
 tendency should prevail. The power of self-government can 
 only be got by use and practice ; and there was no self-govern- 
 ment except in the towns. On one side the central govern- 
 ment, on the other side the municipia; those were the only 
 centres of political life. ' A Roman province with its municipal 
 life was far above a satrapy, though far below a nation ^.' That 
 is very true, but municipal towns without federation have little 
 power of self-defence, and will fail in the hour of need. The 
 provinces could not have defended themselves without Rome ; 
 for 200 years Rome defended them ; but if a wiser system had 
 been used, if the provincial councils had been made into real 
 parliaments instead of kept to their so-called religious duties ; 
 above all, if there had been a regular and organised representa- 
 tion of the provinces in the central government, Rome and 
 her provinces together might have defended themselves for a 
 thousand years instead of two hundred. It is however idle to 
 ask what might have been; and a Roman statesman might 
 complain that we were trying his country by transcendental 
 standards, that the debt of the modern world to Rome is already 
 
 ' The question is discussed by Mignet, Introduction de VAncienne Ger- 
 manie dans la societe civilisie ; De la Berge, Trajan, p. 66 ; Congreve, Roman 
 Empire oj the West, p. 38. 
 
 ^ Goldwin Smith, The Greatness of the Romans; Contemporary Review, 
 May 1878, p. 333. 
 
CONSERVATISM OF AUGUSTUS. jzl 
 
 sufficiently great, and that no other people would have done 
 better in their place. It is impossible for us to be sure how far 
 the policy of Rome was dictated by military necessities. It is 
 very possible that a Roman might have doubted the safety of 
 such a treatment of the provinces. Above all he might have 
 doubted the fitness of the provincials as a whole to be 
 entrusted with self-government' and a share of Empire. It is 
 hard, as we see by India, for the conquerors to regard them- 
 selves as equal to the conquered ; and though the provincials 
 as a whole were more nearly on a level with the Romans than 
 the Hindoos are with their English rulers, still the Romans felt 
 that it was they who ruled, organised and civilised, and that 
 
 they had proved their capacity, while their subjects had not.^ ^ 
 
 The weakness of those who have conquered and ruled with 
 eminent success, is to be sceptical with regard to the fitness 
 of others to do a similar work ; and a Roman governor would 
 probably be as incredulous if you spoke to him of a genuine 
 parliament at Lyons or Corduba as an Indian official would 
 be if you suggested a Hindoo parliament at Delhi. 
 
 The unacknowledged character of the despotism which Evils of the 
 Augustus created was a more indisputable evil. It retarded ledged 
 the admission of the provincials within the Roman circle ; and the e^-iT °^ 
 it prevented a rational settlement of the succession. If Julius Empire. 
 really aimed at a hereditary monarchy he was wiser than his 
 successor, whose .ultra-Roman pedantry sought to maintain 
 intact all the forms of the constitution after they had lost their 
 vitality. The only excuse for Augustus is that men are often 
 far readier to give up the reality than the name of freedom, and 
 that the disregard of forms is often a greater offisnce than the 
 disregard of rights. As the work of Augustus consisted to a 
 large extent in a return to the old Roman exclusiveness in 
 politics and religion, he fostered all the ideas which regarded 
 the Romans as a peculiar people, and made it difficult for an 
 emperor to be liberal with the franchise. In the first century, 
 ' at all events, the prestige of Augustus' example was so great 
 that one of the signs of a ' good ' emperor was this obsolete 
 
122 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRA7I0N. 
 
 and preposterous RomanismK Still more important was the 
 way the succession was settled, or rather unsettled. To leave 
 it in form to the Senate and people as did Augustus, while 
 really confining it to the members of one family, was an 
 arrangement by which neither the advantages of an elective 
 presidency nor of an hereditary monarchy were secured. A 
 nominal consent of the people and a real consent of the army 
 was a very bad basis for any government ^. A strictly hereditary 
 system is to a certain extent a safeguard against revolution, and 
 a strictly elective system is a safeguard against being ruled by 
 a Caligula or a Nero. ' We must not forget that it is to the 
 entirely Roman system of adoption that we owe the century 
 of the Antonines ^.' Perhaps Augustus might have made this 
 system the principle of the succession. Too much depended 
 upon the charapter of the individual emperor to make the 
 hereditary principle a safe one. Some system which would 
 enable the Senate and emperor together to name the heir, as 
 the Senate and Nerva together named Trajan, would perhaps 
 have been the best solution. But it must be remembered that 
 even when the principle of adoption was tolerably established, 
 a wise man like Aurelius was blind enough to let a Commodus 
 succeed him. And as there was practically no check upon the 
 emperor, there was nothing to prevent his yielding to merely 
 personal feelings in this all-important matter. The real evil 
 lay in the very nature of the imperial rule ; and the history 
 of the Empire is only another instance of the shallowness of 
 the dictum which would make a good and permanent ad- 
 ministration independent of forms of government *. 
 
 The military character of the Empire becomes prominent 
 with Tiberius. Julius possibly"*, and Augustus certainly, had 
 
 ' See Freeman's Essays, Second Series, p. 321. 
 
 ^ Duruy, iii. 390, note 3. 
 
 ' lb. iii. 374. 
 
 * ' For forms of Government let fools contest, 
 
 Whate'er is best administered is best.' — Pope. 
 ° Mommsen scouts the notion of Caesar having sought to establish a 
 
TIBERIUS. 123 
 
 kept this aspect of it in the background ; but Tiberius while Tiberius' 
 pretending to leave everything to the Senate, at once took upon the army. 
 himself the direction of the army\ and guarded his person 
 with troops. The last case of a general being saluted as 
 Imperator occurs in his reign ^; and when Germanicus won 
 his victories across the Rhine, it was not he, but Tiberius as 
 commander-in-chief, who was so saluted. Tiberius was himself 
 a consummate soldier, who had won his own laurels in a ' 
 series of difficult and dangerous campaigns ; and his intimate 
 familiarity with the different parts of the Empire, derived partly 
 from his long exile at Rhodes and partly from his campaigns 
 on the Rhine and Danube, fitted him to become a capable and 
 beneficent administrator. 
 
 Whatever we may think of the life and character of Tiber ius Tiberius' 
 as a whole ^ thgre_can be jio question of the excellence of histionof the 
 government of the provinces. He had shown himself a friend of P'^°'''"<=^^- 
 the provinces even before Tie was emperor ** ; and his reign did 
 not belie the hopes then raised. Tacitus himself commends 
 his choice of governors ", and his habit of leaving his governors 
 for exceptionally long periods in their provinces, though dis- 
 paraged by Tacitus °, was viewed very differently by the pro- 
 vincials. Tiberius, says Josephus '', permitted those governors 
 who had been sent out to their governments to stay there a 
 great while out of regard to the subjects who were under 
 them.' That is, as he explains, the temptation to make a rapid 
 fortune by extortion would be lessened. The govern ors, were 
 under the striet-COntrol of jl man who detested, misgovernment 
 and disorder, and was sure to punish with severity*. Even 
 
 purely military despotism, and maintains that he abhorred it ; but Suet. Jul. 
 26 hardly squares with the theory. 
 
 ' Ann. i. 7. ^ lb. iii. 74. 
 
 ' The question was apparently first started by Dnruy; see his History, 
 iii. 409, where he gives a full list of subsequent works, to which add Mr. 
 Beesley's Essay, and a discussion by Messrs. Church and Brodribb, Annals, 
 p. 419. * Suet. Tib. 26, 32. ' Tac. Ann. iv. 6. "Ib.i. 80. 
 
 ' Jos. Antiq. xviii. 6 ; Church and Brodribb, Annals, p. 340. 
 
 ' Philo, Eis (pXixKoy, p. 965 ; Duruy, iii. 489, note 4. 
 
124 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Tacitus allows his care for the provinces. 'He was careful 
 not to distress the provinces by new burdens, and to see that 
 in bearing the old they were safe from any rapacity or oppres- 
 sion on the part of governors '.' In circumstances of special 
 necessity he showed special liberality. ' Decrees of the Senate 
 were passed at his proposal for reUeving the cities of Cibyra 
 and ^Egium in Asia and Achaia, which had suffered from 
 earthquakes, by a remission of three years' tribute ^' On the 
 occasion of the still more terrible earthquake which destroyed 
 twelve famous cities of Asia, he promised a million sesterces 
 for the relief of the one which had suffered most, Sardis, and 
 remitted its debts to the fisc or the emperor's privy purse for 
 a period of five years. Eleven other towns or states were 
 similarly assisted, and a special commissioner was sent to 
 afford present relief. In all this we see the brightest side of 
 a paternal despotism. 
 
 Tiberius had seen too much of war not to be a peace-maker. 
 His solicitude for peace was most genuine and even painful, and 
 Piso's worst crime in his eyes was that he had ' carried war into 
 a province *.' At the same time as an old soldier he knew that 
 peace can only be secured sometimes by energetic war ; and the 
 brigand Tacfarinas could not long commit his depredations with 
 impunity even in the country which both Rome and France have 
 found so unfavourable to regular troops. Even the worst evils 
 of his rule were not evils to the provinces. The informers for 
 instance were dangerous to Romans, but to the provinces they 
 provided a means of avoiding much of the trouble and expense 
 of a prosecution. The merciless severity of his punishments was 
 all in their favour ; and while the emperor felt himself hated by 
 those immediately around him, he was all the more ready to give 
 ear to their petitions or complaints. His own legates do not 
 seem to have needed punishment ^ ; the proconsuls had terrible 
 
 1 Ann. iv. 6. ' a lb. iv. 13. 
 
 3 Tac. Ann. ii. 47 ; cf. Suet. Tib. 49. * Ann. ii. 64, iii. 14. 
 
 = All the accusations in the first six books of Annals are of senatorial 
 
TIBERIUS. I2i5 
 
 examples to warn them against neglect of duty, and if a 
 province needed relief it was given by a simple transference to 
 his direct command^. 
 
 One of the most important events of the period was the The revolt 
 revolt in Gaul, due, says Tacitus ''■, to the burden of debt, but 
 perhaps still more to the intrigues of two ambitious men. The 
 loyalty of Gaul had been often proved under the early Empire °- 
 Roman civilisation had penetrated here with wonderful rapidity. 
 The wealth of Southern Gaul was notorious : ' those million- 
 aires ' a speaker in the Senate calls the ^dui *- Augustadunum 
 (Autun), so famous a city under the later Empire, was already 
 the centre of culture and civilisation ". Here the noble youth 
 received a liberal education, and were taught to be Romans, 
 as Sertorius had taught the Spanish youth at Osca. A genera- 
 tion later we find the works of the younger Pliny in request at 
 Lyons, almost immediately after their publication '- The people 
 paid for this perhaps too rapid and immature bloom by the loss 
 of the manlier virtues. We often hear allusions to ' Gallic 
 effeminacy''' and to the country's 'wealthy and unwarlike 
 population*.' 'As for the Gauls,' says Civilis, 'what are they 
 but the prey of the conqueror ' ? ' But their immense material 
 prosperity is too well attested to allow us to take the protesta- 
 tions of Floras quite seriously, and he is inconsistent with 
 himself when he contrasts the vigour of Gaul with the ex- 
 haustion of Italy '". But no doubt the passage may be taken 
 to prove that the trade of the negotiator was not eradicated by 
 the Empire ; and indeed under Nero we hear complaints of the 
 ' boundless usury ' by which Seneca ' exhausted the provinces ' 
 
 governors, except of Capito, a procurator, with whom Tiberius seems to 
 have been more than usually angry. 
 
 ' The case of Achaia and Macedonia. '^ Annals, iii. 40. 
 
 ' Cf. Tac. Ann. i. 34, 43, xi. 24. 
 
 * Ann. xi. 23 ; cf. lb. xi. 18, 24, xiii. 43, 46. 
 
 ' lb. iii. 43. " Ep. X. II. ' Tac. Germ. 28. 
 
 » Ann. xi. 18. » Hist. iv. 76. 
 
 '• Ann. iii. 40 ; Duruy, iii. 451. 
 
126 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 and accumulated his enormous wealth. It is significant how- 
 ever that the word negotiator loses in this period its strict 
 meaning, and becomes applied to legitimate merchants'. It 
 is in this sense that it is probably used when we are told that 
 London was ' frequented by crowds of negotiatores.' Florus' 
 complaints of the tribute are to a certain extent supported by 
 the more peaceable but not less urgent complaints of Syria 
 and Judaea^. The immense sums left by Tiberius in the 
 treasury were perhaps larger than they should have been for 
 the welfare of the provinces '- 
 
 Caligula. Caligula, that best of slaves and worst of masters *, is an 
 
 instance of the saying of Tacitus that bad emperors are most 
 fatal to those in their immediate neighbourhood ^. It was Rome 
 that suffered from his hideous eccentricities of cruelty; and 
 it was on Rome and Italy that he inflicted new burdens of 
 taxation * Of the features of his government of the provinces 
 we know little. Perhaps his most important measure was the 
 one already mentioned, the establishment of a legate in Africa 
 by the side of the proconsul. His pretended campaigns against 
 Germany and Britain merely exposed his own insane vanity 
 and incompetence. 
 
 Claudius. Far more important as a ruler of the provinces was the 
 despised and perhaps underrated emperor who succeeded him. 
 Clau dius! liberal treatment of the provinces, if in part due 
 to mere placid good-nature, must in part be g^scribed to a deli- 
 berate and statesmanlike intention. His g overnors w ere kept 
 iiif "excellent control'; and by arranging that there should 
 always be an Interval between two provincial commands, an 
 opportunity was secured for ^bringing any accugations that 
 
 ' Emesti ; see supra. ^ Tac. Ann. ii. 42. ' Suet. Calig. 31. 
 
 ' lb. 10. 
 
 " ' Saevi proximis ingruunt ; ' Tac. Hist. iv. 74. 
 
 * He began by remitting the ducentesima rerum venalium (it had been 
 reduced from i to 5 per cent, by Tiberius), Suet. Cal. 16, but laid on a great 
 number of new taxes afterwards ; lb. 40. 
 
 ' Dio, Ix. 24, 25; Ann. xii. 32 ; Jos. Ant. xx. 5. 
 
CLAUDIUS. 127 
 
 might be nec essary ^- In granting immunity ''■ or autonomy ' 
 to provincial towns he was very liberal, and if in some cases 
 a town secured such privileges for very inadequate reasons, in 
 others the help met a real need*- But it is with regard to the 
 franchise and to the admission of provincials into the Senate that 
 his action is most interesting and important. If a passage in 
 Seneca ° is to be taken seriously, he had the widest designs in 
 regard to the bestowal of the franchise. ' He had determined,' 
 Clotho is introduced as saying, 'to see all the Greeks, Gauls, 
 Spaniards, and Britons in the toga.' He was very severe to 
 those who pretended unlawfully to the possession of the citizen- 
 ship " ; as was natural, considering that the payments exacted for 
 it, where it was not either given by the emperor or secured by 
 passing through the stage of the Latin right '', must probably 
 as early as this have formed a regular source of income'. But he 
 was himself liberal in bestowing it. A decree of his, of the year 
 A.D. 46, on the franchise claimed by the Anauni has been found 
 at Trent. It runs as follows : ' Of the Anauni, Tulliassi, and Sin- 
 duni (now 'Non,' 'Dolas,' and 'Saone,' near Trent) I am in- 
 formed that part have been attributed' to the Tridentines, part 
 however not. I know that the Roman franchise of these people 
 
 * Dio, Ix. 25 : oTTois Sc /a^ StaKpoiiotVTo ot rotovroi rovs OiXovras <F(ptffi 
 5iKd^€(T&ai ovZivi dpx^v enl dpx^ irapaxprjfia kSiSov. 
 
 ' Ann. xii. 58 ; Suet. CI. 25 ; Ann. xii. 60. 
 
 " e.g. Rhodes ; Ann. xii. 22 ; Jos. Ant. xx. 
 
 ' e.g. Byzantium; Ann. xii. 63. This case looks bad for the taxation, 
 but the circumstances appear to have been exceptional. 
 
 ^ De Morte Claudii, 3. 
 
 ' Suet. Claud. 15 and 25. 
 
 ' Plin. Paneg. 35 : ' Seu per Latium in civitatem seu beneficio principis 
 venissent.' 
 
 * Acts xxii. 28; Suet. Vesp. 16, 18; Finlay, i. 45. A passage in Dio 
 Cassius, Ix. 17, shows that these payments were introduced at all events as 
 early as Claudius. 
 
 ' The verbs attribui, conlribui are used indiiferently in the sense of minor 
 towns or peoples attached to a more important town, which gave them the 
 law, and raised taxes from them, and with which they in process of time, as 
 here, tended to amalgamate. I shall return to this subject. 
 
128 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 does not rest on a very sound foundation ^ but what with long 
 usurpation and what with long commingling with the Triden- 
 tines, from whom they could not be separated without injury 
 to that splendid municipium, I allow them to retain the franchise 
 they claim ; and am the more induced thereto because some of 
 these people are soldiers in my praetorian guard, others have 
 been centurions, and some have judged in the decuriae" at 
 Rome'.' Still more interesting is the debate recorded in 
 Tacitus as to whether the Aedui and other Gauls of Gallia 
 Comata should be allowed access to the Senate, and so become 
 eligible for the Roman magistracies. Claudius himself made 
 an elaborate speech in favour of the proposal, which is not 
 only reported in Tacitus, but was engraved on brazen tablets, 
 one of which by a fortunate chance was discovered at Lyons 
 in the sixteenth century *. It is a specimen of those imperial 
 orations, which the emperor used either to deliver himself in 
 Senate or to get delivered by his quaestors — Principis Candi- 
 dati. At first they needed a senatus consultum to be law ; but 
 this was soon dropped. The Codex Theodosius formally gives 
 them the force of law, but they had had it in practice long 
 before. There were two kinds of such orations, one a mere 
 outline which the senatus consultum filled up, and the other 
 Claudius' giving reasons for the law and full heads of it. To this latter 
 th^^°"'? class belongs the oration of Claudius. That such orations 
 were commonly engraved on bronze we know from a passage 
 in Pliny ^ ; and copies were no doubt procured by or sent to 
 any states or cities which such orations might concern. Of all 
 such orations this of Claudius is the only one in existence. 
 The account of Tacitus" shows that the immediate occasion 
 
 ' 'Non nimium firmam id genus hominum habere Romanam originem.' 
 
 ^ Cf. Orelli, 3805, Judex ex v. Decuriis, and 3877. Augustus made four 
 decuriae, Caligula raised them to five. 
 
 ' Bruns, p. 172. 
 
 * In 1528 or 1529. The tablet was broken into two parts, and is only a 
 fragment of the whole. Published by Spon, 1673 ; Meuestrier, 1696; Mon- 
 faloon, 1853 ; Zell, Opuscula, 1857. 
 
 « Plin. Paneg. 75. « Tac. Ann. xi. 23-25. 
 
THE FRANCHISE IN GAUI. 129 
 
 for the Aedui putting in their claim was the fact that Claudius 
 had jujt ejected a number of members from the Senate, and 
 that there were therefore vacancies to be filled up. It must not 
 be supposed that Claudius gave all Gallia Comata the jus 
 honorum, but only the men of rank and wealth who had previ- 
 ously got the franchise ^. The chief men of the Aedui were 
 given it first, after them the notabihties of the rest of Gallia 
 Comata ; but it would be an absolute error to suppose that the 
 common people obtained the same privilege. Else how explain 
 the passage of Pliny where, writing after Claudius, he divides 
 Gaul into the regular classes of allied, Latin, and Roman towns ? 
 Of those who had the franchise some had either themselves 
 won it or had received it from their fathers — were in fact ' free- 
 born;' others had it as being members of Roman towns — of 
 which latter there were four, Lugdunum, Colonia Agrippina, 
 Colonia Equestris (Nyon), and Augusta Rauracorum (Augst 
 ■ near Basle). The worst of it is that we only know the status 
 of Lyons for certain — it undoubtedly had full Roman right. 
 It is a mistake to suppose that Augustus gave all Gaul the 
 franchise, apart from the Jus suffragii or jus honorum, for all 
 that Dio", who is the only authority, says, is that Augustus gave 
 some cities liberty and the franchise and took it away from 
 others. Augustus probably gave the franchise without the vote 
 to those Gauls who had deserved well of Rome ; but there is 
 no reason for ascribing to him any liberal or comprehensive 
 measure, which besides would have been contrary to the whole 
 drift of his policy. 
 
 The comparison of the real speech with Tacitus' version The real 
 is very curious. Besides transposing and changing the order, g?v|n by° 
 Tacitus has cut out those deviations from the point and those Tacitus. 
 needless and verbose displays of learning in which the anti- 
 quarian soul of Claudius delighted and by which he wearied 
 out even the slavish patience of his Senate'. In the Annals the 
 
 ' Zell, p. 109. ' Dio, liv. 24. 
 
 ' Zell, p. 117. For Claudius' defects as an orator see Dio, Ix. 2 ; Juvenal, 
 vi. 620 ; Suet. CI. 39, 40 ; Seneca, de Morte Claudii, 4. 
 
 K 
 
I30 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 speech is an admirable specimen of simple and statesmanlike 
 eloquence. Of the character of the real speech something can 
 be made out from the following fragments. 
 
 In the first column he defends himself agairlst those who 
 might accuse him of being an innovator. ' Why, our history 
 is full of innovations ! ' To prove which profound thesis the 
 imperial antiquary plunges with great zest into a regular 
 chronicle, beginning with the early kings : if he went on with 
 the same fulness for the whole history of Rome he would have 
 kept the Senate day and night. It is the oddest, most eccentric, 
 most characteristic production that was ever engraved on 
 bronze ; interspersed with such remarks as ' this too is a dis- 
 puted point among the historians ;' or, ' if we follow our own 
 authorities;' or, 'if we follow the Etruscan writers,' &c., &c.; and 
 with little parentheses to show his command of Tuscan (nam 
 tusce Mastarna ei nomen erat) or his knowledge of the world. 
 Even here he begins to think he is getting a little lengthy, and 
 asks, ' Why now should I mention the discovery of the dictator- 
 ship, &c. ; why the transference of power from the consuls to 
 the decemvirs, &c. ; why the partition of the consular power 
 among several, and the so-called military tribunes with consular 
 power, six of whom, and often even eight, were appointed (this 
 last touch is delicious in its inconsequence) ; why the sharing of 
 ofiSce afterwards with the commons, and that not only of the 
 regular magistracies, but even of the priesthood?' Why indeed? 
 A few lines further on the bewildered reader, who imagined he was 
 going to study a speech on giving the jus honorum to the Gauls, 
 is relieved by lighting on the word civiiaiem ; but this time the 
 bronze plays us false, and the rest of this column of the inscrip- 
 tion has perished. Turn we now to the remains of the other 
 column that are left us. 
 
 It seems to begin by alleging the example of Augustus and 
 Tiberius in favour of his design. This is an interesting sen- 
 tence : ' It was the wish of my uncle Tiberius that all the flower 
 of the colonies and municipia everywhere, that is, of the men 
 of standing and means (bonorum scilicet virorum et locuple- 
 
THE ORATION OF CLAUDIUS. 131 
 
 tium), should be in this curia.' He goes on : ' What then ? Is 
 not an Italian senator preferable to a provincial ? When I shall 
 commence to justify to you this part of my censorship, I will 
 show you by acts what I think about that matter '. But I do 
 not think that even provincials should be rejected, if only they 
 can adorn the curia. See for how long a time the most beau- 
 tiful and powerful colony of Vienna contributes senators to this 
 curia.' He mentions L. Vestinus, a native, and inveighs with- 
 out naming him against L. Valerius Asiaticus ", ' who,' he 
 says, ' was consul before his native colony had received the full 
 privileges of Roman citizenship'.' At this point the Senate 
 naturally get impatient and interrupt : ' It is time, Tiberius 
 Caesar Germanicus, that you should reveal to the conscript 
 fathers what your speech is aiming at, for you have already 
 reached the furthest boundaries of Narbonensis.' Whereupon 
 Claudius continues : ' All these noble young men * whom I see 
 before me are no more to be ashamed of as senators, than is that 
 noble Persicus, my friend, ashamed to read the name of AUo- 
 brogicus among the images of his ancestors. And if you grant 
 this, what further do you require than that I should prove to 
 you by pointing my finger that the country of itself beyond the 
 boundaries of Narbonensis is already sending you senators, 
 since we are not ashamed of having senators from Lugdunum ". 
 With trepidation indeed, patres conscript!, I have transgressed the 
 accustomed and familiar boundaries of the provinces ; but now 
 without disguise I must plead the cause of Gallia Comata. 
 And if any one objects that these same Gauls waged war for 
 ten years against Diviis Julius, let that man put over against 
 that fault the unchanging loyalty of 100 years and an obedience 
 
 ' The Latin is untranslateable : ' quid de ea re sentiam rebus ostendam.' 
 
 " For whom cf. Tac. Ann. xi. 1-4 ; Die, Ix. 29. 
 
 ' Meaning perhaps thejas honorum, or jus Italicum; Zell, p. 134. 
 
 * Jnsignes Juvenes could hardly mean senators. Perhaps it means equites 
 who had the right of attending the Senate ; in fact the equites iUustres ; cf. 
 Ann. xi. 4 ; Dio, Ix. 11 ; Zell, p. 186. 
 
 = Ex Lugduno. It is not possible to name any. Perhaps Claudius means 
 himself ai bom at Lyons. It would be just his way. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 more than tried in many of our dangers. It was they who, 
 when my father Drusus was subjugating Germany, kept a safe 
 and sure peace in his rear, and that, though he had been called 
 to war from the conduct of the census, an operation then new 
 and unfamiliar to the Gauls. And how difficult and perilous 
 to us is this business of the census, although all we require 
 is that pur public resources should be known, we have learnt by 
 an experience only too considerable.' 
 The I have already mentioned the new power and privileges be- 
 
 freedmen. stowed by Claudius on the procurators '- This was a very 
 questionable policy : still worse were the extravagant powers 
 bestowed on the imperial freedmen. At all times the freedmen 
 were ' a widely diffused body; from it the city tribes, the various 
 public functionaries, the establishments of the magistrates and 
 priests were for the most part supplied, as well as the cohorts 
 of the city guard ; very many too of the knights and several of 
 the senators derived their origin from no other source ".' But 
 it was Claudius who made them ministers of state and governors 
 of provinces ; and Nero imitated his example. As it was not 
 exceptional ability but merely a turn for subservience, a certain 
 talent for intrigue and an eye for the weak sides of human 
 nature which raised such men as Pallas or Narcissus or Polyclitus 
 to their position, they did not justify the lowness of their origin 
 by any excellence of their administration. They accumulated 
 fabulous wealth; Pallas could refuse a present of 15,000,000 
 sesterces without self-denial ; and it was not wealth obtained by 
 good means. Felix before whom St. Paul appeared was one 
 of these freedmen, and Tacitus describes him as ' indulging in 
 every kind of barbarity and lust,' and as 'exercising the power 
 of a king in the spirit of a slave '.' 
 Accessions No less than five provinces were added to the Empire in this 
 °nder"'°'^^ ^eign. Claudius was no soldier himself, but he chose his 
 Claudius, generals well. Besides the two new provinces in Africa', 
 
 ' Suet. Claud. 12, 24; supra, p. no. = Ann. xiii. 27. = Hist. iv. 9. 
 * Mauretania Zingitana, Mauretania Caesariensis. 
 
ROMAN BRITAIN. 133 
 
 Thrace ', which had long been held in semi-subjection, was put 
 under a procurator ; Lycia, in which there had been some dis- 
 orders, was added to Pamphylia^; and Southern Britain was 
 conquered and made into an imperial province under a legate ^. 
 
 ' There is a good summary of the relations of Rome and Thrace in Church 
 and Brodribb, p. 411. 
 
 " Dio, Ix. 17: Tois Sc Au/cfoi/s ffTaataffavTas ware Kot 'Fa/iaiovs nv&s 
 dnoKTeivai idov\iiaaTo, icat is rhv t^s Uan<pv\ias vofi&v iaiypaifitv, 
 
 ' I subjoin a summary of the epigraphic evidence as to Britain, — made 
 out from C. I. L. vii, with the help of Hiibner's introductions and notes. 
 
 Inscriptions of early date in Britain are very rare. Those of the first 
 century a.d. as rare as those of the Republic in an ordinary province. There 
 is one of Nero's reign ; and there are leaden bullets with the names Claudius, 
 Britannicus, Nero, Vespasian, Domitian. A few milestones of Hadrian and 
 Antoninus Pius. A few military inscriptions also probably belong to the 
 first century. Very few others of any sort. The local distribution of the 
 inscriptions proves that the South was thoroughly conquered and occupied 
 even in the first two centuries — excepting Devonshire and Cornwall, whence 
 we get hardly any inscriptions, though that country had been visited by 
 Gauls for lead and tin. The original capital probably Camulodunum — 
 Colonia Claudiana. But even from the first London was probably a sort 
 of second capital. Also the inscriptions of the South are older than those 
 of the North and East ; so we gather how slowly and painfully the island 
 was conquered. By the time of Trajan Eburacum seems to have been the 
 capital and seat of government. The inscriptions in York neighbourhood 
 are of the middle or end of the second century. Hadrian's wall not far 
 north of York ; that of Antoninus Pius was where Agricola had reached, 
 i.e. between Clyde and Forth. This was the limit of Rome, Ireland was 
 not touched. The Silures were never really conquered ; no inscriptions 
 from Wales. But on their borders were the garrisons of Isca (Caerleon), 
 Deva (on the Dee'), Segontium (just south of Bangor). And these cities 
 supply only inscriptions of the end of the second and beginning of the third 
 century, which looks as if the Roman hold in these parts was considerably 
 strengthened about that time. That Septimius Severus and his son Anto- 
 ninus fought both in this district and in the North is shown by inscriptions. 
 Hardly anything of Diocletian : nothing of Carausius and AUectus, though 
 they were British emperors in a sense, and though we have plenty of their 
 coins. No Christian inscriptions of the fourth or fifth century. From 
 fifth to eighth century Christian inscriptions are found in Cambria, also in 
 the country of the Dumnones. 
 
 Britain was an imperial province, under a consular ; Tac. Agr. 14 ; Ann. i. 
 60. Hiibner has made out a list of them— mainly from Tacitus— in Neu 
 Rhein. Mus. vol. xii. 1S57, p. 46. No consular or praeses of the Con- 
 
134 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Claudius Another noteworthy feature of this reign is the determined 
 
 Druids. position of hostility taken by Claudius against the Druids. As 
 their religion had a political significance ' the Romans never 
 regarded them with the same tolerant indifference as they did 
 other creeds. Augustus had incorporated Hesus and their 
 other deities in the Roman Pantheon, but the Druids would not 
 come forward and accept the priesthoods under Roman direc- 
 tion and control. Claudius persecuted them^ in Gaul, and 
 perhaps his expedition to Britain was caused by the desire to 
 uproot the last stronghold of their preponderant influence ^- 
 In another part of the Empire, a famine in Greece serves to 
 point out that country as still the least prosperous part of the 
 Roman dominions '. On the Rhine the establishment of the 
 Colonia Agrippina marks the birth of the city which is still 
 famous as Cologne *. 
 ■Jero. Nero, who was only a boy when he became emperor, started 
 
 stantine period can be named. Besides the governor and legates of legions 
 we also find a procurator provinciae. Hadrian created juridici, here as else- 
 where, of whom four are known from inscriptions in other provinces. 
 Britain was divided into two provinces, Superior and Inferior, by Sept. 
 Severus, according to Herodianus, iii. 8. 2. Perhaps confirmed by Dio, cap. 
 Iv. 23, and by two inscriptions found in Britain, and one at Lambesis in 
 Africa. One cannot tell where the boundaries were ; but Superior probably 
 was the southern province, though an inscription found north of York with 
 Superioris on it is against this view. 
 
 Speaking generally,— hardly any inscriptions of municipal life ; hardly 
 any colonies, and those military. Of the towns which were either casieUa 
 or mansiones we do not know the status. London was a municipium. 
 Camulodunum was a colony ; Tac. Ann. xii. 32. So was Lindum (Lincoin) 
 and Eburacum (Inscrip. 248). Plenty can be gathered about the legions 
 on the other hand : four was the regular number ; after Hadrian, Aiee. 
 There were also auxiliary troops, also a fleet ; Tac. Agr. 25 ; Hist. iv. 79 ; 
 Inscrip. No. 18. 374. 
 
 There was a native coinage in Britain long before the Romans, — imi- 
 . tations of the Macedonian stater. Probably the earliest in Britain are from 
 200 to 150 B.C. (Evans, p. 26). Church and Brodribb are wrong on this 
 point (Annals, p. 405). 
 
 ' Suet. Claud. 25. a Duruy, ui. 526. 
 
 ^ Duruy, iii. 537, note 2, and his authorities. 
 
 * Ann. xii. 32. 
 
NERO. 135 
 
 with excellent professions. He ' was for relieving the allies ; ' 
 he started a wild scheme of abolishing all indirect taxes, and 
 along with them the publicani ^ ; and Josephus testifies to the 
 justice of his decisions^. He issued an edict to prohibit any 
 provincial governor from exhibiting shows of gladiators or other 
 such entertainments, as it was found by experience that this was 
 only a form of bribery '. But the intoxication of power was too 
 much for that vain head and cruel heart ; and the rest of his 
 rule was not consonant to the fair promise of its beginning. 
 After the great fire of Rome he sent some of his freedmen on 
 an excursion to get what they could out of the provinces. 
 Acratus in particular distinguished himself by the forcible 
 robbery of statues and pictures; and when Barsa Soranus, 
 who governed Asia like a Scaurus, did not punish the people 
 of Pergamos for their violent resistance to the freedman's im- 
 pudent depredations, he incurred the bitter enmity of his 
 master'. Nero openly told his governors that he expected 
 them to plunder*; and the revolt of Britain was due in part 
 to the burden of the taxes, and partly to the ' boundless usury ' 
 of the money-lenders'. The circumstances of this revolt, in 
 particular the treatment of Boadicea and her daughters, show 
 what the rule of the provinces could still be under a bad 
 emperor. 
 
 But if a newly-conquered province could still be thus treated. General 
 it is impossible to mistake the general growth in prosperity and of °he^pro- 
 influence of the provinces as a whole. It would be easy to^'°'=«^- 
 ascribe too much importance to the gift of freedom which the 
 well-flattered emperor made to the province of Achaia '. The 
 immunity from taxation which generally went with this gift of 
 freedom was a positive boon enough, but it was revoked by 
 Vespasian ; and if Pliny tells a friend of his who was appointed 
 
 1 Ann. xiii. ^ Josephus, Antiq. xx. 8. § 11. 
 
 s Tac, Ann. xiii. 31. ' Ibid. xvi. 23. = Suet. Ner. 32. 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xiv. 32, xiii. 42. 
 
 ' Suet. Nero, 24. See Finlay, i. 46, 48, 63 ; Freeman's Essays, 2nd Ser. 
 p. 322. 
 
136 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 to the province that he was 'sent to a society of men who 
 breathe the spirit of true manhood and liberty V it is to be 
 feared that he is only indulging his natural love of phrases. The 
 gift of the Latin rights to the people of the Maritime Alps ' was 
 one much better worth having. These rights implied all the 
 privileges of the Roman franchise except the jus suffragii ; and , 
 moreover opened a regular access to the full franchise, as all 
 magistrates of Latin towns became ipso facto Roman citizens ''. 
 ' It likewise enjoys the rights of the Latin towns, so that in 
 Nemausus you meet with Roman citizens who have obtained 
 the honours of the aedile and quaestorship,' says Strabo of the 
 present town of Nismes *. The extension of these rights to the 
 provincials began when Pompey's father, Pompeius Strabo, 
 gave them to the Transpadanes '. Caesar had a plan of 
 extending them to the whole of Sicily, and Augustus was 
 apparently more liberal with this minor privilege than with the 
 full franchise. It is easily intelligible that when a town had 
 once gained as much as this, it had good hopes of gaining 
 the full privilege ^- Such concessions as these show in which 
 direction the stream was going ; and there are other indications 
 of the rapid gain of the provincial upon the merely Roman 
 element. Many of the provincial governors were themselves 
 provincials; and all the governors seem to have been really 
 controlled by the wishes of the people they had to rule. 
 No wonder men of the old school, like Paetus Thrasea, com- 
 plained of ' the new insolence of provincials,' and that votes of 
 
 ^ Plin. Ep. viii. 24. '^ Ann. xv. 32. 
 
 ' Cic. ad Att. v. 11 ; Merivale, ii. 100. It is a curious fact that a Latin 
 who built a ship for the com traffic got the franchise ; Suet. Claud. 19. 
 
 ' Strabo, iv. i. § 12. See also § 21 of the Lex Salpensana. 
 
 ' Merivale, ii. 99. 
 
 ' I have not mentioned two distinctions which are yet of importance — 
 (i) between Latin Coloniarii and Latin Juniani, the latter being a particular 
 class of freedmen who were given Latin rights by a Lex Junia Narbona 
 (a.d. 19) ; and (2) Latium Majus and Minus, the former being when a 
 magistrate gut Roman franchise only for himself, the latter when he got it 
 for his 'parents, wife, children, and grandchildren on the male side;' § 21 
 of Lex Salpens. See Marq.'i. 57 and 6i. 
 
PROSPERITY OF THE PROVINCES. 137 
 
 thanks to ex-governors were forbidden by senatorial decree, 
 when a rich provincial could boast his power to decide whether 
 or no a governor should receive such a vote, and when the 
 governors were seen going about at the latter part of their ■ 
 time ' seeking votes like candidates '.' That the inflexible and 
 tyrannous Roman governor should be turned into a complaisant 
 popularity hunter was a change indeed. The wealth of the pro- 
 vinces is sufficiently shown by such facts as that, when Laodicea 
 was overthrown by an earthquake, the inhabitants without any 
 relief from Rome rebuilt the town by their own resources^; 
 and that on the occasion of the great fire, Lyons alone offered 
 a subscription of four million sesterces. Southern Gaul was in 
 fact more prosperous in this than in any period of its history. 
 There was an immense marine trade, an active internal naviga- 
 tion, and the towns reached a great size and were inhabited by 
 a dense population '. 
 
 Nero was not one of those who extended the boundaries of Accessions 
 the Empire. The Alpes Cottiae which had been under ■ the under Nero, 
 nominal rule of a client prince were made into a province, and 
 put under a procurator *. This may have still further strength- 
 ened and secured the communication between Italy and Gaul, 
 but could otherwise have been of little consequence. More 
 interesting is the addition of the Greek city of Tyras to the 
 province of Moesia, an event which occurred in this reign". 
 In this part of the world the policy of Rome was one of 
 beneficent encroachment. The few Greek towns which showed 
 like bright centres of civilisation amidst the clouds of barbarism 
 could hardly keep their own unaided, and the services rendered 
 by Rome were of the most real and precious kind. 
 
 ' Ann. XV. lo, 21; of. Plin. Pan. 70, which shows that such votes were 
 used for elections at Rome. Pliny, Ep. vi. 13, illustrates the freedom of the 
 Bithynians in the Senate. Cf. Suet. Vesp. 4. ^ Tac. Ann. xiv. 27. 
 
 ' See some interesting remarks in Lentheric, pp. 232, 401, 433, 441. 
 
 « Suet. Nero, 18. 
 
 " Henzen, 6429; Marquardt, i. 150. For an interesting letter of Severus 
 and Caracalla to the people of Tyras in answer to a claim of immunity they 
 had set up, see Bruns, p. 1 76. 
 
138 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 The three The fearful year of civil war which followed the death of Nero 
 could not of necessity be of much consequence for the provincial 
 administration. It is noticeable, however, that Italy suffered very 
 much more than the provinces ' : the sack of Cremona'' recalls 
 the worst horrors of Corinth or Magdeburg. The time was gone 
 by when it was Asia or Greece that was the battle-field and the prey 
 of the conqueror, and the turn of Italy was now come. It is im- 
 possible to say which of the three pretenders would have made the 
 best emperor. All three had distinguished themselves as provin- 
 cial governors "- Galba was too old and too narrow in his views 
 (he was very chary of giving the franchise *) to become a great 
 emperor; but he was certainly an honest man. VitelHus was 
 profusely extravagant in bestowing such privileges as remissions 
 of tribute, immunity, the Latin rights, and the privileges of 
 treaties °; but there seems to have been no settled plan in 
 this, any more than in other parts of his conduct after his head 
 had been turned by the prospect of Empire. Perhaps Otho, 
 notwithstanding his profligate youth, showed the most promise 
 of the three. His bestowal of the franchise on the Lingones 
 
 Vespasian, looks as if he would have been a liberal emperor. When Ves- 
 pasian became emperor he succeeded to all the diflSculties be- 
 queathed by the civil wan He himself declared that there was 
 need of 4000 million sesterces to let the State exist ; and if he 
 found any such deiicit as that, it is hardly wonderful thatjie— 
 was a hard master in regardto the taxation, .The triblite_,of all 
 „ .the provinces was increased, of some doubled; aiid_he is, even 
 accused of deliberately appointing rapacious procuratgrg^n 
 oi;der to squeeze them afterwards ^ The same absolute 
 necessity of getting money was the motive for an act which 
 must have been in the highest _de|;rge. invidious „and.- ujj- 
 
 • Tac. Hist. ii. 56, 87 ; iii. 49. ■>■ Hist. iii. 33. 
 
 " Galba in Africa and Tarraconensis ; Suet. Galba, 7, 9; Hist. i. 50. 
 Otho in Lusitania; Suet. Otho, 3 ; Hist. i. 13. Vitellius in Africa; Suet. 
 Vit. 5. 
 
 • Suet. Galba, 14. = Hist. iii. 55. 
 « Suet. Vesp. 16 for all the statements in the text. 
 
VESPASIAN AND DOMITIAN. 139 
 
 gracio^ . He deprived of their freedom Achaia, Lycia, 
 Rhodes, Byzantium, and Samos ^ : that is, he obliged them 
 to pay taxes as before. His general adniinistration, however, 
 was mu cji better than _sorneof_ his previous acts would have 
 led men to expect ^ He was an enormous worker", and 
 animated with the best intentions. There can be no doubt 
 that he did much to secure a stable administration, which 
 Domitian did not overturn, and which was strengthened 
 and consolidated by the Antonines, An interesting feature of 
 his rule was his bestowal of the Latin rights upon the whole of 
 Spain ' ; while the most important event connected with it was 
 the siege and capture of Jerusalem. 
 
 Titus did not live long enough to fulfil the promise of his Domitian. 
 first years of empire ; and though we are tolerably acquainted 
 with the life of l^omitian, our knowledge refers rather to his 
 cruelties in Rome than to his administration of the provinces. 
 We know however that, at all events in the first part of his 
 reign, he was very severe to his governors, and that they never 
 ruled better than when under him'-' His caiSpaigns on the 
 Danube were without permanent result, but are interesting as 
 anticipating the advent of a more vigorous conqueror. ' There 
 may be great men even under bad emperors ^ ;' and Agricola 
 in Britain carried the Roman arms north of the Cheviots, and 
 secured the whole country by a mixture of clemency and force. 
 The policy which his father Vespasian had commenced in 
 Spain was carried out in detail under Domitian's rule. It is to 
 this date that the existing laws of the municipia of Salpensa 
 and Malaga and of the colony of Ursao belong ; and it is very 
 probable that all the cities of Spain after they had received the 
 
 ' Suet. Vesp. 8. 
 
 ' Cf. Hist. ii. 84. As to his governorship of Africa, Suet. Vesp.. 4, and 
 Tacitus, Hist. ii. 97, are in absolute contradiction. 
 
 » Suet. Vesp. 21 ; Plin. Ep. iii. 5. < Plin. N. H. iii. 4, fin. 
 
 ° Suet. Dom. 8 : ■ Provinciarum praesidibus coercendis tantum curae 
 adhibuit ut neque modestiores umquam neque justiores extiterint.' 
 
 ' Tac. Agr. 42. 
 
140 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Latin rights from Vespasian had been ordered to make pubHc 
 their municipal law '- 
 
 The most important act of Nerva's brief reign was the choice 
 of his successor. Trajan was a good administrator as we ll as 
 a! consummate soldier, and rio~choice could have been more 
 fortunate. With-him-begins' the long line "of warrior emperors, 
 who spent most of their time upon the frontiers. He added 
 four new provinces to the Empire, and in one case at all events 
 his departure from the policy of Augustus proved a signal 
 success. Though perhaps a little too exclusive in his views as 
 to Italy and the provinces ^, he yet showed a genuine sohcitude 
 for all parts of his Empire. His campaigns had given him a 
 great experience of the most different provinces ^ ; and the 
 modest scale of his journeys was a great contrast to the 
 barbaric progresses of Domitian *- Thprg^typrp had governors 
 in^is reign— the African Classicus ° plundered Spain, and the 
 Spaniard Marius plundered Africa* — but_Mai;ius3Ya.S-iianislj«d, 
 and Classicus__either_died_J;oo^soon for punishment or a ntici- _ 
 pated his sentence by suicide. His correspondence with Phny 
 sRows at any rate that unwearied^nd constant ap5li£ati:Kl_to 
 details which marks a successful, administrator. Nor is the 
 charge of over-interference, often brought against him, well 
 founded. The circumstances under which Pliny was sent to 
 Bithynia as legate instead of the ordinary proconsul were wholly 
 
 ' That the law of Salpensa was published under his rule is plain from 
 5 24, 25, 26, and § 29 of Malacitana. And as the title of Germanicus is 
 not given, they must have been published between 81 and 84 ; cf. C. I. L. ii. 
 No. 194,";, where the magistrates of Aluro (Alora) thank Domitian for 
 having attained the franchise through their duumvirate. The law of Ursao 
 is of a much earlier date, but the character of the writing shows it to have 
 been formally published at this time. 
 
 '' Perhaps Dean Merivale, followed by Mr. Freeman, states this view too 
 strongly. The argument is the establishment of Alimenta in Italy, and will 
 haidly bear the weight put upon it. The whole of Pliny's letters leaves a 
 different impression. De la Berge is of a different opinion. 
 
 ^ Plin. Pan. 15. * Ibid. 20. = Plin. Ep. iii. 9. 
 
 * Plin. Ep. ii. II ; Juv. i. 45. , The Spaniards made a grim joke on the mal- 
 treatment of themselves and Africa by an African and a Spaniard respectively. 
 
GOOD ADMINISTRATION OF TRAJAN. 14 1 
 
 exceptional, and we have no right to argue from his conduct in 
 this case to his conduct in other provinces '. The cities of Bithy- 
 nia had got into financial difficulties, due partly to mismanage- 
 ment, partly perhaps to such dishonesty of their magistrates as 
 that which Cicero mentions in Cilicia under the Republic ^ ; and 
 Pliny was sent there for the express purpose of inquiring into 
 their municipal affairs, and, if possible, putting them upon a satis- 
 factory footing *. He Vas welcomed with gratitude ; and even 
 an allied town, though in right free from any interference of 
 the governor, was glad to subject its affairs to his examination. 
 It is very natural therefore that in these novel and untried 
 circumstances the governor should refer more largely than 
 usual to the supreme decision of the emperor ; and the sense 
 and tact with which Trajan answers Pliny's sometimes rather 
 unnecessary questions excites our admiration. It is noteworthy, 
 for instance, that he refuses to sanction any rough and ready 
 measure of general application to all the cities of the province, 
 but insists on a particular examination of each case by itself* 
 His jealousy of all associations, though it seems to us ex- 
 cessive ^ was probably dictated by a consideration of the 
 '^Y£li&'"^.j2f-tii^-'^''™s themselves as much as by the desire for~ 
 an__untrouble^.^;QJnigtration. His great strictness in giving 
 leave to private persons to travel by the public post* must 
 certainly have been welcome to the provincials. The great 
 work of Trajan's reign was the conquest of Dacia. ' The 
 Dacian descending from the banded Danube '' had long been 
 an object of some fear to the Romans. ' A people which can 
 never be trusted ' is Tacitus' description of them * ; and when they 
 had consolidated themselves into a nation under a powerful 
 
 ' This is well stated by De la Eerge, p. 120. 
 
 ^ A law of Trajan (Dig. xlviii. 13. 4. 57) made such thefts peculatus; 
 De la Berge, ib. = Plin. Ep. x. 41. * lb. Ep. x. 14. 
 
 ' Ib. Ep. X. 43, 94, 97. Caesar abolished all guilds. 
 
 " Ib. Ep. X. 14, 121. Trajan did much for the postal system; see Meri- 
 vale, viii. 53; De la Berge, 122 ; Hudemann, p. ig, foil. 
 
 ' ' Conjurato descendens Dacus ab Istro ; ' Virgil, Geo. ii. 497 ; cf. Horace, 
 iOd. iii. 6. 13. ' Hist. iii. 46. 
 
142 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 chief, they showed themselves really formidable. Domitian 
 won very little glory from his campaign against them, and is 
 said to have paid them a regular tribute^- Trajan's two cam- 
 paigns ended not so much in the conquest of the people as in 
 their annihilation; and their place was taken by immigrants 
 from all parts of the Empire^. The Romanisation of the 
 province was extraordinarily rapid and permanent. There 
 was only one town in the country when Trajan conquered 
 it, — the royal residence, Sarmizegathusa. He established four 
 colonies— Apulum, Napoca, Dierna, and another at the old 
 capital ; and Dacia is one of the provinces in which the growth 
 of the town system is most obvious and most interesting. 
 To this day the language of the Roumanians testifies to their 
 origin. The country still remains an integral part of the Latin 
 world, though isolated from the rest, and profoundly modified 
 by its after history. ' The two names which are still the most 
 popular in- all the valley of the Lower Danube are those of 
 ,,'^ Trajan the victorious organiser and Justinian the great con- 
 structor*.' Trajan's dispossession of the prince of Armenia 
 and substitution of a legate was not a measure of much con- 
 sequence. It was changed by Hadrian, who also gave up his 
 conquests beyond the Tigris, on the principle by which Cato 
 conceded freedom to Macedonia. His new province of Arabia 
 was a more important and more permanent acquisition; and 
 Roman civilisation seems to have made considerable strides in 
 this quarter. The two most important towns were Bostra and 
 Petra, of which the former appears to have received special 
 benefits from Trajan, and the latter from Hadrian *. 
 Hadrian. Hadrian.has_been_calledL^'Jbe.£lSt. egmeror who really cajed 
 for the provinces'.' Perhaps this is unjust to Trajan; but the 
 
 • Dio, Ixvii. 6 ; Merivale, viii. 26 ; De la Berge, 37. 
 
 '^ Eutrop. viii. 6 ; De la Berge, 59. For Galatians at Napoca, see Mar- 
 quardt, i. 15s. ° DesjardiHs, Les Antonins d'apres Vipigraphie, p. 654. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 275. 
 
 ' Freeman's Essays, Second Series, p. 53.^. I have said something about 
 this already, but must add a speech of Trajan to the man whom he in- 
 tended to make his successor : ' Commendo tibi provincias, si quid mihi 
 
HADRIAN AS A TRAVELLER. 143 
 
 praise which it implies is well deserved. Had rian had the most 
 intimate Jamiliarit^ with .all .his domiiiions. 'No emperor 
 traversed so many countries at such a rate^.' To read the 
 sketch of his life by Spartian is like watching a panorama which 
 carries you from one end of the world to the other. After he 
 had returned from the East to Rome on the death of Trajan, 
 his first journey was to Gaul and Germany ''j where he made 
 himself remarkable by the strictness of his discipline. Then he 
 crossed' to Britain and built the wall known by his name '- 
 Returning to Gaul he built a splendid basilica at Nemausus 
 (Nismes), crossed the Pyrenees, and remained the winter at 
 Tarraco*. His next journey was to the Archipelago,Asia, and 
 in particular Achaia, in which province he especially favoured 
 Athens — being himself so fond of Greek learning as to be nick- 
 named Graeculus ^ — and conferred many benefits upon it. The 
 next resting-place was Sicily; from whence he crossed to Africa, 
 and did much to improve the condition of the African provinces. 
 Thence he returned to Rome, but hardly halting there, made 
 his way again eastwards, passing through Athens, to dedicate 
 the temple he had commenced on his previous visit, and Asia *. 
 Passing through Syria, where the insolence of Antioch earned 
 the people his hearty aversion ', as it did afterwards 
 that of the gentle M. Aurelius'', and through Trajan's new 
 province of Arabia, he came to Egypt, thus completing the 
 circle of the Roman provinces. 
 
 The immense knowledge thus acquired was made available Hadrian's 
 for the purposes of an excellent -administration. Notwith- ^g™"'^*^*" 
 standing his liberaljenusslans__QfJaxation '^ he yet introduced 
 so egcelkiU-and-ecQiiQinkal a mana.gement of the exchequer^", 
 that the^reat expenses Qfjjis^ buildings in the provinces " do 
 
 fatale contigerit.' I seem to detect in these words a full consciousness of 
 his responsibilities and none of that merely Roman sentiment which has 
 been ascribed to him. 
 
 ■ Spartian, 13. " lb. 10. ' lb. 11. * lb. 12. ' lb. i. 
 
 « lb. 13. ' lb. 14. » Capitol. 25. » Spartian, 6, 7, 21. " lb. 20. 
 
 " ' In omnibus paene urbibus et aliquid aedificavit et ludos edidit ; * Spar- 
 
144 ROMAN PRGVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 not seem to have exceeded his means. Bad goyernors „Kere 
 severely punished^ and in particular the procurators^, who ssgm 
 ro^hayTdone their Ijest all through theEmgireto act the_ part 
 of the publicani they had supplanted,^ were kept in_ chgck_by 
 a strong hand.''. He imitated Trajan in keeping his frgedmeii 
 Jnjheir due;^subordinate gosition'_;_.disamragejlJinfaaEers, and 
 showed an almost excessive complaisance to the Roman Senate *. 
 He was liberal in his bestowal of the Latin rights ^ ; and one of 
 the best measures of his reign was to ameliorate the wretched 
 lot of the slaves". His establishment of the four consular 
 judges in Italy ' shows the commencement of the tendency to 
 treat Italy much like a province*; for the evidence goes to 
 prove that these magistrates were not merely judges, but dis- 
 charged general executive functions as well °- 
 Hadrian's As already mentioned Hadrian gave up Armenia and Meso- 
 poHcy" potamia, and thought, according to Dio, of giving up Dacia. 
 His was a peaceful reign, and the military measures which he 
 took were generally those of self-defence. Besides his wall 
 in Britain, he built a similar fortification to protect the Agri 
 Decumates on the North, and so shut them off from the 
 German tribes. This triangular piece of land needed special 
 defence, as it was the only place where it was possible for the 
 barbarians to press into the Empire without crossing either the 
 Rhine or Danube ; and the soldier-like Probus imitated Hadrian 
 in driving a wall from stream to stream. The country had its 
 name in all probabihty from the payment of a tithe by the 
 inhabitants to Rome, and Roman civilisation seems to have 
 held its own there for at least two centuries '". 
 
 tian, 19. A facetious Frenchman has said that Hadrian had ' la maladie de 
 la pierre.' Several towns were called after him simply Hadiianopolis, in 
 token of gratitude, as he did not like honorary inscriptions. 
 
 1 Spartian, 13. " lb. 3. » jb. 21. * lb. 8. "1^21. 
 
 " lb. 18. ' lb. 22 ; Capitol. Antonin. 2. 
 
 ' Already under Trajan Pliny, Ep. iii. 7, calls Campania a ' province.' 
 
 ' There is a list of these juridici drawn up by Mommsen in Lachmann's 
 Gromatici Veteres, ii. 192. 
 
 '" By 369 at all events the Rhine was again the boundary ; Marquardt, i. 1 25. 
 
ANTONINUS PIUS. 1 45 
 
 The successor whom Hadrian had chosen, M. Antoninus Adminis- 
 Pius, unitate(i and perhaps even exceeded his solicitude for the Antoninus. 
 prov inces^ He was however no traveller like him, and pre- 
 ferred to rule the Empire from what was still its centre — Rome. 
 ' With such diligence did he rule the subject peoples that he 
 cared for all men and all things as his own. All the provinces 
 flourished under him ^' Such is the express testimony of his 
 biographer, and this though the disasters of the time . were 
 numerous''. As a means to this end he kept good governors 
 long in their provinces, some for seven or even nine years ". 
 The procurators were kept in order, as they had been by 
 Hadrian *. The municipal towns were assisted with money to 
 commence new buildings or restore old ones ^ ; the decay of 
 the municipia, mainly owing to the bad state of their finances, 
 is a melancholy change of which the traces are beginning to 
 appear. In foreign policy an interesting feature is the support 
 given to the Greek cities of the Euxine against the barbarous 
 Scythians*. Olbiopolis was so effectually succoured that the tribe 
 which had attacked it were forced to give hostages for their 
 good behaviour. The revolt of Egypt '' at the commencement 
 of the reign was no doubt due to the unruly turbulence of the 
 Alexandrians, who were the first to urge their governor to rebel 
 against the ruling emperor ; and if they could not seduce him 
 from his loyalty, would still revolt on their own account *. The 
 fact that all Gaul had received the franchise by the end of this 
 reig^ shows how rapidly the Empire was tending to uniformity ', 
 and the decree of Tergeste throws an interesting light upon 
 the interior of a municipality during the period '". 
 
 ' Capitol. 7. 
 
 ^ Famine, earthquakes in Rhodes and Asia; fires in Rome, Narbo, 
 Antioch, and Carthage ; Capitol. 9. 
 
 » lb. 5. * lb. 6. = lb. 8. 
 
 « Capit. Anton. 9. ' lb. 5. » Cf. Preuss,.p. yi, 
 
 ' Mowat, Une inscription inedite de Tours, p. 28. 
 
 '° Tergeste (Trieste), a Roman colony in the tenth region of Italy ; cf. 
 Pliny, iii. 18. Velleius however, in his list of colonies in Italy (i. 15), does 
 not mention it; so not founded before 100 B.C. But Appian, Illyr. i8. 
 
146 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 M. Aure- With the accession of M. Aurelius we first find that par- 
 tition of powers between more than one emperor which was 
 
 mentions it as a Roman colony, and apparently it can be made out to have 
 been such from Caesar, Bell. Gall. viii. 24. So somewhere in the twenty 
 years between b.c. 55 and B.C. 35 Augustus strengthened Tergeste as an 
 important post for his campaigns in this region ; Gruter, p. clxvi. No. 6. 
 Augustus also attributed the Catali to it— meaning that they got justice 
 from Tergestine magistrates, and paid a regular vectigal. See Suet. Aug. 
 46 : ' Italiam xxviii coloniarum numero deductarum ab se frequentavit 
 operibusque ac vectigalibus pluiifariam instruxit ; ' Zumpt, pp. 13-15. 
 
 The decree has been separately edited by Zumpt. My translation is in 
 the main from his text, correcting him here and there by reference to 
 Henzen, 7^68, who has utilised the work done by scholars, especially 
 Mommsen, on the inscription since Zumpt's time, and omitting merely peri- 
 phrastic and complimentary expressions. 
 
 ' Hispanius Lentulus and Vibius Nepos, Duoviri juri dicundo, spoke to the 
 following effect : 
 
 'That Fabius Severus, vir clarissimus, had previously conferred great 
 benefits upon our Republic, for he had pleaded and won many causes of the 
 highest importance before the emperor Antoninus Pius, without any Charge 
 to our treasury, in such a way as to bind his country and all of us to him. 
 But at the present time he has done the Republic so great and permanent a 
 benefit as to throw all his previous good deeds into the shade ; and there- 
 fore, although our gratitude cannot equal his services, yet we must reward as 
 we can his benevolences, not in order to make him the readier to do us 
 future services, but that we may show ourselves duly grateful and worthy of 
 his protection. 
 
 ' Whereupon the follovring proposal was made at the motion of L. Cal- 
 pumius Certus : 
 
 ' Since Fabius Severus has always shown his devotion to his native place, 
 and aimed at senatorial rank, chiefly that he might do it services, by plead- 
 ing before judges assigned by Caesar, and before Caesar himself in public 
 suits, which, partly by the justice of the emperor, partly by his own talents, 
 he has always carried in our interests ; and since of late more especially, as 
 is shown by the celestial letter of Antoninus Aug. Pius, he has so happily 
 represented our wishes before him by obtaining from him that the Cami 
 and Catali, attributed by Divine Augustus to our Republic, should, in pro- 
 portion as they deserved it by their lives and incomes, be admitted into 
 our curia through the aedileship ', and thereby attain Roman citizenship ; 
 and since he has thus enriched our treasury, and filled up our curia, and 
 
 I The aedileship was the most expensive office in a municipium, with least real power. 
 See Zumpt's note on the passage. 
 
M. AURELIUS AND THE BARBARIANS. 147 
 
 to be made the basis of the imperial system by Diocletian^. 
 Lucius Verus, however, does not seem to have contributed any- 
 thing to the dignity and welfare of the Empire, and his sudden 
 death relieved M. Aurelius from a compromising associate. 
 M. Aurelius was a good ruler ofJhej)rovinces^, liberal to the 
 municipia, aod. ready to give exemptions from, taxation in case 
 of need'. If his lot had been cast in times of peace he would 
 probably have thrown his energies into the details of the 
 administration, and done something more to merit his popu- 
 larity with the provincials*. But the hard necessities of his 
 time kept the man who, above all men, would have loved a 
 life of peace and quiet study, engaged in arduous and unceasing 
 warfare against ever-gathering masses of the barbarians. A 
 great internal movement seems to have begun among the 
 trans-Rhenane and trans-Danubian peoples in this period. 
 The northern races were pressed down southwards by stiU 
 
 amplified our whole Republic with excellent citizens ^ by admitting to a share 
 in office and in Roman citizenship the best and richest individuals, so that 
 those who previously only paid a tribute ' now pay twice as much, owing 
 to the honorarium, and at the same time share with us the munera of the 
 decurionate, which are burdensome to a few : 
 
 ' To show our gratitude for all this we erect to him an equestrian gilded 
 statue in the most crowded part of the forum, with a suitable inscription, 
 and we call upon Fabius Verus, the father of Severus, to thank the latter in 
 our name. Passed '.' 
 
 ■ Capit. 7. All inscriptions consequently in which Augg. instead of Aug. 
 occurs are at all events not earlier than a.d. 161. 
 
 ' Capit. 17. ' lb. 23. 
 
 * lb. 26 : ' Orientalibus provinciis carissimus fuit.' 
 
 ' So Zumpt. The stone appears to read cum egminiis. Mommsen conjectures 
 /ontentis (?), which Henzen accepts. 
 
 3 Perhaps this is too strong a word. The Latin is — In redditu pecuniario erani. 
 
 ^ It may be asked why the inscription does not simply say that the CataH by favour of 
 the emperor received the Jus Latii ? Because the Jus Latii included not only the attain- 
 ment of Roman franchise through a magistracy, but also the commercium with Roman 
 citizens. See Ulpian, lib. xix. 4. So when it was conceded to: the Catali that they 
 should become Roman citizens by holding a magistracy at Tergeste, nothing whatever 
 was given to the rest of the tribe, who held no magistracy. So their status was inferior 
 to that of the twenty-four towns attributed to Nemausus (see Pliny, iii. 4 ; for they had 
 all Latin rights, according to Strabo, iv. i. 12, p. 187). See Zumpt's note, p. 15. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 fiercer nations in their rear, and being thus compelled to 
 become invaders they attacked all who refused to give them a 
 refuge '. M. Aurelius appears to have led the Roman armies 
 with constancy and ability, and was greatly beloved by his 
 men ^. According to his historian, his conquests were con- 
 siderable enough to allow him to think of making a new pro- 
 vince or provinces out of his principal enemies, the Marco- 
 manni, Hermunduri, Quadi, and Sarmatae ; and he would 
 have carried out his idea had it not been for his too early 
 death* However this may be, he certainly inflicted some 
 severe defeats upon the barbarians, and was able to transplant 
 a number of them to Roman territory, thus employing the 
 system of Colonic which is so important a feature of the i^mpire 
 under Diocletian *. But the beginning of the end had come. 
 It was not only on the Rhine and Danube that the Roman 
 Peace was rudely interrupted. The Moors devastated all parts 
 of Spain, and though Aurelius' legates fought against them with 
 success, yet the depopulation of the country had to be met by 
 an infusion of Italian blood''- There were disturbances also 
 among the Sequani in Gaul ^ and in Egypt ''. Aurelius' neces- 
 sities were so pressing and the ravages of the plague had been 
 so fearful, that he was obliged to make soldiers of slaves and 
 of the brigands of Dalmatia, and to hire German mercenaries to 
 help him to destroy the Germans *. From this time forward 
 the Imperial rule becomes strictly military in character; em- 
 _;^^-~- perors are chosen exclusively for their qualities as soldiers; 
 and reforms are dictated solely by military necessities. 
 
 Summary These two first centuries of the Empire were for some 
 at tne ^ . . ^ ^ 
 
 period. countries the flower of their history. Asia Minor was rich and 
 
 » Capit. 14. » lb. 27. 3 lb. 24, 27. • lb. 24. 
 
 » Capit. 21 and II : 'exhaustis Hispaniis.' the cause is not mentioned, 
 but is probably the one stated in the text. Perhaps the plague too had 
 its share. Spain had apparently been prosperous under Trajan; De la 
 Berge, p. 125. For the invasion of the Moors, see Boissiire, VAfrique 
 Romaine, p. 289. 
 
 • Capit. 22. ' lb. 21. 8 lb. 21. 
 
POPULOUSNESS OF PARTS OF THE EMPIRE. 149 
 
 populous ', and studded with innumerable cities. The immense 
 sums which these cities voluntarily spent upon their aqueducts, 
 amphitheatres, and other public works, were perhaps excessive 
 and extravagant, but attest a grandeur of conception and a 
 superb indifference to economy which could only have sprung 
 from a great material prosperity. The same facts appear in 
 Syria. There were 200,000 Christians alone in Antioch in the 
 fourth century. Jerusalem had a population of 600,000. Egypt 
 was inhabited by seven and a-half millions of people, 300,000 
 of whom were settled in Alexandria ^ Strabo and Pliny give 
 similar testimony as to Spain and Gaul '; and Africa in particular 
 enjoyed a prosperity which has never fallen to its lot before or 
 since*- The Danubian provinces were equally well off, and 
 the towns both more numerous and more important than they 
 are at present, while those that are still the most considerable, 
 for instance Widdin, Sistova, Nicopolis, and, further south, 
 Adrianople, are all Roman foundations. 
 
 I have already spoken of the fundamental defects which made Funda- 
 it impossible for the rule of Rome to be permanent. And it feds of the 
 should also be mentioned that the taxation, though lightened ^°™^" 
 as far as possible under the rule of the many capable and well- 
 meaning rulers of this period, still pressed heavily upon the 
 people ^ The frequent remissions and exemptions granted in 
 
 ' Cf. what Pliny says of the province of Bithynia, which was certainly 
 not one of the most prosperous of the peninsula; Plin. Ep. x. 50. For 
 Nicomedia, see Preuss, 118. Pergamum had a population of 120,000. 
 Caesarea, in Cappadocia, of 400,000. The facts about the theatres, etc. 
 are interesting. The theatre at Syracuse seated over 30,000 ; the amphi- 
 theatre at Aries 25,000, and the theatre 16,000; ditto at Nismes; Stephan, 
 Das Verkehnleben in Alterthum, p. 24. For Ancyra, the. capital of 
 Galatia, see Perrot, De Galalia, p. 76 foil. For some interesting figures of 
 the population of Spain, see Pliny, N. H. iii. 4, sub fin. 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 1 1 7, and his authorities. For Alexandria in particular, Mar- 
 quardt, i. 297, 304, Strabo calls it to fUyiffTov hfjnrSpiov tijs olKov/j.4yitjs. 
 
 ' For Gaul, see esp. Plin. N. H. iii. 5, init. 
 
 * Marquardt, i. 403 ; Boissiere, L'Afrique Romaine, passim. 
 
 ° Cf. the case of the little island of Gyarus, whose scanty population of 
 fishermen had to pay more taxation than they could afford, Strabo, x. 5. § 3. 
 
150 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 special cases show this clearly enough, and the day was coming 
 when all such means of relief would be done away. Then 
 when the barbarians were thundering at the frontiers, and the 
 tax-gatherers demanding the means for an administration 
 which ruled but did not protect, the provinces were all the more 
 wretched by the contrast with the former brilliance of their 
 prosperity. Rome had undertaken an impossible task, that of 
 ruling an immense Empire without federation and without a 
 representative system, where the only sources of power were 
 the supreme central government and the army. It would be 
 puerile, however, to blame her for not having grasped and 
 applied ideas which were foreign to antiquity, and which have 
 only been worked out by the slow experience of centuries. 
 We should rather wonder at what was achieved by ' the weary 
 Titan,' as we see her 
 
 'Staggering on to her goal 
 Bearing on shoulders immense 
 Atlantean, the load 
 Well nigh not to be borne 
 Of the too vast orb of her fate.' 
 
 NOTE ON ROMAN SWITZERLAND i. 
 
 There is no such thing, strictly speaking, as a Roman 
 Switzerland. Different parts of it belonged to different border 
 countries. Geneva was in the district of Vienna, and so 
 belonged to Provence. West Switzerland, including Nyon, the 
 lake shore and Rhone valley, belonged to Lugdunensis. East 
 
 ' A great subject is often best seen by a close examination of some small 
 portion of it. It maybe of interest therefore if I subjoin what can be made 
 out of a little country which formed part of several different provinces, and 
 the account of which should throw light on several points of interest. I 
 refer to Svritzerland. My account is obtained from Orelli, Inscriptiones 
 Helvetiae; Mommsen, Schvteiz in Romischer Zeit ; Troyon, Monuments de 
 I'Antiquite dans VEurope barbare. The inscriptions have also been collected 
 by Mommsen. The collection of them now being published by Hagen, and 
 of which the first part, containing the inscriptions of Aventicum, has just 
 appeared, will supersede all others. 
 
R OMAN SWITZERLAND. 1 5 1 
 
 Switzerland was part of Rhaetia ; Tessin belonged to Italy. A 
 special administrative district was made out of the Rhone 
 valley and part of Savoy, under a governor called Procurator 
 Alpium Alractianarum et Poeninarum^. For some purposes 
 of administration the whole of Gaul, including West Switzerland, 
 formed a unit, e. g. there is a uniform mile-stone system over 
 the whole area, from which we may argue to a uniform road 
 and postal system and a central administration of them. Also 
 all Gaul had one system of tax and customs, and as part of 
 this there was an important custom-house at Zurich, another 
 at St. Maurice, and at Cohflans in the valley of the Isfere. 
 The Zurich statio was connected with the Julier Septimer and 
 Splugen routes from Milan; that of St. Maurice with the 
 Great, that of Conflans with the Little St. Bernard ''. So there 
 was a ring of posts at the edge of the Gallic frontier, directly 
 behind which edge is Western Switzerland. Also there were 
 probably Swiss representatives at the great religious festival of 
 Lyons. 
 
 By the later arrangements of Constantine, West Switzerland 
 comes under the minister of Gaul, Spain, and Britain ; while 
 East Switzerland went with Italy, lUyricum, and Africa. 
 
 The military importance of Switzerland rested on its being 
 part of the frontier. The chief military station was at 
 Vindonissa, a very strong position on the high point of land 
 between the Reuss and the Aar, commanding the roads from 
 Como by the Splugen, &c., and that from Avenches coming 
 over the Great St. Bernard. Augusta Rauracorum (Augst) and 
 Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg) enabled it to connect itself 
 easily with the Rhine and the Danube. The transit of the 
 Rhine at Zurzach was secured by a bridge, and thence the road 
 went to Coblenz. Vindonissa also communicated with the 
 head-quarters at Mayence, and this road crossed the Rhine at 
 Breisach, which was guarded by a detachment of the troops 
 quartered at Vindonissa '. Later on we find Vindonissa con- 
 nected with the Danube through Zurzach, Rottenburg on the 
 
 ' Mommsen, Schweiz, 6. ' lb. 8. ' lb. 10. 
 
152 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Neckar, and Ratisbon^. Switzerland flourished for about 
 250 years, but about 260 a.d. the Alemanni invaded it and 
 burnt Aventicum. A few years afterwards Augusta Rauraca was 
 birrnt. The frontier line now became the Rhine, which was 
 guarded more carefully than ever. There was a Roman fleet 
 on Lake Constance. But no coins of Augusta are found later 
 than the end of the fourth century, and in that time we must put 
 the victory of the barbarian deluge ^ The same thing applies 
 to coins found all over Switzerland, and the last inscription is of 
 the year 377". By 395 all connexion between Italy and Gaul 
 was at an end. In Switzerland the Valais remained Roman 
 longest, and was not overrun till Italy was*- Latin was the 
 ofiicial and common language. But West Switzerland was 
 much more Romanised than East. The Rhone valley was 
 Romanised fully and completely, owing to the great trade 
 route over the Great St. Bernard ; so was Geneva, as part of 
 Provence. There are very few inscriptions in East Switzerland, 
 and when we find names of Helvetii or Rauraci occurring, they 
 are very barbarous and un-Roman. The same thing occurs on 
 the North French coast, where inscriptions are very rare. The 
 present divisions of Switzerland explain themselves by these 
 facts. For the Burgundians in West Switzerland found an old 
 civilisation already, and got Romanised, while the Alemanni in 
 the East started on quite new ground ^- 
 
 Gaul fell naturally into pagi. There were eight of these in 
 Switzerland, of which the Nantuates were the most important. 
 
 The first considerable town was Nyon°, belonging to no 
 pagus, but wedged in between the Sequani, Helvetii, and Allo- 
 broges. Other towns are Baden near Zurich, Vindonissa,Turicum, 
 Salodunum, Lousanna '. But by constitution these were never 
 
 ' Mommsen, 11. " lb. 12. ' lb. 13. * lb. 13. ' lb. 17. 
 
 ' The Colonia Equestris of Noviodunum was a very considerable place, 
 much larger than the present Nyon. See Troyon, p. 481. 
 
 ' At Lausanne have been found a bronze Diana, bust of Cato, medals 
 of Victorina, Trajan, Zenobia ; Troyon, p. 485. The remains of Roman 
 columns were employed in building Lausanne Cathedral ; ib. 4S7. 
 
ROMAN SWITZERLAND. 153 
 
 regular municipia. No duoviri or quattuorviri occur in any of 
 them. Under the Empire however we get important towns, 
 e.g. Martigny, Sion, and St. Maurice, with Latin right. Augusta 
 Rauraca and Aventicum were Roman colonies, and the sur- 
 rounding pagi were subject to their jurisdiction '. Citizens of 
 Aventicum were scattered about the country, and their interests 
 were well looked after. As to the natives, they probably got 
 the civilas of the place in time, and therefore Roman civitas 
 also — as was the ordinary procedure with natives. Apparently 
 these citizens of Roman colonies were exempt from military 
 service. But troops were got out of the rest of the country ,^an 
 ala was raised in Valais, and the Helvetii must have contributed 
 at least two cohorts of infantry. 
 
 Commerce was very unimportant in early times. But the 
 foundation of Aosta and consequent extension of the Great St. 
 Bernard as a trade route changed this. From Martigny the road 
 went down the Rhone valley to Nyon, or diverged from Vevey to 
 Solothurn and Augst '^. After this we find articles of commerce 
 passing through Switzerland from Germany and Flanders, and 
 Switzerland exporting its own cheese, timber, &c., and importing 
 oil, wine, &c. 
 
 ' Mommsen, 19. 
 
 ' Between Vevey and Solothurn discoveries of Roman remains have been 
 pretty frequent, e. g. at Moudon ; Troyon, 492. An immense deal has been 
 discovered at Avenches — frescoes, ib. 495 ; aqueducts, temples, statues, ib. 
 497. It had a patron, ib. 498 ; an amphitheatre, ib. 502 ; fragments of 
 statues, Hercules and Faun, Apollo, ib. 503. Remains also at Yverdon, 
 ib. 505 ; Orbe, ib. 506. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Period of the Later Empire. 
 
 The period from the Antonines to the accession of Constan- 
 tine is the least known of any period in the history of the 
 Empire ; and is yet of vast importance for our subject. The 
 praises of a rhetorician^ and the invectives of a sworn op- 
 ponent ^ are the chief materials for the history of an emperor 
 whose reforms effected a revolution in the whole system of 
 administration. It is in a sense fortunate that the emperors 
 between M. Aurelius and Diocletian effected so little, even in 
 the best cases, but a successful resistance to the barbarians on 
 the frontiers. At all events it makes us the less regret that the 
 materials for their history are so scanty. It would be tedious 
 and superfluous to collect every scattered notice of each emperor 
 that flits across the theatre and is gone. I will only attempt to 
 give some account of the chief administrative changes, especially 
 those effected by Diocletian, and of the material condition of 
 the provinces. 
 Bestowal of I The^dict^Jby which Caracalla in the year a.d. 215 bestowe d 
 chlseon"allF'^?.^°™^'^ franchise upon -all pro vincials .must not be regarded 
 provincials, las a measure peculiarly honourable to its author. Dio * distinctly 
 (informs us that Caracalla's reasons were purely financiaL Under 
 ^l^E,£S55iSSJI§i£H!JliiJ?:5it^.'^as_ paid by the p rovincials a nd 
 the legacy-duty ...by the Roman citizens in Italy jyho_ were 
 exempt from the former impost. By giving the Roman franchise 
 ,|to all the provincmis, Caracalla made them gay the_ m'cesma 
 
 ' Eumenius. ' Lactantius. ^ Dio, Ixxvii. q. ' 
 
SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. 155 
 
 ker^^ilaffim ag wclLas aiuL Qset aR€l-ftbov€--the--tribute! --Thus 
 ^ the provincials had to bear a double burdeOK-atluleJtaly, though 
 it paid the legacy-duty, was still^left exempt frorn^^e heavier 
 tax . -Nrirj s it pasy _j;psa.jrjfha.t .definite privilpgps^ fiyfpt 
 perhaps in securing the right^f a ppea.l , th g^prn vin ri al a nh ta i p pH 
 
 by this concession. It is a melancholy feature in the history of 
 the Empire that the needed reforms come too late to be of use, 
 and that when they do take place, they iniplj^new burdens 
 rather Jhaii new privileges. 
 
 But the exceptional position of Italy was one that could not Italy itself 
 long continue. Now that I taly no lon ger gave her blood to province, 
 defend the provinces, her privileged position was a tnonstfdus 
 __aadr indefensible injustice. I have already remarked how the 
 "THeas of aji_absolute difference between Italy and the provinces 
 had_been fading in the course of the last centviry ' ; and it 
 needed scarcely two_generations after CaracaUa bfifoxe_alLdif=, 
 Jerence_between her and the provinces had ceased to^exist. The 
 country itself became a province, or rather a group of provinces, 
 and the land-tax was imposed on it as upon any other part of 
 the Empire. Henceforth we regularly find Italians designated 
 as provincials, and Etruria and Campania as provinces ^. 
 
 The successor of Caracalla marks the advent of a new race 
 to the direction of the Empire. There had been a succession 
 of Spanish emperors ; now it was the turn of another country, 
 and Septimius Severus was the first African emperor ; the next, 
 and in some ways greatest series of all, was that of the Illyrian 
 emperors. Severus was naturally a friend to his native country; 
 he gave three of its cities — Carthage, Utica, and Leptis — the 
 jus lialicum, or exemption from the land-tax"; and executed 
 many works of permanent utility *. He it was also who created 
 
 • So under M. Aurelius in a letter of Fronto, bk. ii. epist. 1 1, to a juridicus 
 of North Italy, we find him applying the term provincia to his friend's 
 authority. See this point discussed by Zumpt, Comm. Epig. ii. 48. The 
 juridici were practically much the same as provincial governors. 
 
 2 Cf. Orelli, 3648 ; Henzeu, p. 386. 
 
 ' Boissiere, L'Afrique Romaine, p. 292. ' lb. 
 
156 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 the province of Numidia, and established in it as a regular 
 governor the legate who had previously held that anomalous 
 and invidious position by the side of the proconsul, which we 
 have already endeavoured to describe ^ 
 Thesepara- The many short-lived emperors of this period spent their 
 and military reigns contending against the barbarians; and it is only seldom 
 functions, possible to ascribe to this or that emperor some definite ad- 
 ministrative change. It appears however that the separation of 
 civil and military functions, which is commonly ascribed to 
 Diocletian, must have been the work of some earlier emperor. 
 An inscription of the time of Carinus (a.d. 281 circa) proves 
 that the governor of Numidia at that time did not call himself 
 legate, but simply by the civil title of praeses, and was not of 
 higher than equestrian rank ^. Another inscription of the year 
 A.D. 261 testifies to the existence at that date of a legate of 
 Numidia. So in the twenty years between 261 and 281 a.d. 
 the change must have occurred. Now it would be absurd to 
 ascribe any such change to the indolent and incompetent 
 Gallienus, who let Gaul sever itself from the Empire because 
 he would not take the trouble to protect it ; and if we glance 
 through the list of the other transitory rulers of the period, 
 there is but one man who conceivably might have done it. 
 • That man is Aurelian, the same who established the new ofl&ce 
 of corrector in Italy; and it is very probable that we are to 
 ascribe to him these new praestdes, and also the creation of the 
 new oflSce of the dux limitis Africae, a military commander 
 who about this period appears in Africa by the side of the 
 praeses. Putting the facts together, it comes out plainly that 
 the governor no longer was allowed to hold civil and military 
 
 ' See p. 108. 
 
 ^ 'Viro perfectissimo, praesidi provinciae Numidiae.' Now perfectissimo 
 is H title which could never have been used loosely, and always implied 
 equestrian, just as clarhsimus implied senatorial rank. Praeses was the 
 generic title for any governor, and had been usurped by the procurators 
 who governed provinces, as the only title open to them. But no legate 
 would have called himself simply praeses from choice ; cf. Boissiere, p. 309. 
 
INROADS OF THE BARBARIANS. 157 
 
 powers in his single hand, but that with lesser dignity and 
 inferior rank he was assigned the jurisdiction and other civil 
 duties, while a new officer took the command of the troops. 
 We may connect with all this the changes effected by Gallienus, 
 who forbade any senator to leave Italy, and so precluded them 
 from all provincial command. The emperors were jealous of 
 their provincial governors, and were already casting about for 
 means to diminish their authority. Under the existing system 
 a successful provincial governor was sure some day or other 
 to rebel against his superior, and we cannot wonder if the 
 emperor regarded self-preservation as the first law of nature. 
 In any case, whether Aurelian commenced this work or not, it 
 was carried out and perfected by Diocletian. 
 
 During all this third century the barbarian invasions were ever The barba- 
 becoming more formidable. The Alemanni pressed into Italy 
 at its north-eastern corner, and reached Ravenna ; the Goths 
 spread over Greece and devastated the western coast of Asia 
 Minor ; while on the Rhine and Danube the Suevi, Alemanni, 
 Marcomanni, Carpi, and many other tribes maintained an un- 
 ceasing struggle with the defenders of the frontier ' In such 
 a state of things an emperor had to do two things ; to protect 
 the frontiers, and to secure himself against the pretenders whom 
 their military ability or their popularity with the soldiers were 
 ever bringing to the front. It is not surprising therefore that 
 already before Diocletian became emperor we see signs of 
 change and transition. ' One is compelled to recognise in the 
 whole of this third century an epoch of transition, and even of 
 anarchy, but also of gradual elaboration of the new administra- 
 tive system — a system which at first confused, and only with 
 difficulty disengaging itself from the traditions of the past, did 
 
 ' A.D. 240, the Franks in Gaul ; a.d. 256, the Alemanni before Ravenna ; 
 A.D. 258, Temple of Diana at Ephesus burnt by the Goths, who had pre- 
 viously burnt Trapezus and Nicomedia, and plundered Greece; a.d. 270, 
 rise of the Persian monarchy under Shapur, defeat of the Roman army, and 
 capture of the Emperor Valerian. 
 
158 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION 
 
 not reach its official development and definite consecration till 
 the long reigns of Diocletian and Constantine ^.' 
 The period With the deposition of Gallienus and the election of Claudius, 
 dk^toMo-A.D. 268, comes the beginning of a better time. Claudius won 
 cietian. f^e name of Gothicus by defeating the Goths in a tremendous 
 battle at Naissus ; and his successor was a man of still greater 
 vigour and capacity. His murder after five years' successful 
 rule was not only a misfortune, but it showed very clearly that 
 at all costs the tyranny of the soldiers must be done away. 
 There was no hope for the Empire if after a capable man had 
 been raised to the throne, and was giving promise of a great 
 reign, it should then be in the power of a brutal and capricious 
 soldiery to rid themselves of him with impunity. Any system 
 which taught the soldiers to know their place would be a benefit 
 to the Empire. That this was more or less clearly felt by the 
 good and capable men of rank in the army itself is shown by 
 the meeting of the generals at Milan, and their decision to leave 
 the choice of an emperor to the Senate. This looks very much 
 as if, weary of a mere military despotism, they wished to found 
 something in the nature of a constitutional monarchy. But the 
 solution of the problem did not lie here ; and the gentle old 
 man whom after eight mpnths' delay the Senate at length 
 appointed, was murdered by his troops before the year was 
 over. This time the choice again reverted to the army, and 
 Probus was elected (a.d. 276). During the years 275 and 276, 
 encouraged probably by the brief interregnum during which 
 there was no emperor, the Franks had made a fearful inroad 
 into Gaul and burnt seventy towns ''. Probus at once marched 
 against them, inflicted a terrible defeat, and followed the fugitives 
 across the Rhine. He resumed the Agri Decumates which had 
 been given up by Caracalla, and built a still more powerfiil 
 wall than that of Hadrian, to protect the country. On his 
 murder in 282 he was succeeded by the lUyrian Cams. Carus 
 sought to establish the hereditary principle, and when he died 
 
 ' Desjardins, quoted by Boissiere, p. 312. 2 Preuss, p. 3. 
 
DIOCLETIAN. 159 
 
 fighting against the Persians, his two sons, Numerianus and 
 Carinus, shared the throne between them. Numerianus was 
 a respectable man of letters, but no soldier. He was probably 
 murdered by his uncle Arrius Aper, and on his death the 
 officers chose Diodes, an Illyrian who had fought his way from 
 the lowest to the highest station, to succeed him as emperor, 
 A.D. 284. They probably little knew how momentous a step 
 they were taking, for this Illyrian was the great emperor after- 
 wards known as Diocletian. 
 
 Diocletian spent the first years of his reign partly in a cam- First years 
 paign against Carinus, whose murder by one of his own tribunes of Diode?" 
 left him undisputed emperor; partly in driving back the"^- 
 Germans across the Danube from Pannonia. In the next year 
 he took the memorable step of dividing the Empire with 
 Maximian, assigning to him the Western, while he himself 
 retained the Eastern provinces. The reasons for this measure 
 were mainly, no doubt, military. Several distant parts of the 
 frontier had to be protected at once. Part he could guard 
 himself; but part could not but be committed to another 
 general. The powers that general must have were too great 
 for a subordinate; and it seemed therefore best and safest 
 to give him at once a share in the throne. There was a Partition of 
 close friendship between Diocletian and Maximian ; both were Maximian. 
 lUyrians, and had been brothers-in-arms for many years. The 
 measure was greatly facilitated by the sterling good sense of 
 the rough soldier, who never mistook the moral superiority 
 of the older emperor, and willingly carried out orders and 
 consented to measures which sometimes perhaps he did not 
 understand, or even actively disliked. 
 
 There was a great deal for Maximian at once to do. The State of 
 state of Gaul demanded all the energies that could be brought 
 to bear upon it. From Gallienus to Aurelian (a.d. 2 60-2 7 2) 
 Gaul was sundered from the Empire, and governed by em- 
 perors of its own (LoUianus, Victorinus, and others), who 
 resided at Treves, and protected the country against the bar- 
 barians. They seem to have discharged this paramount duty 
 
l6o ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 with some success', but there was a good deal of internal 
 disturbance under them, as was natural. Aurelian conquered 
 the last of these emperors, Tetricus, but scarcely was the land 
 quieted internally, than the Germans began invading it from 
 without. In the interregnum between Aurelian and Tacitus 
 these inroads were so bad that the whole country seemed lost; 
 and scarcely had Probus driven out the barbarians when two 
 generals — Proculus and Bonosus — raised the standard of revolt 
 at Cologne. They were soon put down, but the Germans 
 broke in again on Probus' death; the Agri Decumates were 
 again lost ; and at the same period unfortunate Gaul was visited 
 by the Bagaudae '•'. The insurrections of these Bagaudae are to 
 be compared to those of the Jacquerie in France in the 
 fourteenth century ; and an account of the causes which led to 
 them will throw a good deal of light on the condition of 
 the provinces. 
 The The state of the peasantry was miserable in the extreme in 
 
 peasantry. ^^ j^^^. ^.gjjjyjjgg q£ jjjg jTrnpire. In Italy an eighth part of the 
 
 rich Campania was untilled and desolate; and similar causes 
 produced in the provinces similar results. ' Latifundia per- 
 didere Italiam jam vero et provincias,' says Pliny already at 
 the end of the first century '. Roman citizens often held large 
 estates in the provinces, Agrippa for instance in Sicily *, Rubel- 
 lius Plautus in Asia ^ ; the emperors in particular had domain- 
 lands in almost every province ". Plantations in Sicily, mines 
 in Spain, cattle-pastures in Dalmatia, to give a few out of a 
 long list, were all owned by Roman citizens, and all worked by 
 
 ' Treb. PoUio, Trig. Tyr. 5, says of them : ' Quos omnes datos divinitus 
 credo, ne quum ilia pestis (Gallienus) inauditae luxuriae impediretur malis, 
 possidendi Romanum solum Germanis daretur facultas." 
 
 '^ Preuss, p. 24. 
 
 = Pliny, N. H. xviii. 7. § 3 ; Finlay, i. 54, 89. 
 
 * Horace, Epist. 1. 12. i : ' Fructibus Agrippae Siculis quos colligis, Icci.' 
 
 ' Ann. xiv. 22. 
 
 ' e.g. Nero in Spain; Plut. Galba, 5. The procuralores rei privatae, 
 though strictly speaking only the emperor's bailiffs and appointed to look 
 after these properties, were yet important officials. 
 
THE COLON!. i6l 
 
 multitudes of slaves' In Africa, according to Pliny, six 
 proprietors owned half the country. 
 
 With this increase of great estates and simultaneous increase Extinction 
 in the number of slaves (so many Goths were made slaves bypro^etors. 
 Claudius, to give one instance, that there was not a district 
 without them), the small proprietors could no longer maintain 
 the fruitless struggle, and, as a class, wholly disappeared. 
 Some, no doubt, became soldiers ; others crowded into the 
 already overflowing towns; while others voluntarily resigned 
 their freedom, attached themselves to the land of some rich 
 proprietor, and became his villeins, or coloni. But this was not Formation 
 the chief means by which this class was formed and increased. °f coloni^^ 
 When Savigny wrote his famous essay" on the Coloni in 1828, 
 he asked : How did this class of coloni arise ? a man might be 
 born a colonus, and indeed a common name for the class as a 
 whole was originarii; but how did the first and original coloni 
 come into existence? After pointing out the evidence which 
 proves that in some cases free men became coloni by their own 
 act, he goes on to state that a constitution of the Codex 
 Theodosius (a.d. 409), discovered shortly before he wrote, 
 throws a new light on the matter. This constitution gives 
 public notice that any landowner may apply to the praefectus 
 praetorio for labourers from the newly-conquered Scyrians ; 
 which labourers are to be used not as slaves, but as coloni. 
 ' Thus we have a very remarkable example, indeed the only 
 known example, clearly pointing out the manner in which 
 bodies of coloni on a large scale originated. The emperors 
 might have sold the barbarians who had fallen into their hands, 
 as slaves, but preferred (without doubt from politico-economical 
 grounds) giving them away as coloni. Now one might con- 
 jecture that the whole class sprang up originally after the same 
 manner, so that this single instance should be only a repetition 
 of similar previous ones'.' His final conclusion is that the 
 
 ' Stephan, "Das Verhhrsleben in AUerthum, p. 25. 
 ' Translated in the Philological Museum, ii. 117-145. 
 ' I quote from the translation in Phil. Mus. ii. 144. 
 M 
 
i62 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 class might no doubt have originated in this manner, but that 
 on the other hand it might not, and that it is better not to be 
 dogmatic on the point. But the careful examination which the 
 subject has received since Savigny's time has left no doubt that 
 the solution which his critical sagacity was the first to indicate 
 is the right one. These transplantations of population and this 
 peculiar tenure begin at an early date. Augustus settled the 
 Triumpilini, an Alpine tribe, in Italy', and after him it became 
 the regular practice, after having inflicted a defeat on a bar- 
 barian tribe, to transport them to some place far away from the 
 frontiers and settle them on the land with the status of coloni. 
 M. Aurelius made great use of this system. ' He settled an 
 infinite number of men from the different barbarian peoples, on 
 Roman soil,' says his biographer'''; and succeeding emperors 
 pursued the same poUcy. After a successful war these serfs 
 were given, as is indicated by the passage of the Codex Theo- 
 dosius, to landed proprietors without payment; and in this 
 way not only was the class of free peasants diminished or 
 altogether destroyed, but— a happier result — the slave system 
 was directly attacked. 
 Distinction The coloni themselves were not slaves. The codes directly 
 colonTand^ distinguish them from slaves, and in several imperial constitu- 
 slaves. ^JQjjg (jjgy ^jg called ingenuP. They could contract a legal 
 marriage, and could hold property. It is true that a colonus 
 had to pay his master (patronus) a certain sum of money for 
 permission to marry *, and that though he could hold he could 
 not alienate property °- But a slave could contract no marriage 
 at all in the eye of the law, and could not reclaim his property 
 if deprived of it. On the other hand, the coloni were like slaves 
 
 ' ' Venalis cum agris suis populus ' is the expression of Pliny, N. H. 
 iii. 20. 
 
 ^ Capit. 24; cf. Suet. Aug. 21, where we find Augustus settling Germans 
 in Gaul ; Suet. Tib. 9 ; Eutropius, vii. 9 ; Dio, cap. Ixxi. 11 ; Kuhn, i. 260; 
 Marquardt, ii. 234. 
 
 ^ Savigny, Phil. Mus. ii. 122. 
 
 ' lb. 1 30. The sum was not to exceed a solidus. 
 
 » lb. 132. 
 
MISERIES OF THE COLONI. 163 
 
 in that they were liable to personal punishment ^ What their 
 exact position was is shown by a passage in the Codex where 
 they are called servi terrae, ' slaves of the soil ^.' A colonus was 
 indissolubly attached to the land, and could not get quit of the 
 tie, even by enlisting as a soldier. The proprietor could sell 
 him with the estate, but had no power whatever of selling him 
 without it ; and if he sold the estate, he was compelled to sell 
 the coloni along with it. The coloni paid the proprietor a 
 yearly rent for their land, generally in kind. The rent was 
 settled by custom, and the proprietor had no power to raise it 
 above what had been usual '. 
 
 The position of these villeins was a very miserable one. Miseries of 
 Besides the rent payable to his patron for his bit of land, the 
 colonus had to pay not only the poll-tax, which was levied on 
 all who did not pay the land-tax, but also a tax on his corn, or 
 cheese, or cattle, or anything else which he might sell at the 
 market in the neighbouring town *. Then there were the extra- 
 ordinary exactions, which could not be foreseen or calculated 
 upon, and which caused endless misery. What was still worse, 
 they had no protection against the arbitrary cruelties of their 
 patron, who could scourge or imprison them, and at all times 
 make their lives hateful to them by dreadful, hideous over- 
 work. The patron was responsible for the poll-tax of his 
 coloni, and we may be very sure that he exacted the last 
 farthing out of them °. 
 
 So these coloni in Gaul, combined together, were joined by The Ba- 
 the free peasants still left, whose lot was not less wretched than ^^" ^' 
 their own, and, forming into numerous bands, spread themselves 
 over the country to pillage and destroy. They were called 
 
 ' Savigny, Phil. Mus. ii. 123. '' lb. 124. 
 
 ^ For all these statements see Saviguy's Essay. 
 
 * Preuss, 26. 
 
 ' lb. and p. 2 7 for the statements in the text. It should be mentioned 
 that our only full authorities for the coloni are of later date. But there is 
 every reason to believe that what was true of the fourth century was true 
 of the third ; and the Bagaudae prove it. 
 
 M 2 ; 6 *■ ' 
 
 A' 
 
l64 SOMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Bagaudae, from a Celtic word meaning a mob or riotous 
 assembly ^, and, under this name, recur often in the course of 
 the next century both in Gaul and Spain. Their power rapidly 
 increased; some towns were so wretched that they opened 
 their gates willingly to them; and in the year 285 they set 
 up two emperors of their own. Their head-quarters were in 
 Northern Gaul, and their chief stronghold was built on a tongue 
 of land at the juncture of the Marne and Seine ^. 
 The state When Maximian was made emperor the first task entrusted 
 to him was the reduction of these Bagaudae. This was quickly 
 and easily accomplished ; but the causes of the revolt were not 
 removed. A good deal, however, was done both now and 
 later by Constantius to remedy the depopulation of the country. 
 Maximian planted large bodies of conquered barbarians in the 
 parts of the country which had been desolated by the Bagaudae; 
 and when Constantius conquered the Franks who had settled 
 and absorbed the Batavi on the Rhone mouth, he planted such 
 numbers of them over Northern Gaul, particularly in the dis- 
 tricts of Amiens and Troyes, that all that part of the country 
 must have been thoroughly Germanised. Attempts were also 
 made, particularly by Constantius, to improve the material con- 
 dition of the country. A good deal in particular was done for 
 the gallant city of Augustodunum, which after having been 
 captured by the usurper Tetricus, and given up to massacre 
 and sack, had then suffered from the Bagaudae and the Franks'. 
 But the whole country had suffered from many years of neglect, 
 when men had neither the power nor the will to attend to 
 anything but the protection of their lives and property against 
 the barbarians. The water-courses were not looked after, and 
 whole districts had sunk back into moor and morass; while 
 others had become desert, and were inhabited only by wild 
 beasts *. 
 
 ' Preuss, 30. 2 n,, 31. 
 
 ' Preuss, 59-65, gives a very interesting account of the fortunes of 
 Augustodunum. 
 * Eumen. vii. 6 and 7 (Gratiarum actio) ; Preuss, 63. 
 
CARAUSIUS IN BRITAIN. 165 
 
 No sooner had Maximian crushed the Bagaudae, than he had 
 to repel the swarms of the Burgundians, Alemanni, Heruli, and 
 Chaviones, who had forced the frontier and poured into Gaul. 
 In the next t^^'0 years (287 and 288) he not only defeated them 
 in Gaul, but drove them across the Rhine and made an inroad 
 into Germany. Meanwhile the new confederacy of the Franks, 
 whose devastations in Gaul some years before have been already 
 mentioned, had formed a permanent settlement at the mouth of 
 the Rhine, there learnt sea-faring from the Saxon races with 
 which they had allied themselves, and became the pirates of the 
 Channel. Carausius, whom Maximian sent against them, turned 
 traitor, seized Britain on his own account, and took Franks and 
 Saxons into pay. The sea campaign which Maximian con- 
 ducted against him was a failure, and it was agreed that he 
 should be recognised in his kingdom of Britain. Here, four 
 years afterwards, he was murdered by his lieutenant AUectus, 
 who sought to take his place ; but Constantius won back the 
 province to the Empire by a single battle in which the murderer 
 fell. Perhaps Britain did not gain by the exchange ^. Carau- 
 sius had ruled it well, its commerce had flourished beyond all 
 former precedent, and for the first time in its history the island 
 had learnt to regard itself as mistress of the seas ^. 
 
 Meanwhile Diocletian was busy in the East. In the summer Diocletian 
 ofA.D. 286 he was at Tiberias in Palestine. The Persian king '" 
 Dahram II sent an embassy and asked for a treaty, being then 
 at war with a rebellious brother, and so not venturing in any 
 way to provoke Rome'- This state of things among the 
 Persians permitted the Romans to recover their client-kingdom 
 of Armenia. Tiridates, who had been brought up at Rome 
 and was nevertheless a gallant soldier, was restored to his 
 hereditary kingdom, and his subjects received him with en- 
 thusiasm *- After this fortunate settlement of the East Diocletian 
 
 ' The rhetorician Eumenius has no doubt as to the benefits of the change. 
 See Paneg. Const. 18 ; Schol. Rest. 18. 
 
 2 Preuss, 40 and 56-58. ' lb. 40. * lb. 42. 
 
l66 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Military Straightway returned to Europe, drove the barbarians out of 
 Diocktian. Pannonia and Rhaefia, secured the frontier of both provinces, 
 and then had an interview wifh Maximian. Probably at this 
 interview it was settled that they shoiild assume the surnames 
 respectively oi Jovius and HercuUus, designations which well 
 characterised their mutual relations, and which were at once 
 seized upon by the Rhetoricians'- A great deal had been 
 accomplished, but a great deal still remained to do. It was 
 fortunate that just at this period the task of Diocletian was 
 greatly facilitated by dissensions among the barbarians them- 
 selves. ' The Goths destroy the Burgundians. The Alemanni 
 take up arms for the conquered. The Thervingii, another 
 branch of the Goths, also rush to arms, with the help of the 
 Taifali, against the Vandals and the Gepidae ^.' Rome had no 
 wars with the Goths from this date till a.d. 323. This state of 
 things left Diocletian free to direct his energies eastwards. In 
 the year 290 we find him again in Syria. After defeating and 
 capturing many of the Saracens who were making inroads 
 on Roman territory, he straightway returned to Pannonia. 
 ' Scarcely had Syria beheld him, when now Pannonia welcomed 
 him^.' At the beginning of the following year he met Maximian 
 in a famous interview at Milaii. Rome was carefully avoided, 
 and the senatorial deputation sent to greet the arrival of the 
 emperors on Italian ground learnt nothing of the purport of 
 their interview. 
 Further It was probably at this meeting that the further partition of 
 
 power°"° P0''*'6r was arranged which was made public in 293. The 
 necessity of new wars for the security of the frontier, and the 
 impossibility of Diocletian's leaving the East to conduct them, 
 led to the nomination of the two new Caesars, Constantius and 
 Galerius. Galerius was a Dacian, born not far from Sophia, 
 and had been a cowherd, whence he was nicknamed Armenta- 
 rius. He was an ardent persecutor of the Christians, and a man 
 
 ^ PreusS, 44. " Mamert. Paneg. ii. 16, 17 ; Preuss, 46. 
 
 ' ' Ilium modo Syria viderat, jam Pamionia susceperat ; ' Mamert. Paneg. 
 ii. 4 ; Preuss, 46. 
 
PARTITION OF THE EMPIRE. 167 
 
 of rough and even brutal character. Constantius was a man The two 
 of good birth, and in every way a distinguished personage; ^^^''^' 
 modest however and kindly ; and Gaul was well off under his 
 rule. On March i, 293, both were solemnly proclaimed as 
 Caesar ^ ; Galerius at Nicomedia, Constantine at Milan. Gale- 
 rius married Diocletian's daughter Valeria ; Constantius, 
 Maximian's step-daughter Theodora. Young Constantine, 
 Constantius' son, was summoned to the East, and there learnt 
 the art of war under Diocletian and Galerius. 
 
 To Constantius was assigned the task of recovering Britain. Constantius 
 He accomplished this, as already mentioned, with celerity and Brftahi^ 
 success ; and on his return to Gaul did his best to restore its 
 former prosperity. It is a symptom of the advance of Britain 
 and decay of Gaul in this period that when he recrossed 
 the Channel he brought with him a number of British artisans 
 and architects to help him to rebuild the towns of Gaul. The 
 Franks were so badly beaten as not to reappear as invaders 
 till the reign of Constantine; and a murderous defeat was 
 inflicted on the Alemanni ^. 
 
 Maximian, besides the general control of the Western pro- Maximian 
 vinces, had Italy, Spain, and Africa committed to his special '° ' ^ *^^'' 
 charge. His fixed residence was Milan, but we find him at one 
 time at Aquileia, at another on the Rhine, at another in Africa *. 
 When in 297 the Moors made a formidable inroad into Roman 
 Africa, it was he who defeated them, captured a number of 
 them, and setded the prisoners in other provinces. 
 
 From 293 to 296 Galerius was on the Danubian frontier. Galerius 
 His enemies were the Jazyges, and' more particularly the Carpi. Q^nube 
 The latter tribe he attacked and annihilated, with the exception 
 of those whom he settled as coloni in Dacia. The Carpi do 
 not reappear in history. 
 
 Above all, Diocletian had an arduous task before him in the Diocletian 
 reduction of Egypt. Though well and kindly treated, the'° ®^^'' 
 Egyptians had always been insolent to their rulers, and always 
 
 " Preuss, 61. '^ lb. 65. ' lb. 66. 
 
Persia. 
 
 1 68 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Egypt. ready to rebel. It was at this time a stiff-necked and obstinate 
 race — not fit for freedom, and yet refusing to obey — which 
 needed the lesson which Diocletian was not slow to give it. 
 For ten years Egypt had been severed from the Empke and 
 ruled by the usurper L. Elpidius Achilleus, a native of the 
 country. When after a long siege Diocletian took Alexandria 
 he punished it with terrible severity. He had determined to 
 stop the spirit of rebellion once for all, and he set to work in 
 the spirit of a Strafford. He also reorganised the administra- 
 tion, getting rid of Augustus' arrangements, and dividing the 
 country into three provinces, Aegyptus Jovia, Aegyptus Her- 
 
 War with culia, and Thebais. While Diocletian was in Egypt the Persian' 
 king Narses seized the favourable opportunity of invading 
 Armenia, drove out Tiridates, and seized the country. Diocle- 
 tian entrusted the war to Galerius, who a.d. 296 rashly attacking 
 without waiting for Diocletian to come up, was defeated with 
 great loss, and he and Tiridates only just secured their own 
 escape. The reception he met with from Diocletian at Antioch ' 
 was not such as to encourage him to a repetition of rash experi- 
 ments. In the following year however he retrieved his character 
 by the crushing defeat he inflicted on the Persians. The cap- 
 ture of Narses' wife and children was still more decisive even 
 than the victory. Narses was willing to accept any terms to 
 recover them, and after some preliminaries, peace was finally 
 signed on the following terms: — i. The Tigris was made the 
 boundary ; so all Mesopotamia became Roman. 2. Rome 
 relinquished her claim to lands on the north-east of the Tigris, 
 the modern country of Northern Kurdistan. 3. Tiridates was 
 reinstated, and compensated for the loss of the above-mentioned 
 lands by a considerable share of Persian territory ^. 4. The 
 Iberian kings (who were of importance as holding the passes 
 of the Caucasus) were to be dependent on Rome instead of 
 on Persia *"- 
 
 Tiridates died after a long reign king of Armenia. No 
 
 1 Preuss, 77. ' lb. 82. s jt. 83. 
 
THE WORK OF DIOCLETIAN. 169 
 
 Persian war occurs again till Julian. Then the defeat of the 
 Romans 363 a.d. gave back all that Rome had by this treaty 
 gained. 
 
 Peace had now been everywhere secured. The legions were Interval of 
 no longer to be feared, for even if they wanted to mutiny, no ^ * ' 
 general would dare to lead them against four different emperors. 
 It was no mere hypocrisy if Diocletian was called ' restorer of 
 the world,' or ' parent of the golden age ^.' With nothing to 
 fear either from the army or the barbarians, he could now devote 
 himself to the work of organisation. The first great change 
 was the division of the supremacy among four Caesars. Before 
 this there had been two emperors — M. Aurelius and Verus ; 
 and many emperors had named their sons Caesar or Augustus, 
 so as to secure a peaceable succession. Similarly the army and 
 Senate had made two Gordians, and had put Maximus and 
 Balbinus on the throne together. But the success of these two 
 last cases had not been such as to provoke imitation''. In 285 
 Maximian was undoubtedly given Gaul, Britain, Spain, pro- 
 bably also Italy and Africa ; while Diocletian retained the rest 
 of the Empire from the East to Rhaetia. All troops in the 
 West were under Maximian's supreme command; victories 
 were ascribed to his auspices ; and h"e had power of life and 
 death over all his military subordinates. He had also the 
 supreme civil power ; he administered his own treasury in his 
 own provinces; supervised justice, and issued rescripts. In 
 293 the Empire was divided over again. Diocletian had the 
 East with Egypt and Libya, the Island province, and Thrace. 
 Galerius had Pannonia and Moesia, including East and West 
 Illyricum, Macedonia, Greece, and Crete. Maximian had Italy, 
 Africa, and Spain. Constantius Gaul and Britain. It is not Relation 
 easy to make out the exact relation between the Caesars and the caesLs 
 Augusti. Butwhen circumstances require it, the Augustus appears*?*^ . 
 with troops in the Caesar's provinces and takes the command in 
 chief. In 296 we find Maximian on the Rhine, in 293 and 294 
 
 ' Preuss, 83. 2 lb. 86. 
 
I70 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Diocletian at Sirmium; or, on the other hand, the Augustus 
 
 invited the Caesar into his own province. But we never find 
 
 Galerius in the West nor Constantius in the East. There are 
 
 no constitutions or rescripts in the name of the single Caesars. 
 
 Most of the coins and inscriptions bear the names of all the 
 
 Pre-emi- four. But the supreme legislative power lay with the Augusti^ 
 
 Diocletian. Or in point of fact with Diocletian \ The Augustus sent the 
 
 census officials into his Caesar's provinces, and also controlled the 
 
 official appointments. It is a proof of Diocletian's pre-eminent 
 
 position that he did not hesitate on occasion to send orders to the 
 
 governors of Maximian's provinces; for instance, to those of 
 
 .Spain and Africa '■. On the other hand, each of the four had 
 
 large separate powers; made war and peace on his own 
 
 account ; and exercised supreme jurisdiction '. The general 
 
 edict against the Christians was not carried out in Constantius' 
 
 provinces, and those provinces did not suffer from the taxation 
 
 . as much as the rest *. 
 
 Subdivi- Diocletian was not satisfied with quartering the world. He 
 
 proi^nces.* further subdivided the provinces, making them much smaller 
 
 and more numerous, and established a new official, the Vicarius, 
 
 between the Caesars and the provincial governors. The whole 
 
 Empire was divided into twelve dioceses, the smallest of which 
 
 — Britain — consisted of four provinces, the largest — Oriens — of 
 
 sixteen. Lactantius describes this subdivision as follows : 'The 
 
 provinces also were cut into fragments. Many governors and 
 
 more officials settled upon each single district, almost upon each 
 
 single' city^' The loi provinces thus formed were under 
 
 different governors of different rank. There was a proconsul 
 
 in Africa, Zeugitana, and probably in Asia, Achaia, and Baetica 
 
 ^ Preuss, 89 ; Mommsen, Vher die Zeitfolge der Verordnungen Bio- 
 clelians, Abh. der Akad. der Wiss. zu Berlin, i860, p. 419. 
 
 ■' Preuss, 91. = lb. 88. • lb. 89. 
 
 " Lact. de Morte Pars. 7 : ' Provinciae quoque in frusta concisae," mult 
 praesides et plura officia singulis regionibus ac paene jam civitatibus in 
 cubare, item rationales multi et vicarii praefectorum.' Rationalis is in thi; 
 period used where procurator had been used ; cf. Lampridius, Alex. Sev. 45 
 ' procuratores, id est rationales;' Marquardt, ii. 298. 
 
UNDISGUISED ABSOLUTISM OF DIOCLETIAN. 171 
 
 Then came the consulares with rank of clarissimi. Then the 
 correctores, some of whom had rank of clarissimi, others only 
 of perfectissimi. Lastly, the praesides with the rank of per- 
 fectissimi. This title of praeses supplanted the old title of 
 procurator ' The title of legate, if it had not ceased already, 
 does not at all events occur after this reign. 
 
 Very important and permanent was Diocletian's arrangement The vicarii. 
 of assigning a vicarius to each diocese. These officials had 
 the rank of speciabiks, and the consulars, correctores, and prae- 
 sides were their subordinates. What proconsuls there were 
 however were of the same rank of spectabilis, and received 
 orders direct from the emperor*. Whether the vicarius of 
 Oriens was already at this period called comes Orientis and had 
 a vicarius Aegypti under him is unknown '. 
 
 This system of titles and hierarchy of ranks, though commonly Undis- 
 ascribed to Constantius, is a characteristic feature of Diocletian's f^iu^g^'^Jf 
 arrangements'*- He was the first emperor who is regularly and Diocletian, 
 formally called i?o»zz««.r/ his titles were sacer and sacratissimus. 
 He was greeted not by the customary embrace, as between equals, 
 but by bending the knee as to a superior being. He dressed in 
 silk and jewels, and ceremonial difficulties were made about audi- 
 ence. It would be absurd to ascribe all this to personal vanity. 
 Such weaknesses were not part of the man's character, and on 
 such a supposition his voluntary abdication and the simplicity 
 of his after-life would not be easy to explain. It was part of 
 his policy to surround the throne with an atmosphere of mystery. 
 He wished the emperor to be neither citizen nor soldier, but 
 equally above or remote from both. The last reUcs of the old 
 Republican constitution vanished away. Diocletian paid no 
 attention whatever to the Senate, and only once visited Rome 
 during his reign. He resided at Sirmium, Antioch, most often 
 at Nicomedia ; and Maximian at Milan. The Romans did not Discontent 
 like this, and there were conspiracies of senators and praeto- 
 rians, which Maximian put down ruthlessly" The praetorians 
 
 ' Preuss, 99. ^ lb. ' lb. 100. * lb. 
 
 ^ Lact. de Morte, 8 ; Preuss, io6. 
 
172 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 were reduced in number and replaced by three lUyrian legions 
 of whose absolute loyalty there could be no question. The 
 praetorians still existed as a sort of police force in Rome till 
 312, when Constantine abolished them for ever^ 
 
 Besides these great and far-reaching changes, there were 
 a number of reforms effected by Diocletian in the different 
 branches of the administration. 
 Theformu- In A.D. 294 a law of Diocletian made a great change in the 
 re^afed b" judicial process. The old system had been to try cases by 
 cognitio. means of a magistrate and a body of judices. The judices 
 were now abolished, and the governors directed to decide cases 
 summarily by"themselves. Thus the cognitio or summary pro- 
 cess, which had been the exception, became the universal rule ''■ 
 The land- The process of levelling, the progress towards uniformity, 
 otM]^^^^ had only gradually accomplished itself in the last three centuries. 
 There were still special privileges and exemptions. Thus Italian 
 land differed from provincial land, and there were different sorts 
 of status for persons, according as a man was a Roman or a sub- 
 ject. Italy was free from the land-tax, as also were the towns 
 outside Italy which possessed the Italian right. Such an ex- 
 emption for Italy was impossible when it formed a diocese along 
 with Spain and Africa; and Diocletian reimposed upon Italy 
 the land-tax which it had not paid since B.C. 167^ Lactantius 
 has inveighed against a measure which was really just and 
 , necessary. The privileged position of Italy had been just when 
 I she paid for it with her blood ; but now that she did not supply 
 \the army, it was unjust. The contemporaries of Constantine 
 look back to the reign of Diocletian as a period when the taxa- 
 tion was moderate and bearable : it was only in the generation 
 The poll- after him that it reached a ruinous pitch *- Another change 
 off tbe'^" of Diocletian's was to take the poll-tax off the towns. Previ- 
 towns. ously it had been paid by every one who did not pay the land- 
 tax, i.e. by the small artisans and workmen in the towns, by the 
 coloni, and by women and children everywhere. The conse- 
 
 ' Preuss, 107. 2 j(j jog 3 n, jjg 4 jj,. iii. 
 
REFORM OP THE COINAGE. 173 
 
 quence was that by this change the tax pressed harder on the 
 coloni ; and if the modern historian of Diocletian maintains that 
 this was not so ', he must maintain that of the two alternatives — 
 either that the treasury got less than before, or that those who 
 still paid, paid more than before — the former is the more pro- 
 bable. A great deal was accomplished for the coinage, which The coin- 
 had been getting lighter and baser ever since Nero. The^^^* 
 government purposely issued bad money or plated bronze with 
 silver, and under Gallienus the silver coinage was in reality 
 nothing but plain pewter. Then it refused to take its own 
 coins in payment of the taxes. Aurelian tried to introduce ' 
 reforms, and quelled a mutiny of the monetarii which was appa- 
 rently excited by his efforts, but died too soon to accomplish 
 anything ■'. Diocletian made the silver pure again. The gold 
 had not been debased : — ' The public taxes and the tribute of 
 the provinces were generally exacted in gold. It was therefore 
 the interest of the governors to maintain the purity of the gold 
 coinage ' :' — but it had been terribly lightened ; a state of things 
 due to the fact that the government exacted the payment of the 
 taxes by weight, but paid its own debts by tale. Diocletian 
 fixed it at a weight which was maintained by a law of Con- 
 stantine, and remained in force till the fall of the Byzantine 
 Empire. Copper money had ceased to be coined. Diocletian 
 coined two sorts— a larger coin, called follis, and a smaller, 
 perhaps called denarius. Many of these coins were made at 
 Alexandria. In the fourth century there were six regular mints 
 in the West — Siscia, Aquileia, Rome, Lugdunum, Arelate, Tre- 
 viri ; and Diocletian is said to have started one at Nicomedia. 
 These measures, though necessary and in the long run beneficial, The Edic- 
 probably helped to bring about the frightful dearness of prices '"^^toot" 
 which resulted in the Edicium. de pretiis rerum venalium. There "*»'''»"'»• 
 was also a failure of harvest throughout the East, and specula- 
 tion had ruined the merchants. So the prices of necessaries 
 octupled, and the soldiers could not live on their pay. Where- 
 
 ' Preuss, III. ' lb. 112. ' Finlay, i. 49. 
 
174 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 upon Diocletian issued an edict, great part of which has been 
 /ound ', to fix a maximum price for all necessaries. To sell at 
 higher prices was punishable with death. The natural conse- 
 quence was that the need only increased ; a number of bloody 
 punishments had no effect ; and the edict had to be dropped ^. 
 Diodetian's To get rid of the sham republican forms which were the 
 object. legacy of Augustus and of the tyranny of the army was the 
 main idea of Diocletian. He established the absolute monarchy 
 undisguised. His subdivisions of the provinces were mainly 
 evoked by the desire to secure the throne against possible 
 usurpers; and though no doubt, from his point of view, 
 necessary and justifiable, the bureaucracy thus established was 
 Great in- not a benefit to the provinces. The increase of the official 
 "'^t^V'^ class was so enormous that the receivers of the public money 
 tion. seemed to be more numerous than the payers of it. ' Rectorum 
 
 numerum terris pereuntibus augent^' The excessive central- 
 isation thus established finally broke up the genuine municipal 
 constitutions. The man who would have been previously con- 
 tent with a position as duumvir, would now compete for some 
 petty post under government. Under Constantine the mimicipal 
 offices were of importance only for purposes of taxation, and 
 an unfortunate decurio was bound to his office just as the 
 colonus was bound to his bit of land. Perhaps no other 
 alternative was open to Diocletian. It was necessary that in 
 some way the government should be made strong and per- 
 manent. The day had gone by for doing this by any means 
 but an immense increase of centralisation. The great number 
 of new wheels in the machine at all events enabled it to work 
 smoothly, and prevented it being so easily stopped or damaged. 
 But a machine the government was, and not an organism; 
 
 ' In Caria, 1709; another part in Egypt, 1807 ; fragments in Carystos, 
 Megara, and Lebadea in i860. Published by Monamsen, 1851 ; Wadding- 
 ton, 1864. The latter is the most complete edition. See Preuss' note, 
 p. 115. 
 
 ^ Preuss, 114-117. 
 
 ' Claudian in Eutrop. li. 586 ; Marquardt, i. 423. 
 
INADEQUACY OF DIOCLETIAN'S REFORMS. 175 
 
 a dead thing working with a kind of fatal regularity, and with 
 'no healthy principle of life or growth. It was the weakness of 
 Diocletian's intellect to think that everything could be ac- 
 complished by administrative machinery. He never reckoned 
 enough on human wills and human hearts other than his own. 
 It is characteristic of him that he should have tried to crush 
 the new religion by an organised persecution, and should have 
 failed to see the elements of superior strength and vitality which 
 it possessed. Constantine saw what he did not see, that merely 
 as a matter of policy it was better to make terms with the new 
 power than to seek to crush it. In the same spirit he attempted 
 to fix prices by a series of cast-iron regulations, without seeking 
 to remove the causes of the evil; and though he crushed the 
 Bagaudae he did not alleviate the miseries which had made 
 them possible. But he was a man whose lot was cast in evil 
 days, and perhaps he did all that was possible for any genius 
 but the highest. He secured an interval of peace, and he 
 relegated the army to its proper place. These were real 
 benefits, and we must not blame him too severely if he failed 
 to remove the roots of evils which had been growing for a 
 hundred years. 
 
 All the evidence goes to prove that Diocletian considered The system 
 his system of partition of power as one that should be per- °[ ^o^g^""^ 
 manent, and the model for succeeding reigns. He meant •""^^ics 
 
 down. 
 
 Galerius and Constantius to be the new Augusti, and had 
 made Maximian promise to reign in their room at the same 
 time as he did himself. But he ought to have seen that the 
 circumstances which had made the system work well in his 
 hands were quite exceptional. His own undisputed superiority 
 and the loyalty of the other three to him were the main objects 
 of its success ; and was it to be expected that those necessary 
 conditions should recur ? Supposing the case of two emperors 
 of equal age and equal claims on the throne together, who were 
 not bound together by those ties of loyalty and affection which 
 bound Maximian and the Caesars to himself, and it might 
 have been foreseen that there would be a struggle. Here, as in 
 
176 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 some other parts of his policy, Diocletian did not reckon with 
 human nature. Nor with respect to the accession did he even 
 maintain a consistent and intelligible policy. When he and 
 Maximian abdicated in 306, the two Caesars, Galerius and 
 Constantius, naturally became the new Augusti. The only 
 question was as to who should be the new Caesars. The 
 logical and consistent arrangement would have been that each 
 emperor should choose a Caesar. In this case of course 
 Constanti^us would have chosen his son Constantine, a man 
 (for he was now thirty years old) who had given ample proofs 
 of capacity, and who had a right to be dissatisfied if passed 
 over. But Diocletian made the great mistake of thinking that 
 his own Caesar, Galerius, was competent to play the same 
 pre-eminent part that he himself had played. Diocletian had 
 no doubt originally decided the choice of both Caesars, and 
 that was natural enough. But it was not by any means equally 
 natural that Galerius should appoint a Caesar for Constantius 
 as well as for himself; and when Diocletian consented to such 
 an arrangement he was responsible for the wars which followed. 
 On Constantius' death the soldiers, with whom both father and 
 son were popular, called Constantine to a share of Empire. 
 After six years of divided rule, the battle of the Milvian bridge 
 left him and Licinius joint emperors; and eleven years later 
 the great battle of Adrianople left him the sole and the first 
 Christian emperor. 
 
 Note. — I subjoin a list of the provinces according to the 
 arrangements of Diocletian. See Preuss, p. 92 foil. ; Mar- 
 quardt, i. 336. 
 
 I. Oriens incl uded Egypt andLibya, and its sixteen provinces 
 were: i. Libya Superior, 2. Libya Inferior, 3. Thebais, 4. 
 Aegyptus Jovia, 5. Aegyptus HercuUa, 6. Arabia Petraea, 
 7. Arabia Augusta Libanensis, 8. Palestine, 9. Phoenice, 
 10. Syria Coele, 11. Augusta Euphratensis, 12. Cilicia, 13. 
 Isauria, 14. Cyprus, 15. Mesopotamia, 16. Osrhoene. 
 
 II. Pontica had seven provinces: i. Bithynia, 2. Cappadocia, 
 
PARTITION OF THE PROVINCES. 177 
 
 3. Galatia, 4. Paphlagonia, 5. Diospontos, 6. Pontus Polemonia- 
 cus, 7. Armenia Minor. 
 
 III. Asiana had ten provinces: i. Pamphylia, 2. Phrygia 
 Prima, 3. Phrygia Secunda, 4. Asia, 5. Lydia, 6. Caria, 7. In- 
 sulae, 8. Pisidia, 9. Hellespontus, 10. Lycia. 
 
 IV. Thracia had six provinces : i. Europa, 2. Rhodope, 
 3. Thracia, i.e. the district of the Upper Hebrus with Philippo^ 
 polis, 4. Haeminontus, 5. Scythia, i.e. the Dobrudscha with 
 Tomi, 6. Moesia Inferior. 
 
 All the above belonged to Diocletian. 
 Galerius had two dioceses : — 
 
 I. Moesiarum had ten provinces : i. Dacia, 2. Moesia 
 Superior, 3. Dardania, 4. Macedonia, 5. Thessalia, 6. Achaia, 
 7. Praevalitana, 8. Epirus Nova, 9. Epirus Vetus, 10. Greta. 
 
 II. Pannoniarum had seven provinces : i. Pannonia Inferior, 
 
 2. Savensis, 3. Dalmatia, 4. Valeria, g. Pannonia Superior, 
 6. Noricus Ripensis, 7. Noricus Mediterranea. 
 
 Constantius had three dioceses : — 
 
 I. Britain had four provinces : r. Britannia Prima, 2. Bri- 
 tannia Secunda, 3. Maxima Caesariensis, 4.Flavia Caesariensis. 
 
 II. Gallia had eight provinces : i. Belgica Prima, 2. Belgica 
 Secunda, 3. Germania Prima, 4. Germania Secunda, 5. Sequania, 
 6. Lugdunensis Prima, 7. Lugdunensis Secunda, 8. Alpes Graiae 
 et Poeninae. The four first under consulares ; the four last under 
 praesides. 
 
 III. Vienmnsis had seven provinces : i. Viennensis, 2. Nar- 
 bonensis Prima, 3. Narbonensis Secunda, 4. Novempopulana, 
 5. Aquitania Prima, 6. Aquitania Secunda, 7. Alpes Maritimae. 
 
 Maximian had the three last dioceses : — 
 
 I. Italy had fifteen provinces : r. Venetia Histria, 2. Fla- 
 minia, 3. Picenum, 4. Tuscia Umbria, 5. Apulia Calabria, 6. 
 Lucania, 7. Corsica, 8. Alpes Cottiae, 9. Rhaetia, 10. Cam- 
 pania, II. Aemilia, 12. Liguria, 13. Samnium, 14. Sicily, 15. 
 Sardinia. 
 
 II. Hispania had six provinces : 1. Baetica, 2. Lusitania, 
 
 3. Carthaginiensis, 4. Gallaecia, 5. Tarraconensis, 6. Mauretania 
 
 N 
 
1 7 8 ROMAN PRO VINCI AL ADMINISTRA TION. 
 
 Tingitana. The two first under consulares ; the four last 
 under praesides. 
 
 III. Africa had six provinces: i. Proconsularis Zeugitana, 
 2. Byzacena, 3. Numidia Certensis, 4. Numidia Tripolitana, 
 5. Mauretania Caesariensis, 6. Mauretania Sitifensis. 
 
 [The first two of these was proconsular; the second and 
 third under consulares ; the three last under praesides \ 
 
 ' Preuss, 98. 
 
CHAPTER y. 
 
 The System of Taxation. 
 
 Section I. The taxes in the period of the Republic. 
 
 When in the year 167 the tribute was taken oiF Italy, the Ager pub- 
 expenses of the administration were undisguisedly supported by^y.'" 
 the taxation of the provinces. There was still a good deal of 
 public land in Italy, particularly in Campania ^, and the Italian 
 customs duties were a regular source of income ; but by the end 
 of the Republic all pubhc land in Italy had vanished, and the 
 customs duties were in abeyance, at all events for a period of 
 fifteen ^ years. Before examining the chief taxes of the pro- 
 vinces it will be necessary to take a brief view of the numerous 
 varieties of tenure subsisting in the provinces. Speaking 
 generally, it may be said that free and allied towns paid no • 
 taxes ; that Roman colonies and municipia did pay taxes, and • 
 were so far in a worse position than Roman colonies or ' 
 municipia in Italy; that Latin towns paid ; and that, lastly, the'i; 
 remainder of the provincials formed the great body of tax--] 
 payers, and were currently designated as stipendiarii. With^ 
 these facts in mind it is possible to understand the Lex Agraria 
 of 1 1 1, which, along with theVerrines, is our main authority for 
 the provincial taxation under the Republic. 
 
 In this law three different tenures of land are mentioned. 
 
 ' Cic. de Leg. Agr. i. 2. Cicero professes to attach great importance to 
 the revenue from this land ; de Leg. Agr. ii. 29. Cf. Phil. ii. 39. 
 
 " Cic. ad Att. ii. 16, for their abolition ; Suet. Jul. 43, for their re- 
 establishment by Caesar. 
 
 N 2 
 
l8o ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 The lex Land might be either Ager privalus ex jure Quiritium, or Agei 
 of HI. privaius ex jure peregrino, or Ager puhlicus populi Romani. 
 The first tenure was that of the colonists settled in Africa by 
 C. Gracchus, to whom, after that reformer's laws had been 
 abrogated and a curse laid upon the site of Carthage, the land 
 was assigned over again, not as to membeps of a colony, but 
 viritim'^. The second tenure was that of the three cities — 
 Utica, Thapsus, &c. — which aided Rome in the Third Punic 
 War, and of the 2200 deserters who joined the Romans under 
 Himilco Phameas. This land was the absolute property of the 
 towns, which were no doubt immunes as well as liherae, and 
 therefore paid no vectigal, and could not be touched by the 
 tax-gatherer. The third tenure is the one which is important 
 \ for our present purpose. This land was that which had either 
 j belonged to obstinate enemies like Carthage, or had been the 
 I domains of former kings. All the land of a conquered country 
 I became in theory Roman, but practically only that part was 
 kept which came under one of these two categories. That, 
 however, the stipendiariae civitates in any province were much 
 more numerous either than the Roman colonies or municipia 
 (which, however, themselves paid taxes unless specially privi- 
 leged by the possession of the Jus Ilalicum), or than the free 
 and allied towns, might be expected, and is proved by abundant 
 evidence ^ But I must not give the impression that all Ager 
 publicus was necessarily tributary. It was further subdivisible 
 into the following classes, all of which are mentioned in the 
 *• Lex Agraria of 1 1 1 :— Firstly, Ager privatus vecHgalisque, that is 
 
 to say, land sold by the praetor or quaestor at Rome, and 
 alienable or bequeathable by the buyer. It paid a vectigal, but 
 the amount was a nominal one, and only imposed to show that 
 
 * To have a claim to this land, however, each of these original colonists 
 had to give in his name to the commissioners in order to be confirmed in 
 the possession of his share ; and it is to this professio that the first portion 
 of the law refers. If a man's land had been sold pro publico at Rome, an 
 equivalent amount was to be restored to him. 
 
 ^ Pliny, N. H. iii. 3, for instance. 
 
THE LAND-LAW OF AFRICA. 
 
 the State still asserted its property in the land. We find land of 
 this kind opposed to and distinguished from land really vecti- 
 galis by the gromatic writers. It approached very nearly in 
 fact to being private property. As reasons for the creation of 
 this class of land may be suggested that for an assignation of 
 land a law was necessary, while for a sale a senatus consultum 
 sufficed ; and that it was a regular method of paying the interest 
 due to the creditors of the State, to hand them over land under 
 the fiction of a sale. Secondly, Ager stipendiarius^. This'l 
 land, like the Ager publicus in Italy, was simply let out, and the 
 Romans could resume it at any time at pleasure. It consisted 
 of the old land restored to the old inhabitants under a tax ; ; 
 and included by far the largest portion of the provincial land, i 
 Thirdly, Ager publicus populi Romani a censorihus locari solilus'^. 
 In the case of Africa, this was the land of Carthage or other 
 cities conquered by force of arms, excepting of course land 
 actually within the walls of Carthage, or given to colonists, or 
 sold, or granted to allies, or reserved for public uses, or let out 
 to stipendiarii. Though of course these numerous exceptions 
 embraced by far the greatest portion of the land, still a part was 
 left which was let out by the censors at Rome. The tenants j 
 were probably in the main the original inhabitants, who now! 
 had their own lands let to them again, but revocable at pleasure, j 
 It was a mere life-tenancy, and there is no word in the law of 
 the tenants being able to sell or bequeath. This land paid both 
 decumae and scriptura, but there are indications that the author 
 of the law was thinking more of pasture than of corn-land '. 
 It is specially provided that the occupiers should not pay morej 
 to the publicani than had been arranged to be paid by the law 
 of the last censors of b.c. 114*- So these tenants were betterj 
 off than an ordinary tenant, in that they could not have theii^ 
 
 . ' Cf. Cic. in Verrem, iv. 6. ° lb. iv. 39, vi. 13 ; Marquardt, ii. 175. 
 3 § 86 of the Law. 
 
 ' § 85 : ' Quantum vectigal ... ex lege dicta . . . publicano dare oportuit, 
 tantimdem post banc legem rogatam, qui agrura, locum in Africa possidet 
 possidebit, publicano . . . dare debeto.' 
 
l82 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 I rent raised on them. Fourthly, the roads, viae publiccu, were 
 and remained the property of the Roman people ^ 
 Agerstipen- The taxes, therefore, really lay on the second and third of 
 diarms. ^^^^ divisions; principally, of course, on the second. In 
 , strictness this Ager sKpendiarius was the property of the Roman 
 ij people, who, however, permitted its usufruct to the old in- 
 \ 'habitants on payment of a rent. It had been the rule for the 
 Romans to compel a conquered enemy, such as Carthage or 
 Macedonia, to pay an indemnity for a term of years, allowing 
 them to raise the money as they pleased, so long as they did 
 I raise it. Now what may be called a permanent indemnity was 
 i laid on each province, and the way it was to be raised was 
 settled by the Romans themselves on the first organisation of 
 a province. The chief tax is a direct one, and may be of two 
 1 kinds, either levied on the soil, and generally a tithe of the 
 'produce — decumae ; or a definite sum has to be paid, irre- 
 spective of the amount of produce levied partly on land and 
 partly on personal property, and called stipendium ^. 
 pecumae. Tithes were paid by Sicily and Sardinia; and, from the 
 j Gracchi to Julius Caesar, by Asia. There was no stipendium 
 in these provinces as long as the tithes existed. In Sicily the 
 Romans maintained the arrangements of the Le-x Hieronica — 
 by which the husbandmen in each community had every year 
 to state the amount of their acres and of their seed sown, and 
 then the decuma of a whole district was offered in Syracuse to 
 any one who could undertake it. The man who offered the 
 largest number of bushels got it, and he had to send to Rome 
 the amount of bushels he offered. If it was an exceptionally 
 good harvest, he would gain ; if bad, lose. We find the towns 
 
 ' In the particular case of Africa there still remain two classes of land : 
 (l) Ager publicus populi Romani ubi oppidum Carthago quondam fiiil, i. e. the 
 land cursed by Scipio, which it was forbidden to cultivate; (2) Agripublici 
 regibus civilatibusve sociis permissi. There are two mentions of this kind of 
 land in the inscription, — that given to Masinissa's children, § 81 ; and that 
 assigned to Utica (and no doubt other towns as well) by the commission of 
 Ten created by the Lex Livia. 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 178. 
 
THE VARIOUS FORMS OP STIPENDIUM. 183 
 
 themselves in Sicily bidding for their own decumae '. Besides 
 the ordinary tithes there was also the special //-«»?«/«/« im- 
 peratum, which, perhaps, only came on towns exempt from 
 ordinary burdens. 
 
 These taxes would in all probability not have exceeded Decumae 
 ability to pay, if it had not been for the illegal exactions of the ™^}j^ani. 
 publicani. But it has always been found that a system of tithes 
 puts the cultivator at the mercy of the tax-gatherer; and the 
 reform effected by Caesar when he changed the tithes of Asia, 
 and probably also of Sicily, into a stipendium was necessary 
 and beneficent. 
 
 We know of the existence of a regular stipendium or tributum The stipen- 
 in Sardinia, Spain, Gaul, Macedonia, lUyria, Achaia, Syria, ^"'""■ 
 Cyrene, Africa, and Egypt, and may take it for granted of the' 
 rest. Caesar fixed that of the three Gauls at forty million 
 sesterces, Aemilius Paulus that of Macedonia at 100 talents". 
 In discussing this tax, about which there is much diff'erence of 
 opinion, the great thing is to bear in mind the conservatism of 
 the Romans in regard to existing arrangements, to be prepared 
 therefore for differences in taxation in the different countries, 
 and not to expect a unity of organisation which did not exist '- 
 
 The stipendium might be paid in money or kind. It was I 
 money in Macedonia and the three Gauls ; silphium in Cyrene; 
 wax in the case of a tribe of Pontus, and hides among the 
 Frisii *. Both land and persons paid stipendium ; but to sup- Subdivisible 
 pose that there were always the two normal forms of tributum Irfbulum 
 soU and tributum capitis is not in accordance with the facts, so''- 
 Anyhow the main part of the stipendium came from the land : 1 
 though here again it cannot be supposed that immediately a 
 province was established a regular tributimi soli was set on 
 foot. For this would need a regular survey — which only 
 
 ' Cic. in Verr. iii. 42. 
 
 ' Cicero mentions this tax in the most definite way. In Verr. iii. 6.12: 
 ' Caeteris impositum vectigal est certum, quod stipendiarium dicitur, ut His- 
 panis et plerisque Poenorum, quasi victoriae praemium ac poena belli.' 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 186. ' lb. 186, notes 11 and 12. 
 
184 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 existed, before the Romans did it themselves, in the one case 
 of Egypt; or at all events a communal census, which only 
 existed in Greek towns. Where was neither one nor the other, 
 all that could be done was to charge about the same amount of 
 taxation as the previous government had done. This was the 
 course pursued by Paulus in Macedonia '. 
 and tribu- As for the tributum capitis (^o'por aa^mrwv), we cannot suppose 
 that so rude an expedient as a mere poll-tax was intended by 
 it ; though that may have been used now and then in special 
 cases, and is mentioned in Africa, Cilicia, Asia, Tenos, Britain. 
 We may look upon such a poll-tax as a temporary expedient, 
 employed for instance just after a devastating war, when any 
 ordinary tax on property would be impracticable '^- What the 
 tributum capitis really meant was any personal tax, and under 
 it were included {axes on- trades, for instance on pedlars, shop- 
 keepers, prostitutes, &c., or income-tax, paid by the richer 
 classes (oi to. xprifiara ej^ovres), while the poor Only paid a poll- 
 tax. This idea is confirmed by the word imKe<l>akmov being 
 used for a tax on trades '. So we find Appian * talking of the 
 severity of the ^6pos tS>v o-ajiaTav laid upon the Jews. This 
 could hardly have been a njgre poll-tax \ 
 
 We gather, therefore, tliat the stipendium cannot be de- 
 scribed as a regular tributum soli and a regular tributum capitis, 
 I but that the stipendium was as far as possible adapted to the 
 \,^ I pre-existing state of finance in the country. Supposing the 
 'T ordinary stipendium was not enough, the income-tax came in 
 as an extraordinary measure to supply the deficiency. It was 
 1 essentially a supplement. 
 The The chief source of our information as to the portoria or 
 
 por oria, ^.^gfQjjjg duties refers to the period of the Empire, but there is 
 evidence enough to make it probable that besides the duties 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. i88. a jj, ;j j.j 
 
 = Arist. Oec. ii. i. 3 ; Cic. ad Att. v. 16. a. * Appian, Syr. 50. 
 
 ■•^ Marquardt, ii. 195. These personal taxes were generally farmed out 
 
 to publicani. Cicero speaks of the venditio tributorum ; see ad Fam. iii. 
 
 8. 5 ; ad Att. v. 16. 2. 
 
THE CUSTOMS DUTIES. 185 
 
 paid on goods crossing the frontier, for instance from Germany 
 into Gaul, or from the far East into Syria, there were also\ 
 duties levied in each province within the Roman dominions in 
 this period. Thus Italy, for instance, had its own custom- 
 houses, which no goods could pass without a payment of 5 per / 
 cent. ' Nor was this all, for each free town had a right to levy [ 
 its own dues. It is to these octroi duties that a disputed 1 
 passage of Cicero, where he mentions the portorium circum- 
 veciionis, probably refers^. It was an important advantage 
 of being a Roman citizen in the provinces that Romans were 
 specially exempted from paying them. 
 
 Besides these ordinary legitimate taxes there were also such Ship- 
 special imposts as that of the ship-money exacted from the™°"^^' 
 cities of Sicily and Asia to pay for their defence against the 
 pirates. This was imposed by a senatus consultum in the 
 year of Cicero's consulship', and occasioned frequent com- 
 plaints *. It is specially noteworthy that the free or allied towns 
 which were exempt from the ordinary taxes were not exempt 
 from the pa3mient of ship-money °. 
 
 The mines, quarries, and salt-works did not belong ex- Mines, &c. 
 clusively to the State in this period. The most important ones, 
 however, did ; and were farmed out by the censors to publicani. 
 Whether it was the mine itself which was thus farmed, or only 
 the payments from the mine, is a point which is still disputed '. 
 
 During the Republican period the only legal source of 
 
 ' Cic. in Verr. iii. ^2 and 75. 
 
 = Cic. ad Att. ii. 16. § 4; Watson, p. 75. ^ Cic. pro Flacco, 12. 
 
 * lb. and 14. 
 
 ° Cic. in Verr. vi. 19. Other references for this ship-money are — for 
 that of Asia, in Verr. ii. 35, v. 67; for that of Sicily, in Verr. vi. 17 and 
 24. 
 
 " Marquardt, ii. 240, maintains the former ; Dietrich, p. 26 foil., the latter 
 view. The bronze tablet of Aljustrel, which is probably to be ascribed to 
 the latter part of the first century a.d. and which was found in Portugal in 
 1876, only mentions a conductor vecligalis throughout. Whence we should 
 gather that it was only the sums paid for the privilege of working which 
 were fanned. See Flach's edition of the bronze, p. 12. 
 
1 86 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Finance 1 authority for this branch of the administration was the Senate. 
 
 administra- -_y. , . i i j ■ i j i_ 
 
 tion in this! With its sanction the censors farmed out the domain lands, the 
 period. indirect taxes, and the public buildings. The treasury was 
 looked after by the two city quaestors, with a numerous body 
 of clerks, for receiving and paying money and for keeping 
 /accounts. As the senators were forbidden by law to take part 
 in any such business as that of farming the taxes, it fell to the 
 I equites, who, by their gains, constituted a class of capitalists. 
 ; The word publicanus is used in a general sense for any one 
 who accepts a contract from the State, but more properly and 
 The system |narrowly for one who farms a vectigal '- Whether the Roman 
 ■ system of farming the taxes is to be traced, as Hiibner thinks, 
 to a Carthaginian, or, as Dietrich thinks, to a Greek influence, 
 no one can say; but we may suppose that it naturally originated 
 with the first enlargements of taxable territory. The conve- 
 niences of the system and the difficulties of the direct system 
 caused by the short duration of the Republican magistracies 
 would be reasons in its favour, while the great objections to it 
 which might be raised in the interest of the payers were 
 probably not foreseen. The publicanus binds himself to pay 
 a definite yearly sum. So if the real results of the tax exceed 
 the sum he binds himself to, he gains ; loses if they are less. 
 In this way the State was spared expense ; but the provinces 
 suffered for its convenience. As the taxes of a whole province 
 were often all farmed together — for instance decumae, scriptura, 
 and portoria all in a lump — societies had to be formed to 
 take them — societatis publicanorum — the members of which 
 got more or less according to the amount subscribed. Such 
 societies of publicani are first mentioned in the twenty-third 
 book of Livy, but go back to an earlier date, at least for 
 buildings ; and probably the taxes were farmed from the first 
 in the same way as the buildings. It would be erroneous, 
 however, to suppose that the farming of a tax by a single 
 
 'So Dig. xxxix. 4. 12. §■ 3 : ' Publicani autem dicuntur qui publica v«cti- 
 galia habent conducta.' See Marq. ii. 289. 
 
THE PUB Lie A NI. 187 
 
 person was expressly forbidden by law ; under the Empire we 
 certainly find a single publicanus for small transactions. But 
 a single person might die before the contract was carried out, 
 and the inconveniences of that, if nothing else, would bring 
 these societies into existence ^ The manceps of the society ^ 
 offered for the taxes at the auction, made the contract with the 
 censors, and gave the securities. The contract lasted a lustrum, 
 regularly five years under the Empire, and began on March 15. 
 The business manager of the society at Rome was called 
 magister societaiis, was appointed for a year, kept the accounts, 
 and did the necessary correspondence ; in the provinces there 
 was a pro magistro, with a numerous class of officials, who were 
 actually employed in tax-gathering. He had also his own 
 tabellarii for correspondence, and slaves for accounts and other 
 routine work. There were different kinds of publicani accord- 
 ing as they farmed decumae, scriptura, or portorium. The 
 first stood highest. Their arrangement was not to take over 
 the actual tenth, but to contract before the harvest, calculating 
 on the seed sown and on the average crop. 
 
 Section II. The taxes under the Early Empire. 
 
 The land-tax still remained the chief source of income under The 
 the Early Empire ; and the survey and census of Augustus, ^ ''^"^ 
 already mentioned, made a rational and just apportionment of 
 it possible. For the purposes of the census a survey was 
 necessary, which should not only distinguish land by its legal title 
 into private property, communal property, and state property, 
 but also by its produce, so as to make a fair import possible. 
 These differences of produce constituted seven different classes 
 of land — ploughland, with the number of acres and average 
 produce for a ten-year period ; vineyards, with the number of 
 
 ' I have made much use of Dietrich's Essay in this discussion. 
 " ' Mancipes sunt publicanorum principes ;' Pseudo-Asconius ad Div. 
 p. 113, or p. 290; Cic. in Verr. iii. 71. 
 
188 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 barrels of wine produced ; olive orchards, with the number of 
 acres and trees ; pastures, with the same arrangements as those 
 used for ploughland ; forests, fisheries, and salt works ^- 
 
 The Besides this regular land-tax there was the annona, or 
 
 payment in kind, originating no doubt in iht /rumentum in 
 cellam of the Republican period. In the great majority of 
 provinces it was called annona miliiaris, and applied . to the 
 maintenance of the officers, soldiers, and ofiicials in the 
 province. Egypt and Africa were exceptional in having to 
 supply not only the annona militaris, but also the much more 
 considerable annona civica. Egypt fed Rome for four months 
 in the year '■', and therefore supplied an amount of corn which, 
 estimated in money, would amount to about 2500 talents '- 
 
 Income-tax. We hear of a poll-tax in this period, levied on trades. 
 Merchants paid on ships*, slaves, horses, mules, oxgn, asses, 
 in fact on their whole moveable property; and the whole artisan 
 and shopkeeper class, hosiers, weavers, furriers, goldsmiths, 
 &c., &c. (prostitutes paid in this class) also came under the 
 operation of this tax ^ In so far as this class of coloni existed 
 in this period they paid a poll-tax; but their contribution to 
 the revenue by no means attained the importance that it did 
 under the Later Empire. 
 
 Ager publi- The domain-lands in the provinces became of considerable 
 importance under the Empire. With the censorship the system 
 of letting them by the censors {censoria locaiid) came to an end ; 
 and the emperor took over the administration of the domains. 
 Vespasian had them re-surveyed, and aU cultivated domain- 
 land in Italy sold or given away. When the provinces were 
 divided into Senatorial and Imperial, the domains were also 
 divided, and the vectigalia of those in the Senatorial provinces 
 were paid into the aerarium, and those in the Imperial provinces 
 into the fiscus. This lasted however only to Vespasian ; after 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 215. ' Josephus, B. J. ii. 16. § 4. 
 
 2 Marquardt, ii. 226, and his authorities. * Tac. Ann. xiii. 53. 
 
 " Marquardt, ii. 230. 
 
 cus in the 
 provinces. 
 
THE PATRIMONIVM CAESARIS. 189 
 
 whom all domains were under the emperor, and were called 
 loca fiscalia. 
 
 Different from these lands were the private properties of the Private 
 emperor in Italy and the provinces. Augustus owned all the^mperor 
 Egypt ; the Thracian Chersonese was owned by the emperor "} *^ P™" 
 up to Trajan. These lands were not always got in the most 
 honourable manner. Tiberius, Caligula, and Vespasian took 
 possession of the property of condemned persons, and in 
 Christian times emperors 'conveyed' the private property of 
 Pagan temples^. To manage this property the emperor had 
 his bailiffs, like any other proprietor. These procurators were 
 at first the emperor's freedmen, and must be distinguished from 
 the regular procurators of the provinces, who were of equestrian 
 rank. The technical name for all such imperial property was 
 patrimonium Caesaris. Whether they belonged to the fiscus or 
 the patrimonium, these lands are divisible into the three classes 
 of arable land, pasture, and mines '■'. 
 
 Corn-land which was the private property of the emperor Administra- 
 was looked after by his own slaves. For instance, we find a i^nds! ^""^ 
 servus I. Caesaris Aug. Vespasiani villicus praediorum Pedure- 
 anorum. The fiscal lands were farmed out, and the money 
 got in by procurators. During some time these contracts were 
 for the regular five-year period ; but later on we find hereditary 
 farmers of the taxes, called condudores domus nostrae, or coloni — 
 to be distinguished from the villeins of the later time. 
 
 The scripturarii ceased under the early Empire ; but public 
 pasture still existed, and was farmed by the procuratores of the 
 fiscus. From these pascua the emperor got an income '- 
 
 Mines had mainly belonged to private persons under the Re- Mines, 
 public. Under the Empire the most important were taken over 
 by the emperor, part for the fiscus, part for the patrimonium * 
 This was not only the case in Imperial provinces, e.g. with the 
 gold mines in Dalmatia and Dacia, silver mines in Pannonia 
 
 • Marquardt, ii. 249. ^ lb. i. 414, ii. 249. ' lb. ii. 251. 
 
 ' Cf. Suet. Tib. 49 ; ' Plurimis etiam civitatibus et privatis veteres immu- 
 nitates et jus metallorum ac vectigalium ademta.' 
 
ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Adminis- and Dalmatia, lead and tin in Britain, iron in Noricum, Pan- 
 SlT°*^ nonia, Lugdunensis; but also in the Senatorial provinces, for 
 instance with the copper mines in Cyprus and Baetica'- 
 Quarries were withdrawn from private industry. Herodes 
 Atticus owned those in Pentelicus ; but most, and the famousest, 
 both in Italy and the provinces, belonged to the patrimonium. 
 Each mine was overlooked by a slave, later by a procurator ; but 
 there was no procurator for the whole number of them; and 
 each mine or aggregation of neighbouring mines paid directly to 
 the procurator patrimonii. Each procurator of a mine had under 
 him a director of works, an inspector, and an engineer. This 
 was if he managed the mine itself; but there are cases of his 
 farming it out to a speculator or to a society of publicani. In 
 either case he had to look after the accounts, and for this 
 purpose had several clerks—four can be named — under him. 
 The labourers were either slaves, or hired workmen, or soldiers ^ 
 or convicts ". Such convict mines are mentioned in Palestine, 
 Cilicia, Cyprus, the Lebanon; and after the conquest of 
 Jerusalem part of the captured Jews were sent to work in the 
 mines of Egypt *. 
 The legacy- One of the quite new taxes which the emperors introduced 
 '^"'^' was the legacy-duty. In the year a.d. 6 Augustus made the 
 
 people of Italy pay their share of the State burdens, not by im- 
 posing a tribute, but by a vicesima hereditatum, or tax of five 
 per cent, on legacies, only payable by Roman citizens in Italy. 
 Near relations did not pay, nor legacies under 100,000 sesterces. 
 So it was essentially a tax on the rich ; and brought in large 
 sums. Caracalla gave the Roman franchise to all provincials for 
 the purpose of making everybody pay this tax, so that in future 
 the wretched provincials had to pay the vicesima as well as the 
 tribute. Till Caracalla did this it is probable that Romans in 
 the provinces, paying as they did tributum, did not also pay 
 the vicesima ; for the original idea of the vicesima was that it 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 253. 2 Tac. xi. 20. 
 
 " 'Proxima morti poena metalli coercitio ; ' Dig. xlviii. 19. 28. 
 * Josephus, Bell. Jud. vi. 9. 2. 
 
THE CUSTOMS DUTIES. 191 
 
 should be paid by those who did not pay tributum, and so put 
 Italy upon a level with the provinces ^- 
 
 Of the indirect taxes the most important were the portoria or The 
 customs duties. Under the Empire there was a thorough-going ^°^ °"^" 
 customs system on the frontiers. Some wares, especially iron, 
 ■were absolutely forbidden to be exported; and all imported 
 wares paid duty. Besides this there were special taxation 
 provinces which were organised by themselves, and formed a 
 smaller whole within the larger whole of the Empire. Sicily 
 was such a unit ; so were the Spanish provinces, Gallia Nar- 
 bonensis, and the three Gauls. All imports paid two and a- 
 half per cent, on crossing into the three Gauls — quadragesima 
 Galliarum — and we can point out at least five custom-houses 
 on their frontier — at Conflans, St. Maurice, Zurich, Coblenz, 
 Static Maiensis between Chur and Bregenz. Metz and 
 Cologne are less certain. Britain also had its own import and 
 export dues". Moesia, with the Ripa Thracia, Pannonia, 
 Dalmatia, Noricum, were all administered as a taxation unit, 
 according to Appian, and the portorium Illyricum mentioned 
 in inscriptions " may be supposed to have been dues levied on 
 all goods crossing their frontier ; so that, once this paid, goods 
 could circulate freely through all this country without let or 
 hindrance. Owing however to the fact that only one custom- 
 house can be pointed out with certainty along this line of 
 frontier, while several seem to be within it, Marquardt inclines 
 to suppose that besides the general outer boundary for the 
 whole, each of these districts also levied its own dues, or rather 
 had its own dues levied for it. The portorium Illyricum was 
 farmed, but the contractors for it have imperial procurators set 
 over them. Asia had a quadragesima of its own ; and Bithynia, 
 Paphlagonia, and Pontus had one between them. Both were 
 farmed, but here also were imperial procurators. Egypt was 
 very important for these taxes. Most of the articles of Roman 
 
 1 Marquardt, ii. 261. ' Strabo, iv. p. 200. 
 
 * C. I. L. iii. 752 ; Marq. ii. 264, note 6. 
 
192 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 luxury came from the East through Syria or Egypt. Pliny ^ 
 puts the yearly import of Indian goods through Egypt at fifty- 
 five million sesterces; and the import of pearls by the same 
 road at loo million sesterces. Alexandria was the chief place 
 these goods came to; but in all harbours of the Red Sea 
 duties of twenty-five per cent, were levied on the landing of all 
 Indian or Arabian imports. For Ethiopian goods thefe was a 
 duty at Syene ^ ; at Schedia near Alexandria an export duty was 
 also levied, and in fact at all the mouths of the Nile. 
 Portoria The portorium was levied in the form of a percentage on 
 
 vaned in '^ j «• j r 
 
 amount. the Value of the goods. But this percentage differed; for 
 instance, it was five per cent, in Sicily, two per cent, in Spain, 
 two and a-half in the Gauls, Asia, Bithynia, and the Illyrian 
 provinces. In the fourth century it seems to have risen every- 
 where to twelve and a-half per cent.'' In other provinces 
 there was a regular tariff for different wares ; for instance, in 
 Africa and under Commodus we find such a -tariff for Eastern 
 
 Other goods *- Besides the portoria there were the following indirect 
 
 indirect j~, ■ ... 
 
 taxes. taxes. Lentestma rerum venahum, imposed by Augustus alter 
 
 the civil wars'. Tiberius reduced it a.d. 17 to ducentesima, 
 but put on the old amount again a.d. 38. Caligula remitted 
 it altogether, as we know from two authorities ", who, however, 
 disagree in the amount of it — Dio calling it encaroo-T^r, and 
 Suetonius ducentesimam ''- But the tax appears again and 
 lasted the whole Empire through. We have no distinct testi- 
 mony whether this tax was applied to provinces as well, but 
 from Suetonius' phrase ' //a/za^ remisit,' Marquardt infers that 
 it was. And on the principle of the vicesima hereditatum we 
 might infer that, after having been first applied only to Italy, 
 
 ■ Pliny, N. H. vi. loi. • 2 Marquardt, ii. 266. 
 
 ' Cod. Just. iv. 61. 7, of the year 366 : ' Quin octavas more soUto con- 
 stitutas omne hominum genus quod commerciis voluerit interesse dependat.' 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 268. 
 
 = Tac. Ann. i. 78 : ' Centesimam rerum venalium, post civilia bella 
 institutam.' 
 
 " Dio Cass. lix. 9 ; Suet Calig. i6. ' Marquardt, ii. 269, note 8. 
 
EXTRAORDINARY SOURCES OF REVENUE. 193 
 
 it came to be applied also to the provinces; the only ob- 
 jection to both arguments being that this is hardly likely to 
 have happened so easily with the centesima, when it did not 
 happen till Caracalla with the vicesima ^. 
 
 Another indirect tax was that of the four per cent, on all The quinta 
 purchases of slaves (quinta et vicesima venalium mancipiorum) veM.ihim'* 
 instituted by Augustus. Tacitus says it was taken off the ">*"<='?'- 
 
 , ■' orum. 
 
 buyers and put on the sellers, i. e. on the Asiatic slave-dealers, 
 but that it came to the same thing in the end, as the tax was 
 added on to the price. There was a bureau to look after 
 this tax. 
 
 Among the extraordinary sources of income the most im- 
 portant are the confiscated property of condemned persons 
 (bona damnaloruni), the lapsed legacies or caduca, and the so- 
 called aurum coronarium. 
 
 Any capital punishment (in which term exile was of course Bona dam- 
 included) was followed by such confiscation. The property °"°"""' 
 falls to the aerarium, a system which lasted at all events to the 
 end of Tiberius' reign ; for Sejanus' property was so applied ^. 
 But cases also occur of the emperor's appropriating the money, 
 and this became the accepted practice, so that these moneys fell 
 regfularly to the fiscus, and we find a procurator ad bona damna- 
 torum. Besides unclaimed property (bona vacantia) these caduca Caduca. 
 were introduced by the Lex Julia et Papia Poppea. Properly 
 the term means money left by will, but for some reason un- 
 claimed; but the law made it impossible for bachelors to 
 receive legacies, and so there were plenty of these caduca under 
 the Empire. If not claimed by relations within the third degree 
 such moneys fell to aerarium, after Caracalla to the fiscus. So 
 Augustus failed to get people to marry ; but his law brought 
 in a good round income. 
 
 ' Marquardt mentions one of the Spanish inscriptions, which reads as 
 follows, ' proc(uratori) Aug. prov(inciae) Baet(icae) ad ducem ; ' and sa,ys 
 that the last two words may very likely mean ad ducentesimam. See C. I. L. 
 ii. No. 2029 ; Marq. ii. 269, note 8. 
 
 " Tac. Ann. vi. 2. 
 
194 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 ronanum. 
 
 of the re- 
 venue. 
 
 Auram 60- The ' coronary gold' was originally a gold crown offered to 
 a victoiious general by provincials and allies to grace his 
 triumph. But already under the Republic it was really a 
 compulsory payment to the governor \ Under Augustus first 
 we find Italian towns regularly giving him aureae coronae '■■ ; 
 but on a previous occasion he, had received an aurum coro- 
 narium from Italy'. Later on AugustiB' would only receive, 
 this from the provinces. In the later Empire it was paid 
 exdusively by thfe decuriones.. That this ' benevolence ' was 
 something considerable is proved by the: sum mentioned in the 
 Monumentum Ancyranum — 35,000 lbs. of gold. It appears to 
 have been regularly offered on the accession or adoption of 
 a new emperor, both by Italy and the provinces ; and Hadrian^ 
 and M. Antoninus ' are mentioned asi having done themselves- 
 credit by remitting a portion of it. 
 
 Sum total It is impossible to say what a year'a total revenue was at 
 any period. We. do not possess the necessary materials. In 
 some provinces the expenses of administration absorbed all the 
 revenues from it; for instance, Mesopotamia' and Britain. 
 Marquardt calculates the vectigalia in the time of Cicero at 
 200 million sesterces; And the following figures are knowni> 
 The treasuries at the deaths of Tiberius and Antoninus Pius 
 contained 2900. milUon sesterces. 'Nero had squandered in> 
 presents 2200 million sesterces V ViteMius wasted 900 millioD. 
 sesterces in the course of a few months 7. Under Hadrian the 
 stipendium of Asia was 28 million sesterces. Gaul paid forty 
 million sesterces immediately after its conquest ; and under 
 Constantine, Savigay thinks they paid 360 miUion sesterces. 
 Sixteen years' arrears of that province before Hadrian amounted 
 to 900 million sesterces ^ 
 
 According to Augustus' arrangements the whole field of 
 finance administration- was subdivided as follows: — 
 
 ' Cio. in Pison. 37; deXfig: Agr. ii..22; Dio.Cass. xlix. 42. 
 
 ^ Dio Cass. xlviiL 4-. ' lb. xlii. 50. * Spartian, 5. 
 
 ' .Capitol. M. Anton. 4. 
 
 « Tac. Hist. i. 20. ' lb. ii. 95. « Marquardt, ii. 288. 
 
FINANCE ADMINISTRATION. 196 
 
 1. The aerarium Saturnt had been the single treasury under The aera- 
 the Republic. With the division of the provinces into imperial 
 
 and senatorial, the aerarium became the senatorial treasury, 
 into which, besides its previous sources of revenue, the taxes of 
 the seftatorial provinces were paid. The Senate had nominally 
 full power over this ^ but really it came under the emperor ^ 
 The oflBcials of the aerarium were appointed by the emperor, and 
 we firid them called praefecti — the regular name for imperial 
 officials. After Nero the name for one of these two ministers was 
 praefedus aerarii Saturni. So we find the emperor appointing 
 extraordinary' commissions to regulate the aerarium and to limit 
 its outgoings. At the beginning of the Empire the aerarium 
 was empty owing to the civil wars, and we find Augustus * and 
 Claudius * lending to it. Generally speaking, the endeavour of 
 the emperor was to draw all the more important revenues to 
 the fiscus. This happened,' for instance, with the revenues of 
 the domains, with the income from aqueducts, with the bona 
 damnaiorum, and the caduca. By the time of Severus the dis- 
 tinction between senatorial and imperial provinces seems to 
 have ceased; and all provinces paid into the fiscus. So the 
 aerarium, which we find in existence as late as the beginning 
 of the third century °, became the treasury merely of the munici- 
 pality of Rome. 
 
 2. The fiscus date^ from Augustus. It was exclusively under The fisms. 
 the emperor". In Greek the fiscus is called tA (Sao-tXiicdc, the 
 
 aerarii tA h\fDinov '. Its chief expenses are — the support of the 
 army, fleet, and war-material ; the payment of officials ; the supi- 
 plying of Rome with corn ; the cost of militaiy roads ; the post, 
 and public buildings. The chief revenues were derived from the 
 
 ' Suet. Tib. 30 ; Tac. Ann. ii. 37. 
 
 ^ See Dio Cass. liii. 16 ; \lriip- iier yAp t& S^/uio'ia diri tSiv i/celifov dwe- 
 K^Kpero, ipyip S^ -tfa^ Tcarra-irpos r^v- yvdifojv- airov dyrikifffeero : also Iv. 22. 
 Cf. Tac. Ann. vi. 2 : 'at bona Sejani ablata aerario ut in fiscum cogerentur, 
 tcmquam referret' Cf. Ann. vi. 19. ' Mon. Anc. § 1 7. 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xiii. 31. ' Mahjuardt, ii. 295, note 3. 
 
 ° ' Res enim fiscales quasi propriae et privatae principis sunt ; ' Ulpian, 
 Dig. xliii. 8. 2. § 4. ' Dio Cass. Ixxi. 32. 
 
 2 
 
196 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 imperial provinces, for which there were procuraiores, the chief 
 procurator in each province being a knight, the subordinate 
 ones imperial freedmen. Also the fiscus asserted itself in the 
 senatorial provinces ; and we find there also procuratores ; such 
 ofiicials looked after domain lands, hona damnatorum, and caduca; 
 also superintended the dififerent payments in kind, and personal 
 services, demanded for the imperial magazines, for military 
 support, equipments and transport, and for buildings \ Whether 
 the fiscus also claimed its share of the regular stipendium and 
 portoria of a senatorial province is unknown^. Anyhow the 
 emperors disposed of these taxes as they pleased, as is clear 
 from the case of Hadrian, who allowed Herodes Atticus — the 
 corrector civitatium Asiae — to build an aqueduct at Troas, 
 and assigned him three millions from the tribute for the 
 purpose. But it cost seven miUions, and the procuratores com- 
 plained that the whole revenues of the province were employed 
 on a single building. So we find a fiscus in every province— 
 for instance, fiscus Gallicus provinciae Lugdunensis; fiscus 
 Asiaticus. The fiscus in Rome is called simply fiscus without 
 any such epithet, and its administration is called summa res 
 raiionum. The chief ofiicial was originally an imperial fireed- 
 man, with the title of a rationibus. This post was one of great 
 influence. Pallas occupied it under Claudius and Nero ', 
 Claudius Etruscus under Domitian* He was also called 
 procurator a rationibus, procurator summarum rationum; and, 
 after Hadrian, was commonly a knight who had been procu- 
 rator of several provinces before attaining this dignity, and 
 who was afterwards advanced to the praefectura annonae or 
 ab epistulis. 
 The patri- 3. The Patrimonium Caesaris also dates from Augustus. A 
 Cara^. numerous body of oflScials was wanted for its administration, 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 396. 
 
 ^ Mommsen, Staatsrecht, ii. 937, note 2, conjectures that it did from the 
 following passage of Tac. Ann. ii. 47 : ' (Sardianis) quantum aerario aut fisco 
 pendebant in quinquennium remisit.' 
 
 = Suet. Claud. 28. » See Statius, Silv. iii. 3. 
 
THE MILITARY TREASURY. 197 
 
 both in Rome and the provinces. They were the slaves and 
 freedmen of the emperor ; and were called procuratores 
 patrimonii. The emperor controlled and directed them, and 
 there was no one among them with a position anything like 
 that of the procurator fisci. The emperor having the fiscus as 
 well as this patrimonium at his absolute disposition, a question 
 always arose at the death of every emperor as to what property 
 he had a right to bequeath, and what part naturally descended 
 to the State and to his successor. Egypt belonged to the 
 patrimonium, and one of its highest oflBcials was the tSuJXoyos 
 (which was the name of the king's steward under the Ptolemies), 
 who as procurator rei privatae drew in taxes such as the caduca, 
 which in other provinces belonged to the fiscus or aerarium. 
 Of course it was understood that such res privata as Egypt 
 passed on to the next emperor. So we want a new distinction. Res fami- 
 and we get it in that between patrimonium and res familiaris ; 
 the first being the emperor's official income, — ^just as the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer with us is given £5,000 a year 
 for being Chancellor of the Exchequer, — and the latter his 
 private means. Severus first clearly assigned them to different 
 procuratores, and afterwards the procurator rei privatae became 
 a very important personage, more so than the procurator 
 patrimonii, and on a level with the procurator of the fisc. 
 
 4. The Aerarium Militare was the treasury out of which the Aerarium 
 pensions to veterans were paid. Originally established by '^'^' 
 Augustus and endowed with 170 million sesterces', it was kept 
 up out of the proceeds of the two taxes — vicesima hereditatum 
 and centesima rerum venalium — which were regularly devoted to 
 it. Also money came in to it now and then from extraordinary 
 sources ; for instance, the goods of the banished Agrippa Pos- 
 tumus''. Augustus put the fund under three men of praetorian 
 rank, chosen by lot, and serving for three years. In Dio's time 
 they were named by the emperor", with the title praefectus 
 aerarii militaris. Their office lasted till the third century'. 
 
 ' Mon. Anc. §. 17. ^ Dio Cass. Iv. 32. " lb. Iv. 26. 
 
 * Tac. Ann. v. 8 ; Marquardt, ii. 302. 
 
1,98 ROMAN PROVINCIAL AD-MINISTRATION. 
 
 Thesystem The system of farming; the taxes continued under the Empire, 
 lecting in but was Qontrolkd and modified. The decummii, who under tlje 
 this period. Republic had formed the first ,and most influential class among 
 the publicani, came to an , end. But other taxes were sfill 
 farmed^, and during. the whole Empire we find the system 
 employed both by the State and by the municipalities^. After 
 the decease of the censorship) tjje locators were generality 
 imperial procurator's. So in .Africa we find procuratpres 
 quattuor publicorum Afrieae side by side with conduGtores 
 quattuor publicorum iVfricae'. The two tributes were no 
 Jonger farmed by publicani, but got in directly, in senatorial 
 provinces by the quaestor and his subordinates, in imperial by 
 the procurator of the province and his subor4inates. Thei;e 
 was a talularium (a sort of audit ofBce.) in each province, wherp 
 the survey-documents and censusTlists were kept ; also in each 
 province ■A.fiscjis provinciae, from .which the governor paid .^he 
 rtroops and officials in the province, and sent the sip;plus to 
 Rome*. ;For ajl private revenues, which did not come into .this 
 fiscus provinciae, there was in «ach;prpvi!ice a special, inipepal 
 procurator, with, a central bureau, for them all in Rome. 
 Minor Besides these main branches pf finance administration there 
 
 branches of i_ x- • i_ ^ i • i • j j 
 
 theadminis-w^re a numper of romor ones, about whfch mdeed we are more 
 
 tration. completely infornied .(by inscriptions) than about the more 
 
 important ones. For instance, we find a procurator a cadttqis^, 
 
 officials for aqueducts, public, buildings, /&c.,: for the cura annonae, 
 
 and for. the coinage^ With e;very. separate detachment.pf troops 
 
 ' Cf. Tac. Ann. iv..6: ' At .frum^ta . et pecuni.ae vectigalis, cetera publi- 
 corum fructuum, societatibus equitum Romanorum agitabantur.' See the 
 important chapter, Tac. Ann. xiii. 50, where Nero thinks of abolishing all 
 indirect taxes— a good passage for the use of theterm vectigalia. Notice- 
 able phrases are — 'immodestiam publicanorum,' 'vectigalium societates,' 
 ' publicanorum cupidines. 
 
 ^ See the icx Malacitana. 
 
 ' See Henzen, 6648, 6650, quoted by Marq. ii. 30s, note 2. 
 
 * Dio Cass. Mi. 10. ' = C. I. L. iii. No. 1622. 
 
 ' ' Procurator monetae in Tarraco ; ' C.I. L. ii. No. 4206. Also ' officina- 
 tores monetae.' See Orelli, 32.26, 3227, 1090 ; Marq. ii. 304, note 3. 
 
DIOCLETIAN'S ARRANGEMENTS. 199 
 
 there was a fiscus castrensis, a procurator casirensis, and a 
 commissariat official, a copiis militaribus. The patrimonium 
 •and the res privata Caesaris also employed numerous pro- 
 curators to ilook after the emperor's private properties and 
 receive the legacies left to him. We find them employed also 
 for such matters as games, libraries, picture galleries, and the 
 Uke'- 
 
 There were also regular administration-districts for getting in 
 the mcesima hereditaium and vieesima manumtssionum ; for 
 instance, there was one for Pamphylia, Lycia, Phiygia, Galatia, 
 and the Cyclades'; another for the two Eontus', Bithynia, and 
 Paphlagonia' ; another for Baetica and 'Lusitania ; another for 
 iHispania Citerior ; another for Gallia Lugdunensis, Belgica, and 
 the two Germanics ; while in Italy there was one for Campania, 
 Apulia, and Calabria; and another for Umbria, Tuscia, Ficenum, 
 and Campania*. 
 
 Section III. The taxation of the Later Empire. 
 
 Diocletian's financial reforms itook place under as yet 
 unknown conditions. Caracalla had given the civitas to all 
 the provincials. Diocletian imposed the tribute upon Italy. 
 Diocletian divided the eastern part of the Empire \Ti\ajuga, that The division 
 is, really existing divisions with definite boundaries, varying from '°'°-'"'^'^' 
 five acres to sixty, but all alike of one and the same value. -For 
 instance, the five acres would be five acres of vineyard; the 
 sixty would be sixty -acres oi indifierent corn-land. So that 
 their money value would be the same. It has been a question 
 about these juga whether they really -existed or were only 
 abstractions, ideal divisions for the convenience of reckoning. 
 Savigny thought the latter. But a codex of a.d. 501 — Eastern 
 Empire — proves the contrary"^; and we also learn from this 
 
 ' Orelli, 2417. ^ Henzen, 6940. ' lb. 
 
 * See Marquardt, ii. 305, note 6, where the authorities are -given. 
 ' The Codex is in the British Museum, published 1862 in Land's Symbolae 
 Syriacae. 
 
200 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 codex that a re-survey of the Empire took place under Dio- 
 cletian for the purpose of this division into juga'. From these 
 materials a kataster was drawn up giving in each district the 
 number of juga, and the sum due from them. The decuriones 
 in the capital of the district distributed this total among the 
 landowners, and paid over the receipts, for which they were 
 responsible. The lists which had to be kept have been found, 
 and generally contain the name of the owner, the name of 
 the property, its position, and the amount of tax payable by it in 
 denarii. In case of a remission of taxation either the number of 
 juga was reduced, or the amount payable by each province. 
 So in the case of the Aedui, Constantine reduced the number of 
 juga from 32,000 to 25,000''- It is not to be supposed that 
 there was the same arrangement of these juga in all provinces 
 alike. In Africa the jugum is called cenluria, and consists of 200 
 acres. In Italy there is a larger unit called millena, whose 
 larger size is easily explained by the existence of latifundia'- 
 
 Increasing The coloni have been fully enough discussed already to make 
 
 burden of . 
 
 taxation, a lurthur discussion superfluous. It was they who now were 
 
 the chief payers of the poll-tax after Diocletian had, taken this 
 
 tax off the towns. The portoria were growing heavier during 
 
 this period, till they reached the frightful rate of 12^ per cent, in 
 
 the fourth century. The new imposition of the legacy-duty on 
 
 all provincials was bad enough ; but it was the land-tax after all 
 
 which was the crushing burden. It was this which made slaves 
 
 of the municipal magistrates, and which made the hard-tasked 
 
 victims of the terribly perfect machine of administration welcome 
 
 the barbarians rather with hope than with despair. 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 230. 
 
 '^ Eumenii Gratianim Actio, ii; Sidonius ApoU. Caim. xiii. 19; Mar- 
 quardt, ii. 223; and for the latter case, Lampridius, Vita Alex. Sev. xxxix. 
 6 ; Ammianus, xvi. 5, 14. Sidonius' expression is : — 
 
 ' Geryones nos esse puta monstrumque tributum : 
 Hie capita, ut vivam, tu naihi toUe tria.' 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 234. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Towns in the Provinces. 
 
 Section I. Towns the basis of the administration. Increase of 
 towns under Rome. 
 
 The use which Rome made of the towns in carrying out her Use of the 
 administrative system has already been mentioned. When ^^™^i5°Jj^. 
 Cicero is mentioning the taxes of Asia, he speaks of them as ''™ P""^- 
 
 13056S 
 
 the 'tribute of the cities' (tributa civitatum'). The towns 
 formed the administrative means of raising the taxes. Each 
 town comprehended a district of ' tributary lands ' (fundi tribu- 
 tarii), the names of which and of their occupiers lay with the 
 town magistrates, as for instance in Sicily ". When there were 
 no towns we find ' homines stipendiary ' instead of ' civitates 
 stipendiariae,' and in such cases the State itself had to look 
 after the lists, and direct all that machinery of administration, 
 which elsewhere was taken off its hands by the towns. Even 
 under the Empire the tribute of a province was paid by a certain 
 number of towns, and when we hear of remissions of taxes, it 
 is to towns that the remissions are given. In all towns of 
 Greek constitution a census already existed, and it is tolerably 
 certain that the Romans introduced it wherever it did not, 
 partly in order to introduce a timocratic constitution, partly to 
 secure a fair apportionment of the taxes. Censors are expressly 
 mentioned in Sicily and Bithynia, and no doubt existed every- 
 where ° It was at the towns also, of course, that justice was 
 
 ' Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. i. 8. " Cic. in Verr. iv. 51. 
 
 ' Marquardt, ii. 180 and 181. 
 
202 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 administered. Fifty-five tribes, according to Pliny, had justice 
 administered to them at Caesar Augusta in Spain, and sixty-five 
 at Carthago Nova '. 
 Could the A question naturally arises as to how far these towns had 
 together^? ^^y capacity of united action. The general impression we get 
 from a survey of the facts is that the opportunities of united 
 action were limited and occasional, and that within any pro- 
 ' vince the governor on the one side, and the municipal magis- 
 trates on the other, constituted the only two sources of power. 
 But this impression is not absolutely exact, and a more par- 
 ticular examination of the concilia or provincial parliaments will 
 correct it. 
 The proyin- These parliaments, which are mentioned by Tacitus ^ were 
 mems?^ '^" either older than the province itself, or were established under 
 the first emperors, or, in the case of countries which did not 
 tin a late date become provinces, were at once introduced. 
 The Romans -at "first dissolved all such assemblies, for instance 
 in Greece, Sicily, and Macedonia; but afterwards permitted 
 them to exist mainly for religious objects. These religious 
 objects concealed a political object, for these parliaments 
 formed a centre for the worship of the emperor. The high- 
 priest of this worship {apxiepevs, or sacerdos prminciai) was, 
 apart from the Romans, the most important personage in the 
 province. He was elected by the deputies " of a certain number 
 of the most important towns, and, like them, held his office for 
 a year. He was elected from those who had either discharged 
 all municipal offices in their town, or were of equestrian raiik. 
 He was exempt from taxation, and if a mission was sent from 
 the province to the emperor he conducted it. The parliament 
 •met yearly, and after having taken part in the religious festival, 
 re-assembled as a secular body. After settling any points con- 
 nected with the temple, passing the accounts, and deciding any 
 
 • Plin. N. H. iii. 4. 2 Xac. Ann. xv., 2.2. 
 
 ' These deputies were not, and must be distinguished-from,-the municipal 
 flamens,; Marquardt, Ephem. Epig. ib. Flamen proyinciae lin the Inscrip- 
 tions is another title fpr the high-priest. 
 
THE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENTS. 
 
 203 
 
 propos3.1 as to statues or other honours which might be brought 
 before them, the high-priest for the next year was chosen. 
 Then either a vote of thanks was .voted to the outgoing 
 governor, or, more important, a complaint was drawn up 
 against him, and forwarded by special mission to the Senate or 
 emperor '- This could be done without asking the governor's 
 consent ; sand the emperor's reply was sent direct to the par- 
 liament. Thus we .find Hadrian writing to the Council of 
 iBaetica, Antoninus ,Pius to that of Asia*. We may probably 
 regard this as a regular means whereby the provinces exercised 
 a cpntrol upon their governors, and as an element in the 
 improvement of their condition ^. 
 
 But though in endeavouriijg to form a conception of the Increase of 
 interior of a province it is necessary to .assign a certain part to R^e.""**^" 
 these parliaments, it still remaiiig true that the single towns 
 were of far .greater importance when isolated than when thus 
 combined. When the Romans had; to organise the provinces 
 they used towns wherever they could; and in countries of 
 [Greek or Phoenician civilisation, in Greece proper, Sicily, 
 Western and Southern Asia Minor and Carthaginian Africa, 
 they -found towns with definite territory ready to, hand. Where \ 
 they did, not -find them in these parts of the world they would 
 make a village into a town, or compose a town out of several / 
 ineighbouring villages. Thus Orcistus in Phrygia was made 
 into a town*, and Aperlae, Simena, ApoUonia, and Isinda in 
 Lycia were made into one community with one Senate, and 
 
 ' Cf. the phrases in Pliny, Ep. vii. 6, ' deoreto concilii,' ' decreto pro- 
 vinciae,' in reference to an accusation brought against a governor. 
 
 ^ Marquardt, i. 371, note 5 ; Masdeu, Historia de Esfagna, viii. 48. 
 
 ' Most of the statements in the text are obtained from Marquardt, i. 
 365-377, and from the same writer's important essay on the subject in the 
 Ephemeris Epigraphica. Mommsen, .SeAiuea «b Rihnischer Zeit, p. 8, dis- 
 ^:usses the famous parliament of the sixty-four Gallic states at Lugdunum, 
 which is mentioned by Strabo. But he speaks ironically (jf the right of 
 complaint as if it were almost always negatived by a complaisant majority. 
 The passages from Tacitus and Pliny, already referred to, hardly perhaps 
 bear out this pessimistic view. * Marquardt, i. 17. 
 
204 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 forming one 8^/xor. The other provinces when conquered by 
 Rome were in different stages of the development through 
 which the Greek and Phoenician countries had long passed. 
 Thus when Rome appeared in Spain the system of pagi or 
 cantons, as opposed to the system of towns, was almost 
 universal. In the statistics compiled by Agrippa and used by 
 Pliny ^, we find 293 peoples enumerated in Hispania Tarra- 
 conensis, of which 179 dwelt in towns, while 114 had no town. 
 We may be sure that this list shows an immense advance upon 
 the number of real towns as opposed to mere strongholds, 
 which existed before the commencement of the Roman rule; 
 but a century later Ptolemy, writing under Antoninus Pius, shows 
 us the rapid extension of the town system within that period, 
 for he enumerates in the same province 248 towns, and only 
 twenty-seven of these townless communities. So in Gaul there 
 were before the Romans entered the country no real towns, 
 with the exception perhaps of a few which were neither Greek 
 nor Roman in the Narbonensis '^. When Caesar conquered 
 Gaul the country was divided among a number of tribes, each 
 containing some 300 or 400 pagi. It was out of these that 
 Augustus formed sixty-four states^, ea'ch with a capital of its 
 own. From these capitals arose some of the principal towns 
 of France, for instance Amiens and Nantes. Lugdunum was 
 the capital of all sixty-four states, and the centre of all 
 administration, imperial and municipal. In the Transpadine 
 districts the first care of the Romans was to found towns, to 
 which they made the Gallic tribes subject. By the Lex Pompeia 
 of B.C. 89 the peoples of the Eastern Alps were put under 
 Tridentum, Verona, Brixia, Cremona, and Mediolanum, and 
 the authorities of these towns had important duties connected 
 with these populations, such as the levying of soldiers, the 
 quartering of troops, the responsibility for envoys, the main- 
 
 ' Plin. N. H. iii. 4. 
 
 ' e. g. Illiberris, Narbo, Nemansus, Baeterrae ; cf. Lentheric, Les Villes 
 Mortes, &c. pp. 306, 390. 
 
 " Tac. Ann, iii. 44 ; Strabo, iv. 192 ; Maiquardt, Ephem. Epig. p. 203. - 
 
INCREASE OF TOWNS UNDER ROME. 203 
 
 tenance of the roads, and the exaction of the taxes '. Glancing 
 through the other provinces, we see that in Pannonia important 
 towns like Nauportus (Laibach) and Pellovia (Pettau) were of 
 Roman origin ^- In Dalmatia towns must originally have been 
 very scarce, as even under 'Rome the circuits (conventus) were 
 made up not of towns, but of decuriae. Important towns like 
 Scardona were introduced by the Romans, and there were five 
 Roman colonies in the country °- In Moesia the towns, such 
 as Sistova, Varna, Istros, Tomi, are either of Greek or Roman 
 origin; and in Dacia, as already mentioned, a number of 
 flourishing cities were planted by the Roman conquerors *. 
 The same policy was followed in Thrace, where the Romans 
 founded many towns ", and in those provinces of Asia Minor, 
 such as Bithynia or Gallacia, which were not already covered 
 with cities of Hellenic origin. Pompey made out eleven towns 
 in Pontus, and twelve in Bithynia ; other places were villages. 
 In the course of time the number of towns considerably 
 increased °. Galatia, inhabited by a brave and semi-barbarous 
 people which did not yield to Rome without a struggle, was late 
 in adopting the town-system, but when it did secui'e itself there 
 it was a great success '- The number of towns in Cappadocia 
 was originally four. This was considerably increased by the 
 Romans, and from the Christian sources of the sixth century we 
 gather that the Roman garrisons and stations on the military 
 roads had gradually risen into towns, and were the seats of 
 Christian bishoprics'. In Syria the town-system was begun 
 by the Seleucidae and completed by the Romans, with aid from 
 the Jewish kings, to whom were due such towns as Caesarea 
 and Samaria'. In Africa the towns played a great part in 
 civilising and Romanising the country. Of one tribe, which 
 was yet untouched by Roman influence (the Musulamii), Tacitus 
 informs us that they had ' none of the civilisation of cities 'V 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 14. ' lb. 139. ' lb. 146. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 155. " lb. 159. ' lb. 199. 
 
 ' Perrot, De Galatia Provincia Romana, p. 83. 
 
 " Marquardt, i. 216. ' lb. 270. " Tac. Ann. ii. 52. 
 
2o6 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 But partly by means of direct colonisation, and partly by means 
 of the gradual growth of towns from the villages of veterans, the 
 ' civilisation of cities' was fully applied to the country, and with 
 the happiest resalts; In Plin/s' time there were in Africa thirtjr 
 free towns, fifteen' municipia, and six colonies ^ ; and modem 
 travellers notice with astonishment the ruins of what must have- 
 been flourishing cities far beyond thte present limits of Algerian 
 civilisation'''. 
 Gradual ' The development of this town-system' nmst in the majority 
 to^''°^^of the cases have been gradual; it was not often that it was 
 imposed full blown upoH a country, as it was in the case of 
 Dacia; and it is interesting to watch, wberewe can, the gradual 
 growth of the! garrison into the village, and the village into the^ 
 town. The most natural vva/ in which a town grew up of 
 itself in a Roman province was from the surroundings of ■a.' 
 Roman camp ', and of course still more' readily from the camp 
 itself*. Even in the case of a temporary camp the settlers 
 pitched their tents just outside' the rampart"; and where the 
 camp was permanent, as in- Syria or Africa or on the Rhine^ 
 or Danube frontier, these rfortuitous aggregations of merchants- 
 and camp-followers soon grew into something- hke a town. 
 'It is well known thkt the castra stativa of the legions have' 
 in the majority of cases given- birth to towns; some of whicht 
 never had any name but that of the legion to which they owed 
 their origin ^' 'This inscription'' (of Troesmis in Lower 
 M'oesia) 'shows us how these towns came into existence. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 31 7. 
 
 ' Playfair, Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce^, p. 6§ and passim'. 
 
 3 Cf. Tac. Hist. iv. 22. 
 
 * Cf. the case of Lambesis in Africa. 
 
 ^ Caesar, B. G. vi. 37. 
 
 ' e. g. Leon and Caerl'eon as meationed supra. 
 
 ' The inscription is as follows .' 'Pro salute imperatorisCaesarisTrajani- 
 HadrianiAugnSti, Gaio Valerio PudBnte veterano legionis qnintae Mace- 
 donicae et Marco Ulpio Leontio magistris Canabensium et Tucoio Aelio 
 aedilibus, dono dederunt veteraniet'cives Romani consistences ^ ad' Canabas 
 legionis Quintae Madedonicae.' 
 
THE CANABAE. Z07 
 
 Sutlers and merchants came to settle in the neighbourhood of 
 the camp, and these built huts, canabas, the aggregate of which 
 soon formed a village. When this village had attained sufBcient 
 importance to have an administration of its own — a res puhlica 
 — it was given along with the title of vicus, the administration of 
 a vicus, that is, one consisting of two magisirt, two aediles, and a 
 council composed of vicani or decurions ^.' Another inscription 
 mentioning' these canabae has been found at Alrgentoratura'' 
 (Strasburg); and three more at Apulum (Carlsburg) in Daeia '- 
 We may suppose that the first canaba grew out of the legion' 
 known as VIII Augusta, which was stationed at Argentoratum, 
 and the latter from that known as XIII Gemina, which was 
 stationed in Dacia, and the name of which occurs on two of 
 the insGrifrtions of Apulum. In one of the latter we find the 
 phrase 'Kanabensium legionis X'lII Geminae,' and we may 
 suppose that, strictly speaking, Canabae or Ganabenses was never 
 a complete title by itself, but needed the addition of the name of 
 the legion to become intelligible. Where however every one knew 
 the name and number of the legion, they might very naturally 
 
 ' Renier, Inscriptions de Traesmis, in the Rdvue Arch^ologique, xii. 414. 
 
 ' M. Renier reads the inscription as follows: 'In honorem domus 
 Divinae, genio vici cannabarum et vicanorum Canabensium .... Martius 
 Optatus, qui columnam et statuam dono dedit.' 
 
 ' I transcribe them from Aolmer and Miiller: (i) 'Fortunae Augustae 
 sacrum et genio Canabensium L. Silius Maxiraus veteranus legionis I. adju- 
 tricis piae fidelis, magistras (sic) primus in Canabae dedicavit et Silvia 
 Januaria et Silius Firminus ' (No. 433 in Ackner and Miiller). (2) ' Libero 
 patri et Liberae Claudius Atteius Celer, veteranus legionis xiii. Geminae 
 Gordianae (Severianae ?) decurio Canabensium cum suis votum libens 
 solvit. Locus datus decreto decurionum' (Nio. 358 in Ackner and Miiller). 
 (3) 'Pro salute Angusti Matri deum magnae sanctum Titus Flavins 
 Longinus veteranus ex decnrione alae II. Pannoniorum decurio coloniae 
 Dacicae, decurio mimicipii Napocae, decurio Kanabensium legionis xiii. 
 Geminae, et Claudia Candida conjunx et Flavins Longinus, Clementina, 
 Marcellina filii ex imperio pecunia sua fecerunt. Locus datus decreto 
 decurionum ' (No; 387 in Ackner and MiUler). Cannaba occurs twice in 
 the Itin. Anton, pp. -189, 191, ed. Wesseling— in both cases on a Syrian road. 
 I owe the reference to Ackner and Miiller, loc. cit. 
 
2o8 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 be omitted on the inscription, as it was not worth while 
 spending time and labour to add them ' 
 Relation of However it originated, a town always included a considerable 
 ^hl°^-'° surrounding district; and in many cases tlje smaller towns were 
 rounding not themselves independent units, but were included in the 
 territory of a larger city. Nismes and Marseilles had a great 
 number of these smaller towns thus 'attributed' to them. 
 Marseilles had at one time authority over Nice and Antibes, 
 among others ; and Nismes over no less than twenty-four smaller 
 towns, each of which possessed the Latin right like herself. 
 In Italy itself the regio Herculanensium or pagus Herculaneus (it 
 is called by both names ') was included in Naples ; and Baiae 
 stood in the same relation of subordination to Cumae *. Andes 
 came under Mutina "*, and Cicero speaks of the ' many tribes 
 .which make up the municipia of Umbria".' The powerful 
 colony of Vienna (Vienne) in Gaul ' included all the country 
 of the AUobroges ^.' There were 293 states dependent on 
 others in Tarraconensis *. In almost all provincial municipia 
 and colonies there was no doubt a portion of the surrounding 
 population thus attributed; the coniributi are mentioned for 
 instance in the Lex Ursonitana, and we learn from that law 
 that they shared the military duties of the full citizen " I shall 
 have something to add upon this subject later. At present the 
 ground has perhaps been suflBciently cleared to allow of an 
 examination of the different classes of provincial towns, — the 
 
 ' I have done nothing here but give a resum^ of M. Renier's masterly 
 discussion. While on this general question of the growth of towns I may 
 refer to Marquardt, i. 2 73, for the case of Batanea, which was first a Kay.i\, 
 then a garrison, then a town, and then a colony. 
 
 '^ Plin. N. H. iii. 4 ; Strabo, iv. 1. 12 ; Appian, B. C. ii. 26 ; Zumpt, Deer. 
 Terg. p. 10. For Marseilles, Caesar, B. G. i. 35. 
 
 = Orelli, 3801 and 3795. 
 
 * Orelli, 2263. The official acting at Baiae calls himself /pro magistro in 
 his inscription ; cf. Zumpt, Comm. Epig. ii. 54. 
 
 ° Merivale, iii. 239. ^ Cic. pro Murena, 20. 
 
 ^ Renier, Melanges, p. 67. ' Plin. N. H. iii. 4. 
 
 ' § 103 of the law. 
 
CLASSIFICATION OF NON-ROMAN TOWNS. 209 
 
 non-Roman towns (including the free and federate states), the 
 colonies, and the municipia. 
 
 Section II. The non-Roman Towns. 
 
 In the enumeration which Pliny gives of the 175 towns of Three 
 Baetica he makes out nine colonies, eight municipia, twenty-nine non-Romj 
 Latin towns, sisc free towns, three federate, and 120 tributary towns, 
 (stipendiariae) \ In the list which he gives of the towns of 
 Tarraconensis the numbers are different, but the proportions 
 are precisely similar''- It appears therefore, and this is what 
 might have been anticipated, that the unprivileged towns were 
 far more numerous than those provincial towns which undet 
 the name of free or federate possessed autonomy and immunity, 
 as well as those composed of citizens with either the full Roman 
 or the Latin franchise. Unfortunately it is of this class that 
 least is known. We possess a large amount of evidence as to 
 the internal arrangements of a Roman colony or municipium, 
 and something is known of the constitutions of the more im- 
 portant free or federate towns ; but of the great mass of the 
 'stipendiariae civitates' our information is exceedingly scanty. 
 It will be better therefore to set out what is definitely known of 
 the free and federate states before proceeding to the discussion 
 of the other far more numerous class of non-Roman towns. 
 
 I. Both the federate towns and those which were called simply 
 'free' might, if desirable, be grouped under the one head of 
 ' free towns.' But it is convenient to separate them in practice, 
 because though all federate towns were free, not all free towns, 
 were federate. The federate towns were those which had made \ 
 a definite treaty with Rome, sworn to on both sides, and carved 
 on brazen tablets, of which one was kept in each cotitracting 
 city. Their position was the most favourable of all provincial 
 towns, and of course as Rome acquifed a position of absolute 
 predominance, no more were made. But there were one or 
 
 » PUny, N. H. iii. 3. ' lb. iii. 4. 
 
210 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Federate two in almost every province. There Were three in Sicily ; one 
 towns. jj^ Tarraconensis ; three in Baetica; one, Marseilles, in Nar- 
 bonensis, besides whole peoples — the Remi, ^dui, Carnuti 
 and Lingones — in Gallia Comala. Athens, Rhodes and Tyre 
 were federate towns, and four others can be pointed out in 
 Asia Minor. Cicero mentions it as an exceptional thing and 
 as a stigma on Sardinia, that in all that island there was no 
 town which was ' free and united by friendship with the Roman 
 people ^.' 
 
 It is difficult to make out the precise relation of these towns 
 to Rome. In every case the treaty expressly forbade an inde- 
 pendent foreign policy. It was open to such a town to adopt 
 the civil law of Rome or not, as it pleased; but it had no 
 choice about ratifying or declining to ratify matters concerning 
 the Empire, the wars, the safety or the victories of Rome ^- All 
 of these towns were exempt from the ordinary taxes'; and all had 
 the right if they pleased of using their own laws. Even Romans 
 living in a federate town pleaded before its courts in civil cases '. 
 But, these common features apart, there were the greatest varieties 
 in the position secured to the different federate towns by their 
 treaties with Rome. Such treaties were regularly divided into 
 favourable (aequa) and unfavourable (iniqua). An instance of 
 an iniquum foedus is that made with the Helvetians and other 
 barbarous peoples, in which it was expressly stipulated that no 
 one of them should ever become a citizen of Rome "*. The 
 treaty of Heraclea on the other hand was so exceptionally 
 favourable that its citizens were very doubtful as to whether 
 they should accept the offer of the privileges of Roman citizen- 
 ship ". In Sicily the treaties made with Messana and Tauro- 
 
 1 Cic. pro Scauro, § 44. For the whole subject see Zumpt, Studia 
 Romana, p. 315 ; Marquardt, i. 348. 
 
 ^ 1 almost translate from Cic. pro Balbo, 8. 
 
 ^ See Cic. in Verr. iii. 69, iv. 40, v. 9 for illustrations of this immunity; 
 also de Off. iii. 12. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 349. 5 Cic. pro Balbo, 14. 
 
 * Cic. pro Balbo, 8 and 22 ; pro Archia, 4. 
 
FEDERATE TOWNS. 
 
 menium differed in the important respect that the people of 
 Messana were bound to furnish a vessel at their own expense, 
 while from this burden the Tauromenians were expressly 
 excused '- 
 
 Though in all cases the foedus laid dowii the exemption of interferena 
 such towns from the interference of the governor '^, and though internal 
 they had a legal right to maintain any sort of political coijstitu- ^^^^=^°^j^^ 
 tion they might think fit, we do as a matter of fact find them 
 interfered with, and we may be sure that meins were pretty 
 generally taken to bring their constitutions up to the usual 
 timocratic level. The answer which Pompey gave to the people 
 of Messana when, on the ground of their treaty, they claimed 
 exemption from his jurisdiction, must often have been given 
 in such cases by the men of the sword'- In the case of 
 Marseilles we know that the government was a very pronounced 
 oligarchy ' : perhaps this is one reason for the elaborate 
 panegyric which Cicero more than once bestows upon the 
 placed Rhodes on the other hand had a peculiar kind of 
 democratic constitution ", which doubtless was one reason why 
 the Romans found the place difficult to deal with, and why its 
 privileges were ultimately taken away. 
 
 These towns owed their privileged position to services done Services of 
 
 *■ J • r these town: 
 
 to Rome in the past, and Rome looked to them to do it to Rome, 
 necessary similar services in the future. Cicero speaks of 
 Marseilles almost as he speaks of Narbo ', and its services were 
 doubtless great. So it was the Remi who took the lead in 
 peaceful measures when part of Gaul revolted under Civilis " ; 
 
 ' Cic. in Verr. vi. 19. ' lb. iii. 66. _ 
 
 ^ Plut. Pomp. 10 : TTapoiTOViievoiv yAp avTov ri 0^im Kal SiKoioSoaiav, ws 
 vojiiiKf iraKai^ '¥oiiiaiav aviiprjiiiva, Ov mvaidBt, iX-ntv, riiuv vm^oiaiiivois 
 £i<pij vo/jlous avaytvw{TKOVTe$ ; 
 
 * Cic. de Republ. i. 27 ; Strabo, iv. i. § 6. 
 
 " Cf. especially Cic. pro Flacco, 26. 
 
 ' Cic. de Republ. iii. .',5 ; Mommsen, it. 306. 
 
 ' Cic. pro Font. 20 : ' Ea condicione atque eo fato se in iis terns col- 
 locatam arbitratur, ne quid nostris hominibus istae gentes nocere possint.' 
 
 ' Tac. Hist. iv. 67. 
 
 P 2 
 
212 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 and Gades from the time of the Punic wars had given many- 
 substantial proofs of loyalty '- 
 These It shows however how strong was the tendency to uniformity 
 
 to become ^.nd how great the attraction exercised by Rome that we find 
 Roman. almost all these towns, whose position seems so exceptional 
 and so favourable, voluntarily renouncing it in order to become 
 colonies or municipia. In Sicily, Tauromenium became a 
 colony, and Messana apparently a municipium^ In Spain, 
 Gades becomes a municipium, under the title of municipium 
 Augusium Gadiianum^; and so also do Saguntum and Malaga, 
 both of which had previously been federate. The latter case 
 seems to show that an allied town would even accept the minor 
 privileges of the Latin right in preference to its independent 
 condition*. Similarly in Italy, both Heraclea and Neapolis 
 became Roman municipia^. It was doubtless found by these 
 towns that the advantages they enjoyed were not of a very sub- 
 stantial character, and that a more certain protection against 
 tyrannical magistrates as well as a larger opening to ambition 
 was supplied by their being incorporated into the Roman State,' 
 instead of their remaining outside it in semi-independent 
 isolation^ 
 Free towns. 2. The civitaies sine foedere imrhunes et liber ae differed for the 
 worse from the federate towns in that their freedom was secured, 
 not by the stipulation of a treaty, but by the voluntary gift of Rome, 
 and could therefore at any time be taken from them. Towns 
 which had sided with Rome in war, for instance Utica and six 
 other towns in Africa, or which, like Troas, enjoyed the special 
 
 1 Cf. Cic. pro Balbo, 17. 
 
 ^ Plin. iii. 8. He calls Messana ' civium Romanorum.' 
 
 " C. I. L. ii. 1313; Orelli, 3690, 3691. 
 
 ' Zumpt, Studia Romana, p. 316 foil., will not believe that a federate 
 town ever accepted merely the Latin franchise. But the law of Malaga 
 is against him, though he explains away its difficulties very ingeniously 
 (p. 318). 
 
 5 Cic. pro Archia, 5. § 10 ; ad Fam. xiii. 30. 
 
 « Strictly speaking, the free and allied towns did not belong to the 
 province at all ; cf. Mommsen, C. I. L. i. 99. 
 
FREE TOWNS. 213 
 
 good-will of the Senate or the emperor, received the gift. A 
 fragment of the Lex Antonia de Thermessibus which still exists 
 shows that these towns had the right to use their own laws, 
 to be exempt from soldiers being quartered on them, and to 
 use their own customs duties \ They were also, like the federate 
 towns, exempt from the taxation ; but were of course also, like 
 them, subject to the supreme disposal of the Senate. The 
 difference then between them and the federate towns lying 
 merely in their weaker legal position as against Rome'', and not 
 in any practical inferiority of privilege, we may expect to find 
 much the same features visible in them, that we have already 
 noted in the cognate class of towns. The same right of exemp- 
 tion from the jurisdiction of the governor appears in these as in 
 the federate cities'. Piso had to bribe a tribune heavily to 
 bring in a law to authorise him when governor of Macedonia 
 to decide upon cases of debt in the free city of Byzantium*. 
 But in the Greek cities at all events, which were always ' free,' it 
 is very certain that taxes were exacted, and that the governor 
 exercised the supreme jurisdiction^. It is of the cities in this 
 part of the world that Tacitus is speaking when he describes 
 them with a kind of irony as ' the allied nations and free states 
 as they were called^ ;' and we may infer from Strabo that the 
 freedom of ' Corcyra the free ' was not a matter of very much 
 consequence'. Perhaps the freedom was sometimes badly used. 
 Suetonius' says that Augustus deprived of their independence 
 some of this class- of states, ' which by their excessive licence 
 were hastening to their own ruin.' Rome endeavoured to 
 maintain control over them by favouring the aristocratic or 
 
 ' C. I. L. i. 114, No. 204. 
 
 ^ ' . . . die civitates federatae und die civitates liberae . . . nicht so sehr in 
 dem Umfang der Rechte sich unterscheiden als darin, dass das eine Ver- 
 .haltniss rechtlich, das andere bloss factisch besteht; ' Mommsen, Romische 
 Forschungen, p. 363, note. 
 
 ' Cf. Strabo, iv. 6. | 4 ; Pliny, Ep. x. 93. 
 
 * Cic. de Prov. Cons. 4. = See Mommsen's elaborate note, iii. 50. 
 
 « Tac. Ann. xv. 45. ' Strabo, vii, fragment. 
 
 ' Suet. Aug. 47. 
 
2 14 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 rather timocratic element in their constitutions^ ; we find for 
 instance the Areopagus apparentlj' the chief judicial authority in 
 Athens ^ — a strange return to the days before Pericles and 
 Ephialtes. But the affairs of these states got into confusion, 
 and such special missions as that of Pliny to the cities of 
 Bithynia are of frequent occurrence'. A good governor was 
 careful to show one of these towns special respect*, but a Verres 
 could disregard their privileges with impunity, and at all events 
 one case occurs of a magistrate of one of these towns being 
 scourged by a Roman governor" It is no wonder therefore 
 that the same causes which changed the federate cities into 
 municipia should act still more powerfully here, notwithstanding 
 that for a considerable period at all events there was much com- 
 petition for the privileges of freedom^, and that they were 
 purchased with large sums of money''. A free town would 
 naturally enough appeal to Rome for assistance in case of dis- 
 turbance in its internal affairs. Thus the free town of Halesa 
 in Sicily requested the Senate to regulate its constitution, which 
 was done by sending C. Claudius Pulcher to the place as 
 extraordinary commissioner" Similarly Caesar when praetor in 
 Spain regulated the internal affairs of Gades', and a free town 
 of Bithynia, though asserting its right to exemption from all 
 interference of the Roman governor, voluntarily submitted its 
 
 ' Cf. Marquardt, i. 238, for Syria; i. 248, for Judaea; i. 578, for Tarsus 
 and generally. The last is the important passage. The guard for the 
 defence of Byzantium, Plin. Ep. x. 82, which ' protected its privileges,' is not 
 easy to explain. Perhaps it was intended for the support of the aristocratic 
 element against the plebs. 
 
 ^ Tac. Ann. ii. 55. 
 
 2 Cf. Plin. Ep. viii. 24 : ' Messius Maximus missus in provinciam Achaiam 
 ad ordinandum statum liberarum civitatum." Henzen, 6483 : • Legato divi 
 Hadriani Athenis, Thespiis, Plateis, item in Thessalia . . . legato divi 
 Hadriani ad rationes civitatum Syriae putandas.' 
 
 ' Suet. Cal. 3 ; Tac. Ann. ii. 55, for Germanicus. 
 
 ' Mommsen, iii. 67. 
 
 « Gic. ad Qu. Fr. ii. 11, for the refusal of freedom to Tenedos. 
 
 ' Cic. de Off. iii. 22 ; Suet. Jul. 54. 
 
 ' Cic. in Verr. iii. 49. » Cic. pro Balbo, 19. 
 
THE CIVITATES STIPENDIARIAE. 2 15 
 
 affairs to Pliny's examination'. This was a tendency which 
 once begun would not stop before the assimilation of these 
 towns to the regular municipal type. Thus Nero made Puteoli, 
 which had been a free town^, into a colony %• and we find the 
 same change effected in the case of Hadrumetum, Hippo, and 
 Parentum in Africa''. 
 
 3. The great mass of provincial towns — civitates stipendiariae Civitates 
 — possessed no special privileges. That however their internal ^^e° ' 
 affairs were not very largely interfered with, and that they to a large 
 extent, at all events under a good governor, retained the use of 
 their own laws, is proved by all the evidence. Temnos had 
 five praetors, three quaestors, and four mensarii, names which we 
 may no doubt regard as translations of Greek equivalents'^. 
 Thyatira had a jSouX^ and an apxav, and its chief magistrates 
 appear to have been <TTpaTr)yoL ". In Africa we even find Sufetes'' 
 So we find a irpoayopos at Catina in Sicily", and all the Sicilian 
 cities had apparently their local Senates. Cicero frequently 
 mentions that of Syracuse, and when speaking of it gives it its 
 regular Greek name of /SouXeuriypiov'. The great change made 
 by Rome was in the direction of abolishing the democracies ; 
 though we still find thfe popular assemblies of Asia Minor 
 in some cases apparently the chief source of power, at all events 
 up to quite the end of the Republic". Under the Empire 
 timocracies seem to have been everywhere established. Only 
 those possessing a certain income were permitted the full 
 
 1 Plin. Ep. X. 56. " Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii, 31. 
 
 » Zumpt, Comm. Epig. i. 458. * lb. 
 
 ° Cic. pro Flacco, 19. 
 
 ' Perrot, pp. 5, 9 of Inscriptions d'Asie Mineure; pp. 8, 16, 23, 27 of 
 Inscriptions de la Mer Noire. 
 
 ' For Sufetes, see Orelli, 3056. 
 
 » Cic. in Verr. v. 23. ' lb. iii. 20, 21 ; v. 64, 65. 
 
 '" Cic. pro Flacco, 6 fin. ; Cic. in Verr. ii 27, for Lampsacus. But such a 
 •passage as Cic. ad Qu. Fr. i. i. 8 is significant : ' Provider! abs te ut civi- 
 tates optimatium consiliis administrentur.' A passage of Caesar, B. G. viii. 
 21, seems to suggest that the populace was always at first unfriendly to 
 Rome, and that Rome made it her business to conciliate the nobles ; cf. 
 ib. 49. 
 
2l6 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Conversion franchise of the place. So at Tarsus, besides a ^ov\r\ and a 
 
 to^ffnto S^or. there was a ' no small multitude which stood as it were 
 
 municipia. outside the constitution \' In this case the regular franchise 
 
 could only be purchased at a cost of 500 drachmae. But the 
 
 great change of all was the conversion of these towns into 
 
 ■ municipia by giving them the Roman or Latin franchise. The 
 
 Greek towns offered a passive resistance to this change^ ; and 
 
 though after Caracalla the decurtones were introduced everywhere, 
 
 we still find officers like the Spxtov at Athens, existing up to 
 
 Constantine. What were the steps by which the different town 
 
 constitutions changed into the regular decurional arrangements 
 
 no one can tell'. 
 
 Section III. Roman Towns. 
 
 There were three main classes of Roman towns, — municipia, 
 coloniae, and praefecturae, — of which the praefecturae do not 
 require our discussion, as, though frequent in Italy, and perhaps 
 the original type of all municipal towns in that country*, they 
 were not carried into the provinces. But it must not be 
 supposed that all Roman towns came under one of these three 
 heads. There were also the smaller units oi fora and con- 
 cilidbula, which are mentioned along with the three more 
 important classes in the Lex Julia Municipalise. Both of these 
 were in origin the meeting-places of the different pagi of a tribe, 
 and lingered on till late in districts where there was no town. 
 
 ^ TiKrfioi ovx bXiyov aaiiep i^aiSev t§s Tro\iT({as. Dio Chiys. ii. '43 R; 
 Marquardt, i. 518. 
 
 " Naples, though a colony, still had its demarchus and phratries ; Orelli, 
 3720, 3800, 3801. So there were astynomi at Velia, Orelli, 3804; ago- 
 nothetae and episcopus at Nice, Orelli, 4024. 
 
 * Marquardt, i. 523. Under the later Empire an official called defensor 
 civitatis was instituted to protect the plebs against the nobles of the place ; 
 Marquardt, 1. 522. These must be carefully distinguished from the defensor 
 reipublicae, defensor coloniae, &c., which occur at a much earlier period. 
 See Orelli, 3908, 3909 ; Henzen, 7088, and his note. 
 
 ' Festus maintains this ; Marquardt, i. 43. 
 
 ° §§ 26 and 27 of this law. 
 
CLASSIFICATION 01 ROMAN TOWNS. 217 
 
 Fora occur in Gaul, and of course very frequently in the Trans- Fora. 
 padane country'. They are always called after some Roman, — 
 Forum Appii, Forum Sempronii, &c., — and perhaps were in each 
 case definitely established as markets by some Roman general. 
 In course of time such country towns would be attributed to a 
 neighbouring colony or municipium, or would themselves rise 
 to an independent position. In the provinces the word vicus Vici. 
 appears to be used where one of these more definite terms 
 would be used in Italy ; and we know that a vicus regularly had 
 its own aediles^, probably elected part of the municipal senate 
 of the respublica to which it belonged', and could apparently be 
 the client of its own particular patron'. But the history of such 
 villages, where it can be traced, always shows a development 
 into the regular municipal system. All these minor towns met 
 with more or less recognition from Rome ; but the pagi which Pagi. 
 occur now and then in inscriptions had no such well-defined 
 legal position. We never for instance find them mentioned in 
 such general municipal laws as that of Rubrius or Caesar. 
 But we find magistrates calling themselves ' magistri pagi,' an 
 office which Egger compares to that of the village mayors in 
 France. Thus we find the pagus Herculaneus decreeing the 
 restoration of a covered walk with the consent of the magister 
 pagi, Cn. Laetorius ; and the chief ofiicial of the Canabae 
 appears to have been given the same title °. Even the aedile of 
 a pagus occurs" ; and the decrees of z, pagus are more than once 
 mentioned^. In Italy these pagi by the time of the later 
 
 * Pliny, N. H. iii. 20, gives a list. 
 
 ' Cf. supra on the Canabae, and Bruns, p. 84, for an inscription of the 
 vicus Furfensis, which formed part of the respublica Peltuinum in Sabinum : 
 ' Venditio, locatio, aedilis esto, quemquumque veicus Furfensis fecerint.' 
 
 * Cf. Zumpt, Comm. Epig. i. 91, and Marquardt's criticism of Zumpt, i. 
 II, note 4. 
 
 * Cf. an inscription of Yverdon, which vifas only a vicus, in Troyon, p. 523. 
 A case of iiii viri in a vicus appears to occur in the case of Aosta ; Orelli, 
 4029. 
 
 ' Willmanns, No. 2409, and ii. p. 627. For Cn. Laetorius, Orelli, 3795. 
 « C. I. L. i. p. 252, No. 1279. ' Orelli, 3984. 
 
2l8 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Republic were a mere relic of antiquity, perhaps maintained for 
 sentimental and antiquarian reasons ; but in some parts of the 
 provinces they would still be the channel by which the adniinis- 
 tration reached the people. Thus we find a prefect of the pagus 
 of the Epotes (Upuys) in GauP- 
 
 Apart from all such minor and dependent communities as 
 the above, there remains two great classes of Roman towns — 
 the colonies and the municipia. In the course of Roman 
 history we find colonies used for three different purposes, — as 
 fortified outposts in a conquered country, as a means of pro- 
 viding for the poor of Rome, and as settlements for veterans who 
 had served their time. The colonies established in Italy before 
 the latter part of the second century were of the first class, those 
 designed by Gracchus were to be of the second, and those 
 founded by Augustus were of the third. But the first sense 
 of the word never died out; Camulodunum for instance was 
 ■ founded exclusively for military purposes. Gracchus' great 
 scheme of transmarine colonisation proved in his hands abor- 
 tive, but it was not long after his death before a Roman colony 
 with full rights was settled at Narbo (b.c. ii8). It is not 
 however till the latter part of the first century b.c that the 
 system of transmarine colonisation was extensively employed. 
 Caesar settled 80,000 citizens in different colonies but of Italy, 
 and Augustus in b.c. 14 founded a number in Narbon Gaul 
 and Spain, and others in Sicily, Africa, Macedonia, Achaia, 
 Asia, and Syria. In some cases Augustus expelled the existing 
 inhabitants to make room for his colonists, and thus founded 
 entirely new towns, and in others merely added his settlers to 
 the existing population, the town then receiving the rank and 
 title of a colony^ After Augustus the system was largely 
 employed, but no doubt rather in the form of ascription of 
 colonists to existing populations, than by making entirely new 
 foundations. In many cases a place was given the rank and 
 
 ' Orelli, 4025. , 
 
 ^ Hyginus, De Lim. p. 177; Lachrti.. quoted by Mommsen. Mon. Anc. 
 p. 41. 
 
COLONIES. 219 
 
 privileges of a colony without receiving any new citizens at all. Honorary 
 Hadrian largely used this system of honorary colonies. In 
 Sicily Lilybaeum and Panormus, in Spain Italica, in Africa 
 Utica, and no less than eight towns in Narbonensis, became 
 colonies during his reign V Probably later emperors carried out 
 the same system ; we know from Aulus Gellius that muni- 
 cipia competed for the title of colony ^ ; and Commodus is said 
 to have thought of bestowing it upon Rome ! 
 
 The ceremonies usual at the foundation of a colony re- The land of 
 mained on the whole unchanged in all periods. The land was^'^°°"''' 
 parcelled out into cenluriae or squares of 200 acres each ; and 
 these again divided iijto allotments, sortes, the size of which 
 differed in different colonies. In military colonies a man 
 received a larger or a smaller share according to his rank,'. 
 From a comparison of the Mamilian Law with the law of the 
 colony of Ursao, which was founded by Caesar, it seems pro- 
 bable that Caesar established a norm of law for all matters 
 connected with the land of a colony, and that from this original 
 model the separate colonies transferred what was needed into 
 their own municipal law ' 
 
 As the greater part of these colonists were added to existing Relation of 
 towns, there were naturally frequent difiSculties between the to the na- 
 new settiers and the original inhabitants. Cicero mentions the '''*'^^- 
 disputes between the new settlers in Pompeii and the natives of 
 the place, and part of the quarrel seems to have turned upon 
 political questions". In the provinces, where the colonists 
 brought with them a distinct superiority of legal right, the 
 natives must at first have been in a disagreeable position. But 
 they probably very soon, if not at once, obtained equal rights 
 
 ' Zumpt, Comra. Epig. i. 458. 
 
 ° Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, xvi. 13. M. Aurelius made the village 
 where his wife died a colony; Capitol. M. Aurel. 26. Diocletian made Nico- 
 media a colony; Marquardt, i. 457. Caracalla or Sept. Severus Palmyra; 
 Marquardt, i. 256. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 458 ; cf. Tac. Ann. xiv. 27 for the differences of rank. 
 
 ' Bruns, p. 105, note 3. "^ 'De suffrages ;' Cic. pro Sulla, 21. 
 
220 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 with the colonists. We find the contrihuti forming part of the 
 local militia in the colony of Ursao; and where there were 
 duties there must also have been rights. The new inhabitants 
 and the old intermarried, as in the Colonia Agrippinensis^; and 
 these connexions doubtless often extended far beyond the 
 immediate boundaries of the colony '•'. On the other hand, the 
 excessive claims which a colony put forward as the repre- 
 sentative of Rome often, no doubt, provoked the jealousy and 
 hostility of neighbouring municipia or other provincial towns. 
 Jealousies Thus there was a long-standing feud between Lugdunum and 
 tween colo- Vienna, and Tacitus » represents the citizens of the former 
 nies and t^X^^.^ as savinar to the soldiers of Valens' army : ' Go to avenge 
 
 municipia. r j u ' , „. , , , . 
 
 US and utterly destroy this home of Gallic rebellion (this 
 though Vienna was a municipium and had furnished senators to 
 Rome). 'There all are foreigners and enemies; we are a 
 Roman colony, a part of the Roman army, shai-ers in your 
 -successes and reverses.' This was so far true in that the idea 
 of a colony was that it was another Rome, transferred to the 
 soil of another country. Even in the form and aspect of the 
 place Rome was imitated*, and the Roman law, with all its 
 formal usages, was transferred unchanged into the provinces ^. 
 Municipia. The difference between a colony and a full Roman muni- 
 cipium was a difference of history and, to a certain extent, of 
 rank '^, but not a difference of right or privilege. In regard to 
 their internal arrangements and constitution, what is true of- a 
 municipium is true of a colony', and it is therefore possible 
 
 ' Tac. Hist. iv. 65. " lb. iil. 34. ^ lb. i. 65. 
 
 ' Lentheric makes this remark of Narbo. 
 
 ° Cf. the Fragmentum Tudestinum, Bruns, p. 117. Compare § loj of 
 Lex Ursonitana (about limit of time for speeches) with Cic. in Verr. ii. 9 ; 
 Plin. Ep. iv. 9 ; see also § 103 of law. Cf. § 29 of Lex Sulpensana,^n. ; Lex 
 Malacitana, § i\fin., § 64. 
 
 " In an enunciation of the different classes of Roman towns in Italy the 
 order is always municipia, coloniae, praefecturae, &c. But in the provinces 
 this is reversed, and the colony is always put first. 
 
 ' The few inconsiderable exceptions to this are given by Marquardt, i. 
 481. 
 
MUNI CI PI A. 221 
 
 to discuss the municipal polities as a whole without having to 
 distinguish between the two classes of towns. The word 
 municipium was roughly used for the whole body of towns 
 with Latin or Roman right, and Gellius expressly says that the 
 citizen of a colony would habitually call himself ' municipem ' 
 and his fellow-citizens ' municipes V We even find cases in 
 which one and the same place was called colony and muni- 
 cipium at once'-', and had both duoviri and quattuorviri. 
 Ordinarily, however, it is possible to say at once whether a 
 place is a colony or a municipium, as the mention of duoviri 
 puts it into the former, while that of quattuorviri puts it into the 
 latter category \ A municipium may be defined as a provincial 
 town — not a colony —which was in possession of the Latin or 
 the full Roman franchise. The phrase so frequent in Pliny ' 
 to describe a town — quae jure Romanorum civium fruitur — is 
 just as if he had said without periphrasis, 'which is a muni- 
 cipium.' The historical difference between a colony and a 
 municipium is that which is made by Aulus Gellius, namely, 
 that the municipia were taken into the State from without, while 
 the colonies were offshoots from within. A provincial town 
 became a municipium when its inhabitants accepted the Roman 
 or Latin franchise, and when it had received the definite muni- 
 cipal constitution from a Roman governor or special com- 
 missioner. This constitution was just as necessary to make a 
 place a municipium as the possession of the Roman franchise °, 
 
 ' Aul. Gell. xvi. 13. 
 
 " C. I, L. iii. 183, No. 95 ; Orelli, 3826, 3846; cf. ; 
 
 ' There are however exceptions. We certainly find duoviri used now and 
 then of the magistrates of a municipium. Renier particularly notices this 
 in the inscriptions of Numidia (cf. Henzen, 7044, p. 416). In any case the 
 distinction, though important as a key to the student pf inscriptions, was 
 one without a difference. In a colony as well as in a municipium there were 
 four principal miagistrates ; only in a colony they were divided into duoviri 
 Jure dicundo, and duoviri aediles, whereas in a municipium they were all 
 comprehended under the one name of quattuorviri. The powers and duties 
 of each were precisely similar. * Pliny, N. H. iii. 13, 14, &c. 
 
 ° Cf. § 53 of the Lex Mamilia, Bruns, p. 105 ; ' Quae colonia hac lege de- 
 
222 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 and the occasional dictators, praetors, &c. which we find in 
 Italian municipia^ are exceptional in Italy, probably in the 
 great majority of cases came to an end with the introduction of 
 such measures as that of the Lex Julia Municipalis, and do not 
 occur at all in the provinces. 
 Origin and A municipium meant originally a community which was in 
 mean'^ngs of possession only of the incomplete franchise. By derivation the 
 the term. ^qxA is probably referable to the jus hospitii existing between 
 Rome and Italian towns ^ ; but its actual usage was for a town 
 possessing the civitas sine suflfragio, that is the right of trade 
 and intermarriage, but not the jus suffragii or the jus hono- 
 rum "- Gradually these municipia acquired the full franchise ; 
 and as this happened the meaning of the word changed, and 
 municipes came to mean men who were not actually born at 
 Rome, but were full citizens, and included in a tribe. Thus 
 Cicero was ' Civis Romanus, municeps Arpinas.' At what 
 period the change took place which established the Italian 
 municipia as independent communities under the central 
 government of Rome, but no longer administered by a prefect 
 sent from Rome, it is impossible to say; Mommsen ascribes 
 this great change to Sulla. There is, however, no direct 
 evidence for his view; and all that can be said is that after the 
 Social War and the extension of the franchise to all Italy, some 
 reorganisation of the Italian towns was necessary; that it had 
 become obviously impossible to go on treating the towns as if 
 they were but so many outlying fragrhents of Rome, and that 
 
 ducta quodve municipium, praefectura &c. constitutum erit ; ' § 30 of the 
 Lex Julia Municipalis. 
 
 ' Orelli, 3789, 3786, 378.7. Milo was dictator atLanuvium; Cic. pro 
 Mil. 10 ; cf. Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii. 34. 
 
 '' ' The receiving of a gift,' munus capere, i. e. Italians from Romans when 
 sojourning in Rome, Romans from Italians when passing through any town 
 connected with them by such a tie. See Marquardt, i. 27. 
 
 ^ Festus, p. 142 M : ' At Servius filius aiebat municipes initio fuisse, qui 
 ea conditione cives Romani fuissent ut semper rem publicam separatim a 
 populo Romano haberent, Cumanos, &c. &c., qui aeque cives Romani erant 
 . . . sed dignitates non capiebant.' Marquardt, i. 28. 
 
MUNICIPAL POLITY. 223 
 
 Sulla was the only statesmen of the period who seems to have Transfer- 
 had the head for reorganisation on a great scale. The great municipal 
 law of Caesar secured and defined this municipal independence, "^"f of 
 
 and was probably applied by Augustus to all municipia in the Italy to the 
 
 T> ' , , .1 .1 provinces. 
 
 provinces. Roman towns had naturally grown up in the con- 
 quered countries — Italica, to name one instance, had so grown 
 up in Spain; and now that the Italian municipia had been , 
 regulated, the same process must have been applied to them. 
 The arrangements of the Italian towns had been taken over we 
 may be sure without much change, and all that had to be done 
 was to regulate and legalise them. Augustus was solicitous 
 about the welfare of the municipia ^, and we shall probably not 
 be wrong in ascribing to him a considerable share in the 
 carrying out of the details of the Italian system into the 
 provinces. 
 
 Section IV. Municipal Polity and Law. 
 
 A number of inscriptions permit us to see clearly what were Composi- 
 the constituent elements of a municipal town. 'The order ' ^°^j°i.^ 
 (this was the regular name for the municipal Senate) ' and the P'"™- 
 whole people " ; ' ' the centumviri ' (the Senates consisted of 
 100 members) ' and Seviri and Augustales ' and municipal 
 citizens * ;' 'the decuriones and the people ^ ; ' 'the decuriones 
 and Augustales and the commons ° ; ' — such is the classification 
 which perpetually recurs in inscriptions recorded in the name 
 of the whole municipality. The Senate of 100 members in 
 which sat the magistrates constituted a government of a 
 decidedly oligarchical character ^, and it is no wonder that we 
 
 ' See Egger, p. 15. ' Orelli, 4045 ; cf. Henzen, 7171. 
 
 ' These were religious bodies, without political importance— to be dis- 
 cussed later. 
 
 » OrelU, 3706. = lb. 3704. " lb. 3937, 4.009. 
 
 ' The knights whom Augustus made so common in the municipia of 
 Italy at all eventi must have constituted a sort of ready-made aristocracy, 
 and no doubt were all decuriones ; cf. Suet. Aug. 46. The ' hastiferi civi- 
 tAtis Mattiacorum' — Brambach, Inscriptiones Rhenanae, 1336 — are perhaps 
 to be similarly explained. 
 
224 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 sometimes find such bitter disputes between the 'order' and 
 the ' commons ' as that which Tacitus mentions as occurring at 
 Puteoli ^ The body of the citizens elected the magistrates of 
 whom the Senate was composed, but had no further control 
 over it. The decuriones formed a town council, with more 
 power and less responsibility than town councils as we know 
 
 Theincolae. them. But besides the Senate and the citizens there was also 
 a class of settlers or incolae, commonly Roman or Latin citizens 
 who had settled in the municipium, and who for all practical 
 purposes counted as full citizens. We find a special curia set 
 apart for their votes at the municipal elections ^, and they took 
 their place in the municipal militia ^- In inscriptions recording 
 the statues or votes of thanks or other honours offered by a 
 municipium to a benefactor, we frequently find the incolae 
 mentioned along with the regular coloni or municipes of the 
 place *, as sharing in the vote, or as bearing their part of the 
 necessary subscriptions ; and cases occur of their holding office 
 
 The contri- and becoming members of the Senate °. Of the contributi, or 
 
 ""■ native population attached to a colony or municipium, I have 
 
 already said something. It is only necessary to add that they 
 
 paid a vectigal to the municipium, and pleaded in the municipal 
 
 courts °- 
 
 It used to be commonly supposed before the discovery of the 
 laws of Malaga and Salpensa', that the magistrates were elected 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xiii. 48. 
 
 ^ Lex Malacitana, § 53. = Lex Ijrsonitana, § 103. 
 
 ' C. L L. ii. 2222-2226 ; Orelli, 3705. 
 
 ■' C. I. L. ii. 213s ; Orelli, 3709, 3725. 
 
 '' Suet. Aug. 46 ; Zumpt, Deer. Tergest. p. 15. 
 
 ' The tablets were found together in a brick-pit near Malaga by two 
 woikmen, who sold them to a smith, of whom they were bought by the 
 ' Marchioni di Casa Loring,' in whose possession they still are. Berlanga 
 published an account of them in the Rivisia Pinloresca of Malaga, a copy of 
 which was sent to Vienna, and thence to Mommsen, who at once recognised 
 its importance and published a paper entitled, ' Die Stadtrechte der 
 Lateinischen Gemeinden Salpensa und Malaga der Provinz Baetica.' The 
 authenticity of the bronzes was attacked by Laboulaye — ' Les Tables de 
 Bronze de Malaga et de Salpensa traduites et annotees ' — but has not been 
 
THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. 225 
 
 by the decuriones, or that at all events all popular elections in Popular 
 the provinces came to an end at the same time as they did at of the 
 Rome, that is early in the reign of Tiberius. But these laws elections, 
 show this view to be a mistake, and that for the first century of 
 the Empire at all events the elections were of a strictly popular 
 character, and excited a good deal of emulation and a strong 
 political interest. The chief magistrates were six in number ; 
 two duumvirs, two aediles, and two quaestors, and were changed 
 annually. On the day of election the senior duumvir, or if he 
 was prevented, his colleague, presided, and was required to see 
 that the curies into which the citizens were divided should give 
 their votes in accordance with the prescribed arrangements'. 
 He had to put to the vote first the candidates for the duumvirate^ 
 then thof e for the aedileship, and lastly those for the quaestor- 
 ship, all of them ' from that class of free-born men, concerning 
 which this law has made provision ''.' No one was to be pro- 
 posed duumvir who was under twenty-five years of age, or who 
 had held the office less than five years ago. No one was to be 
 admitted as a candidate for the aedileship or quaestorship who 
 was less than twenty-five, or who had anything against him 
 which, if he were a Roman citizen, would prevent him from 
 being a decurio in a Roman municipium ". What these dis- 
 
 since impugned (Hiibner, C. I. L. ii. p. 259). The peculiarity about the 
 ' find ' was that the bronze of Salpensa was discovered along with that 
 of Malaga, though Salpensa was at some distance. Berlanga supposes that 
 the Salpensans had to fly from a barbarian attack to Malaga, and brought 
 their bronze with them ; Mommsen that the Malagans lost or somehow 
 destroyed part of their bronze, and instead of making another found it 
 cheaper to buy up part of that of Salpensa, the latter place having already , 
 
 fallen into ruin. Hiibner doubts Salpensa's having fallen into ruin so early, 
 but allows that in any case we must explain the fact of the Salpensan bronze 
 being where it was, by some extraordinary cause. Perhaps, he says, the 
 bronzes got mixed up during the Middle Ages, As it stands the com- 
 mencement of the law is wholly lost ; |§ 21-29 ^^e supplied by the bronze 
 of Salpensa ; §§ 51-69 by that of Malaga. 
 
 ' Lex Malacitana, § 52. The part of the law containing these pi escribed 
 arrangements is lost. ^ lb. § 54- 
 
 » lb. § 54/». The last four words which, I have supplied are I think 
 
 Q 
 
226 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 qualifications were we may infer with some confidence from the 
 great measure of Julius Caesar, where it is provided that no one 
 should be competent to hold oflfice or enter the Senate in any- 
 Roman municipium or colony who was engaged in any petty 
 trade, like that of a public crier or an undertaker ; no convict ; 
 no gladiator ; no bankrupt ; no exile ; no one proved guilty of 
 libel or collusive accusation ; no one who had been degraded in 
 the army, or expelled the army; no actor; no pimp; no infamously 
 immoral man ; no one who had conspired against the life of a 
 Roman citizen ^ If no candidates or too few offered them- 
 selves, the magistrate holding the elections had to make out a 
 list of sufficient and fit persons. These involuntary candidates 
 were allowed to name the same number of new candidates as 
 they themselves amounted to (thus five could name five, and ten 
 could name ten) ; and these latter again could name a similar 
 number. Then the names of the whole number were to be 
 posted, and the elections made from them '■'. The electors gave 
 their votes by curies,^ — each curia in its own enclosure, — and 
 three citizens were told off to receive the votes of each curia, 
 and were bound by oath to count and report them honestly ^ 
 Before declaring a successful candidate elected the presiding 
 magistrate made him take an oath of obedience to the municipal 
 law * ; and each candidate before the voting began had to name 
 securities, who would go bail for him that during his year of 
 office the public money would be safe in his hands. If the 
 securities did not appear to the presiding magistrate to be 
 sufficient, he could refuse to accept any man's candidature *. 
 
 In this law the provisions as to the nomination of involuntary 
 candidates have a bad air ; but the rest of the evidence would 
 lead us to conclude that this law, like other laws, was calculated 
 to meet unusual emergencies as well as everyday circumstances, 
 and that in the first century at all events candidates were by no 
 
 inferrible from the Latin. Perhaps they were understood to convey a 
 refeience to the Lex Julia Municipalis. 
 
 ' See §§ S3-141 of the Lex Julia Municipalis. 
 
 = Lex Malacitana, § 51. ' lb. § 55. * lb. § 59. = lb. § 60. 
 
POWERS OF THE MUNICIPAL MAGISTRATES. 227 
 
 means slow to offer themselves for the municipal magistracies. 
 Bribery and corruption by means of a good dinner is expressly 
 forbidden in the law of Ursao, and the number of guests that a 
 candidate may invite every day is positively laid down \ So in 
 the well-known Tabula Pisana it is mentioned that at one time, 
 ' owing to the quarrels of the candidates,' the place had no 
 magistrates '■' ; and some curious scrawls on the walls of Pompeii 
 show us how the goldsmiths, and the fishermen, and others 
 interested themselves in the elections. ' The fishermen want 
 Popidius Rufus made aedile'.' 'The whole body of gold- 
 smiths propose C. Cuspius Pansa to be aedile *.' ' Fortunata 
 wants Marcellus *.' The restrictions of age and other qualifica- 
 tions necessary for candidature could hardly have been main- 
 tained if there had been much difiiculty in obtaining candidates. 
 
 The powers of some of these magistrates appear to have been The 
 considerable. The aedile was probably very much of the nature 
 of an honorary post ; it was ordinarily the one first held ; and was 
 no doubt, as at Rome, an expensive office to the holder. The Quaestors, 
 quaestors had the charge of the revenue and expenditure of the 
 municipium, and there were strict regulations as to the rendering 
 of their accounts ^. The duoviri, as their name implies, were in Duoviri. 
 the first place magistrates for the administration of justice. All 
 cases which were not of such importance as to come under the 
 jurisdiction of the Roman governor were decided by them, and 
 there is reason to believe that as a rule the governor left the 
 municipia to manage their affairs as they pleased''. 'Let no 
 one administer justice in this colony except the duumvir, the 
 duumvir's prefect, or the aedile,' says the Lex Ursonitana". 
 
 • ]>x Ursonitana, § 132. ^ Orelli, 643. 
 » Orelli, 3700 : ' Popidium Rufum ^d. piscicapi faciunt.' 
 
 * ' C. Cuspium Pansam ISA. aurifices universi rogant ; ' ib. 
 
 » ' Marcellura Fortunata cupit.' Orelli puts this with the rest. Perhaps, 
 after all, it is only the relic of a love affair. 
 
 ° Lex Malacitana, § 67, 1 take to refer to the quaestors. 
 ' Cf. what Strabo, iv. i. § 12, says of Nemausus. 
 
 ' §94- 
 
 Q 2 
 
2 28 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Judicial According to the usual Roman system of administering justice 
 the duoidri. 'he duumvir appointed the jury to try the case, but it lay with 
 him to secure the presence of the witnesses, to put them on 
 oath, and if need were to expedite the decision of a suit ^ It 
 was laid down that a duumvir should not take his seat before 
 the first, nor keep it after the eleventh hour, except in cases 
 which by the municipal law had to be decided in the course of 
 one day^. If a decurio was accused of being unfit for his 
 position, the duumvir was called upon to try the matter, and if 
 he gave an adverse decision, that decurio ipso facto ceased to 
 be decurio '. The duumvir, prefect, or aedile had the power of 
 imposing fines, subject only to the right of appeal to the muni- 
 cipal Senate *. It seems however that a too despotic magistrate 
 could be controlled by the interference of his colleague. Duumvir 
 could interpose against duumvir, quaestor could interpose against 
 quaestor, and aedile against aedile ^. The duumvirs could also 
 interpose against the aediles or quaestors, whUe they on the 
 other hand had no power of interposing against their superiors. 
 The same subordination of these magistrates to the duumviri 
 appears from the fact that though the aedile could impose a fine, 
 he was obliged to acquaint the duumviri with the amount of the 
 fine he had imposed '. Nor were the duumviri confined solely 
 to judicial functions. In case of any employment of the local 
 militia, such as is mentioned in the law of Ursao, it was the 
 duumviri who received authority from the Senate to command 
 the troops '. It was they who were responsible for the appoint- 
 ment of the keepers of the temples, for the performance of the 
 ludi circenses, sacrifices, and pulvinaria ' ; and they seem to have 
 had considerable powers over what we should suppose would be 
 the special business of the quaestors, the municipal finances '. 
 If a man wanted, to manumit a slave, he could do so by going 
 through the ceremony in the presence of the duumvir '" ; and, at 
 
 M 95- ' § 102. 
 
 ' § 105. 
 
 * Lex Malacitana, § 65. 
 
 = Lex Malac. §27. 
 
 « lb. § 66. 
 
 ' Lex Urson. § 103. 
 
 ' lb. § 128. 
 
 
 ° Lex Malac. §§ 60, 63, 64. 
 
 " Lex Salpens. § 28. 
 
 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE DUOVIRI. 229 
 
 all events in Latin municipia, the duumvir had the power of 
 appointing a guardian to a ward'- In case of need the 
 authority of a duumvir would be supported by the special 
 interference of the governor of the province. Thus a letter is 
 extant from Claudius Quartinus, governor of Tarraconensis in the 
 time of Hadrian, to the duumviri of Pampelona, to the eflfect that 
 they can carry out the powers of their office against malcontents — 
 ' Jus magistratus vestri exseqUi adversus contumaces potestis ''.' 
 But if the power of the duumvir was assured as regarded the Relation of 
 mass of the citizens, it does not seem to have been equally well 10**"^™ 
 defined as against the decuriones — a feature in which the muni- curfones. 
 cipia sufficiently resembled their great prototype, Rome itself. 
 Apparently any decurio could request the duumvir to refer any 
 matter concerning the public money, or as to fines or punish- 
 ments, or as to public sites, lands, and buildings, to the body of 
 the decuriones for investigation or decision, and whatever the 
 decuriones determined was to have the force of law'. The 
 duumvir seems to have habitually consulted the decuriones in 
 regard to the more important details of the administration*; and it 
 is expressly laid down that all duumviri, aediles, prefects, or 
 decuriones of the colony are to obey the decrees of the decuri- 
 ones, and to carry out whatever they may be ordered by decree 
 of that body " But it can easily be imagined that a man of 
 resolution could exercise very extensive powers, and not refer 
 more to the Senate than had been done sometimes by the 
 Roman consuls. We find a duumvir at Vienna ordering the 
 total abolition of the games, and although the matter was 
 brought to Rome on appeal, and it was alleged that he had no 
 powers for such an act, his order was maintained °. The men 
 who, as in some cases, were magistrates of several important 
 
 • Lex Salp. § 29. 
 
 " C. I. L. ii. 402, No. 2959. ' Lex Ursonitana, § 96. 
 
 • lb. § 99. On the other hand, for a valid decree the presence of the 
 magistrates was apparently essential ; see the Tabula Pisana ; Orelli, 643 ; 
 Zumpt, i. 51. 
 
 " Lex Urson. § 129. ° PHn. Ep. iv. 22. 
 
230 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 municipia at once\ must have been persons of power and 
 influence, and must to a large extent have escaped the control 
 of the local Senates. It is worth mentioning in this connexion 
 that in municipia or colonies which were near a frontier or other- 
 wise of any military importance, we frequently find the municipal 
 magistracies held by old soldiers or officers of the army ^ a fact 
 which looks as if their authority must have been of a very 
 practical kind. 
 The The praefecti who so frequently occur in municipal inscrip- 
 
 praefSi!' tions are to be regarded as taking the place of the duoviri. In 
 the municipal laws the commencement of a clause often runs, 
 'Let the duumvir or the prefect' do this or that. These 
 prefects had the regular authority of the duumvir delegated to 
 them, and come into existence in two different ways, either 
 because the duumvir was absent, or because at the time there 
 was no duumvir. If one of the duumvirs absented himself he 
 was represented by his colleague, but if the second duumvir 
 also absented himself he had to appoint a prefect to represent 
 them both '. More important was the arrangement by which 
 the emperor was elected first magistrate of a municipium, and 
 then appointed a prefect to take his place. ' In case the 
 municipium elected Domitian to be their duumvir, and Domitian 
 accepted the honour, and appointed a prefect to represent him, 
 that prefect was to have in every respect the full authority of 
 a duly-elected duumvir;' — so runs the twenty-fourth clause of 
 the law of Salpensa. Hadrian used this system largely, and 
 his biographer mentions him as having been dictator, aedile, 
 duumvir, demarch, quinquennalis, archon, at all sorts of diflferent 
 towns both in Italy and in the provinces *. Juba, the literary 
 
 • Cf. Orelli, 3885, 3985. Perrot, Mer Noire, pp. 25, 26, may be referred 
 to, though his remarks relate only to non-Roman towns. 
 
 ^ Orelli, 3789, 4025 ; Finazzi, Antiche Lapide di Bergamo, p. 83 ; Zumpt, 
 Comm. Epig. i. 150. The praefectus of Forojulium has been already men- 
 tioned. ' Cf. Lex Uison. § 93 ; Lex Salp. § 25. 
 
 ' Spartian, Hadrian, 19 ; Zumpt, 1. 56 ; Marquardt, i. 493, note 3 ; cf. 
 Orelli, 3817. 
 
THE QUINQUENNALES. 231 
 
 king of Numidia, was quinquennalis and patron of Carthagena S 
 and a Ptolemy of Egypt was duumvir of Gades '- But besides 
 prefects of this character, who are important as representing the 
 encroachments of the central government upon the municipia, 
 we also find in cases where the magistracies were vacant a 
 prefect appointed to fill them by the decree of the decuriones. 
 The earlier arrangement had apparently been that in such 
 cases, as at Rome, an interrex' should be appointed. But 
 the Lex Petronia passed at the end of the Republican period 
 gave the local Senates the power of choosing prefects, and we 
 find prefects of this kind regularly entitled ' praefecti lege 
 Petronia ' or ' praefecti ab decurionibus creati *.' 
 
 The quinquennales of a municipium corresponded to the The quin- 
 Roman censors. They were charged with the duties connected q'^ennales. 
 with the census, looked after the municipal revenues, and 
 contracted for municipal buildings. We find some cases, even 
 under the Empire, for instance Malaga, where the censorial duties 
 were discharged by the ordinary duoviri ; but as these duties 
 became more and more important we find the Romans more 
 and more insisting on something like their own censorship every- 
 where. In years when there were quinquennales there were no 
 ordinary duoviri ; their full title was duoviri quinquennales ; and 
 they appear to have been chosen instead of the ordinary magis- 
 trates. They were called quinquennales not because they held 
 offiM for five years — their tenure, like that of the other magis- 
 trates, was simply annual — but because there was always a five 
 years' interval from one census to another ^ 
 
 » C. I. L. ii. 465 ; Eckhel, iv. 158. ' Masdeu, viii. 41. 
 
 ' Cf. the Lex Urson. § 130. This title looks as if much in the municipal 
 arrangement was borrowed straight from old Rome. It is in any case 
 certain that much was borrowed from old Italy : it is only necessary to 
 point to the assembly by curies. 
 
 * Marquardt, i. 494; cf. Orelli, 3679, 3818. At Narbo and Nice the 
 praefectus pro duumviro seems to have been a permanent official ; Orelli, 
 4023, 4024 ; cf. 4025, 4027. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 4S7 ; Henzen, p. 423. A few of the inscriptions referring 
 to quinquennales are— Orelli, 3821, 3822, 3823, 3852, 3853. If the emperor 
 
curiones. 
 
 232 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 The The Amusiales so frequent in the inscriptions were origi- 
 
 Augustales ,,, ,.. j--j 
 
 andSeviri. naily connected with the worship of Augustus, and imitated 
 from the sodales Augustales at Rome. The Seviri Augustaks 
 are to be distinguished from the regular Augustales ; they appear 
 to have been one year members of the same college of which 
 the regular Augustales were life members ; and the latter ap- 
 parently stood in a relation of subordination to them '. The 
 Augustales were chosen decreto decurionum, and in rank stood 
 next to the decuriones. Their duties were purely religious. 
 Before very long the office, like that of decurio, came to be a 
 burden, and became hereditary. An instance occurs of a man's 
 bequeathing money to Barcino (Barcelona) on condition that 
 his freedmen and their children, if elected seviri, should be 
 ' excused all the burdens of the sevirate ^.' 
 
 The de- The municipal Senate was composed of a definite number 
 
 of life members, generally 100 — we sometimes find the term 
 centumviri used instead of decuriones. It would have been 
 an impertinence for these municipal assemblies to call them- 
 selves ' Senate,' and if we do occasionally find the terms 
 ' patres ' or ' senatores ' used of the decuriones, the case was 
 at all events a very exceptional one '. We do not know how 
 these municipal Senates were first set going ;. perhaps its 
 members were chosen by the founder of the colony, or the man 
 who constituted the municipium ; but once started, the arrange- 
 ment was that every five years the quinquennales should hold a 
 lectio senatus, and make up the list of decuriones *. In this 
 
 was elected quinquennalis, there was a praefectus quinquennalitalis ; Orelli, 
 3876. 
 
 ' This is concluded by Henzen, 7165, from an inscription of an unknown 
 colony in which the phrase ' eorum (sc. Augustalium) Seviri ' occurs ; cf. 
 Orelli, 3706, where the Seviri rank first. The Seviri were divided into 
 Seniores and Juniores ; Orelli, 3941, 3944, 3945. General inscriptions re- 
 lating to the Seviri are — Orelli, 3914, 3920, 3923, 3929 (mostly freedmen). 
 
 * C. I. L. ii. 4514. 
 
 ' Cf. Orelli, 3750, 4031, 3736, 3S92, 3905, for real or apparent ex- 
 ceptions. 
 
 * Marquardt, i. 50, note. 
 
COMPOSITION OF A MUNICIPAL SENATE. 233 
 
 were put down first the old senators, then the magistrates 
 whose oflSce gave them a claim to a seat, then those citizens 
 who without having held office were qualified by their property 
 to be decurions. Taking an actual album — of Canusium — still 
 existing, we find the following list : thirty-one patrons of sena- 
 torial rank; eight patrons of equestrian rank; seven quin- 
 quenalicii (men who had been quinquennales) ; four allecti 
 inter quinquennales ; twenty-nine duumviralicii ; nineteen aedi- 
 licii; nine quaestoricii ; thirty-two pedani; twenty-five pretextati. 
 These patrons were influential Romans (elected by the de- 
 curiones), from whom a certain protection and assistance at 
 Rome was expected, and who were put first by way of com- 
 pliment. Two-thirds of the decurions had to vote for a 
 patronus for the vote to have validity; and if any one offered 
 the patrocinium to any Roman except in accordance with such 
 a vote, he was to be fined 10,000 sesterces, and the offer was 
 to be null and void \ That they were not really acting members 
 of the Senate is proved by the fact that if we cut them and the 
 pretextati off the list, we have the normal number of 100 left'', 
 ^ut if they were not acting members of the municipium they were 
 often considerable benefactors of it, and an immense number 
 of inscriptions record the gratitude of the citizens to some rich 
 and powerful patron *. By the allecti inter quinquennales must 
 be understood men elected in an extraordinary manner, and 
 not possessing the usual qualifications *. They were generally 
 men who had done special services, and who, with the emperor's 
 leave, by decision of the Senate were made decurions. Pedani 
 
 ' Lex Malac. § 61 ; cf. Lex Urson. § 97. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 508 ; Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii. 35 for 100 as the normal 
 number. 
 
 » Orelli, 3771. It is curious to find several instances of women as 
 patrons of municipia ; cf. a remarkable inscription, Orelli, 4036, and see 
 (Orelli, 5773, 3774- Perhaps such women were friends of the empress, or in 
 other ways possessed exceptional influence. 
 
 * For the way the verb adUgo is used cf. Suet. Claud. 24, 'Appium 
 Caecum censorem . . . libertinorum filios in senatum adlegisse docuit ; ' 
 Marquardt, i. 508 ; cf. Orelli, 3725, 3745, 3816. 
 
234 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 is explained by Aulus Gellius (iii. i8) to mean those who had 
 the right to a place in the Senate, but who were not yet called 
 senators because they had come in after the last lectio Senatus, 
 and so had not yet been formally chosen by the quinquennales '. 
 By praetextaii are meant sons of decuriones, included in the 
 album for some special reason, but not capable of votings- 
 All decuriones, to whichever of these classes they might belong, 
 had to possess a certain amount of property to be ehgible ^, and 
 had to pay into the municipal treasury a certain sum of money 
 as honorarium ' 
 oHhe dl^ The decuriones were in theory, like the Senate at Rome, the 
 curiones. Standing executive body, from which the magistrates received 
 their orders, and with whom they consulted on all important 
 matters. Appeal could be made to them from a fine imposed 
 by a duumvir; and all magistrates who had the handling of 
 public moneys were obliged to send in their accounts either to 
 the decuriones or to some inspector appointed by the de- 
 curiones °- It was to the decuriones that rescripts of the 
 emperor touching the affairs of the municipium were directed S 
 and on all public occasions they represented the municipium ; 
 for instance, they had the first seats at the games '- No vahd 
 decree could be passed without a quorum, which was often 
 made a large one, being present ^ A number of such decrees 
 
 ' Zumpt, Stud. Rom. p. 297, discusses the Pedam. 
 
 ' Marquardt, i. 509; cf. Orelli, 3745: 'Hunc decuriones, cum esset 
 annorum sexs, ob liberalitatem ordini suo gratis adlegerunt.' Apparently 
 the father wanted the boy made a decurio at the age of six, one cannot tell 
 why, and so restored a temple in the boy's name ; cf. 3747. 
 
 ' Pliny, Ep. i. 19, shows that it was 100,000 sest. at Como. 
 
 * Cf. Plin. Ep. X. 48, 113. See the Decretum Tergestium supra, and Mar- 
 quardt, i. 501. For a use of this pecunia honoraria see Kandler, 43. 
 
 = Lex Malac. § 67. 
 
 ^ So the curious letter of Vespasian to Sabora is addressed to the 
 quattuorviri indecuriones, C. I. L. ii. 195 ; a* also another letter of Ves- 
 pasian 'to the magistrates and senators of the Vanacini' (N. Corsica), 
 Bruns, p. 173. i Lex Uison. § 125. 
 
 " Orelli, 4034, ' In Decurionibus fuerunt xxvi ; ' Lex Urson. § 130. Two- 
 thirds necessary to elect a patron ; cf. §§ 96 and 97 of the same law. 
 
ESTABLISHMENT OF CURATORS. 235 
 
 have been preserved to us in the form of inscriptions. Most Decrees 
 often they refer to statues or some such honour, which is°^ones^" 
 offered in return for some benefaction received. A curious 
 one is the decree of biselliatus, or of the right of sitting by 
 yourself in a seat large enough for two, — an honour that 
 appears to have been highly coveted ^ The most important 
 among such decrees is that of Tergeste, which I have already 
 given in full, but hardly any of them are without antiquarian or 
 historical interest of some kind. 
 
 With the constitution, in which though not perfect there 
 seems to have been on the whole a fair balance of power, the 
 municipal towns seem to have flourished at all events during 
 the first century of the Empire. But about the reign of Trajan 
 we see signs of a decay in the vigour and resources of the 
 municipia, one clear evidence of which is the establishment of 
 the new officials known as curators ^. 
 
 The curators in the long run superseded the quinquennales, The 
 but their functions do not seem to have been identical with 
 thdise of those officials. The principal function of the quinquen- 
 nalis was the lectio senatus, whereas with that the curator had 
 nothing whatever to do. The business of the curator was 
 purely financial : he had the charge of the municipal moneys. 
 This is indicated by the Greek name for the office — Xo^htt^i, — 
 by the Latin term — ratiocinatio civitatis " — which is applied to 
 it, and by several passages from the Digests '. It was probable 
 that it was an annual magistracy, as otherwise it is difficult to 
 
 ' Cf. Millin, Pompeii, p. 78, referred to by Orelli on 4044 ; cf. Orelli, 
 4046 : ' Liceatque ei omnibus spectaculis municij^io nostro bisellio proprio 
 inter Augustales considere.' Cf. 4047, 4048. 
 
 " The chief modem authorities I have used in this discussion are Zumpt, 
 Comm. Epig. i. 148-158 ; Renier, Melanges d' EfigrapJiie, p. 46 foil. ; 
 Marquardt, i. 488 foil., to whom I refer for more details. 
 
 ' Dig. xxvii. I. 15. 7. . 
 
 * Dig. 1. 4. 18. 9 : ' Sed et curatores qui ad coUigendos civitatum publicos 
 reditus eligi solent.' Cf. Ulpian in Dig. 1. 8. 3. i ; Paulus in Dig. xxxix. 3. 
 46 ; Zumpt, Comm. Epig. In an inscription given by Zumpt, i. 158, we 
 find the same man quinquennalb and curator of the same place. 
 
236 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Two classes account for its being held by such important personages as it is. 
 
 of curators, jj. ^^ ^j^j^ ^^ discover how the curators were elected, it is neces- 
 sary first to distinguish the two diflferent kinds of curators. 
 
 Curators i. Curators for special purposes. 2. Curatores rei publicae. 
 
 pirrposS^' The first class of curators are frequently mentioned in the 
 municipia, and were generally chosen by the assembly ^ Occa- 
 sionally we find even these curators appointed by the emperor ^. 
 Perhaps, as Zumpt conjectures, these towns themselves peti- 
 tioned the emperor to appoint such officials for them, or that 
 when he had spent money on their buildings he appointed 
 
 Curatores a curator to see that the work was properly performed. Quite 
 
 '■^'P'*"'^^^- different from these special curators were the curatores rei 
 publicae, of whom the first example occurs under Nerva or 
 Trajan. If the emperor wanted the accounts of any town to 
 be reorganised he appointed an extraordinary curator, generally 
 a municipal citizen. Thus we have a duumvir quinquennalis of 
 Brixia acting as ' curator rei publicae Bergomatium datus ab 
 imperatore Trajano, curator rei publicae Comensis datus ab im- 
 peratore Hadriano ^.' We never find these curators mentioned 
 as appointed in any Other way than this. So we gather the 
 origin of these curators. They were always appointed by tl^e 
 emperor. But as long as is added to their title the phrase 
 ' given by such and such an emperor,' they are extraordina^ . 
 magistrates. Now after Septimius Severus this phrase does not 
 occur, although it is known that there were curators in every 
 municipium. Zumpt's conclusion is that they then ceased .10 * 
 be extraordinary and became ordinary magistrates. The reascms 
 for making this magistracy a permanent one are obvious. 
 Being directly appointed by the emperor the curators had 
 naturally greater powers than the ordinary municipal magis- 
 
 ' Orelli, 3882 : ' In comitiis facto curatori.' Zumpt says by the'de- 
 curiones, but he gives no evidence, and appears to think that all magistrates 
 were chosen by the decuriones— an idea which vpas generally held till the 
 discovery of the laws of Salpensa and Malaga. 
 
 "^ Orelli, 4006, 4007, 401 1 ; of Suet. Tit. 8. 
 
 = Orelli, 3898, 3899, 3902. 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE CURATOR. 237 
 
 trates ; and as the local finances all over the Empire got more 
 and more into a bad way, the old magistracies got less and less 
 able to deal with them. So either Sept. Severus or Alex. 
 Severus made the curator a regular magistrate. We learn from 
 Ulpian ' that the curator presided in the municipal senate ; and 
 he discusses the office in other respects in a way which shows 
 that it was a regular one in his time, though novel. So the 
 upshot is that originally curatores were appointed by the emperor 
 to meet some special need or distress of a municipality; and 
 then little by little became regular and permanent magistrates. 
 But they still were always appointed directly by the Emperor. 
 
 Besides finance, all matters in regard to public buildings, &c. Matters 
 within a municipium were regulated by the curator. Thusby^e'^ 
 we find an inscription of Caere which records that a certain '^"'"'*'°''- 
 Verbinus wanted to build a phretrium for the municipium at 
 his own expense. So it was determined by the decuriones 
 to write to the curator to ask permission for the work. The 
 curator, who was at Ameria, writes back to give his consent, 
 with a number of complimentary expressions ^ We find a man 
 curator of several municipia at once ', or curator of one muni-i 
 cipium and decurio of another ; and in some cases the duties 
 are discharged by an official of very high rank ■*, no doubt in 
 one of the intervals of leisure in Italy which intervened between 
 important provincial commands. 
 
 This system of substituting imperial for municipal officials Decay of 
 was probably begun with the best intentions, but it marked an dpi™""'" 
 evil change. The brightest feature in the whole Roman system 
 fades before us, as we see this government official taking the 
 duties and the responsibilities out of the hands of the municipal 
 magistrates. With the decrease in power came an increase in 
 the burdens laid upon the magistrates and decuriones. Already 
 in the decree of Tergeste we find the inhabitants eager for the 
 incorporation of new citizens, that they might share the duties 
 of the decurionate, ' which are burdensome to a few.' The 
 
 ' Dig. 1. g. 4. " Orelli, 3787. » lb. 3898. * lb. 3851." 
 
238 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTR. TON. 
 
 local magistrates were now appointed from the Senate, and the 
 Senate was compulsorily filled up from landholders possessing 
 the needful amount of property. Even before this change 
 came about, and while the elections were still in the hands 
 of the assemblies, we find in an inscription of Aquileia the 
 record of a vote of thanks on a statue being ofi"ered to a man 
 because he had of his own accord given in his name to the 
 quattuorvir for municipal office'. The tendency in the inscrip- 
 tions is either to substitute the word onus for honor when the 
 municipal offices are mentioned, or at all events to put the 
 two words side by side ^ The office of decurio became 
 hereditary, and in the fourth century it was a regular punish- 
 ment to make a man decurio'- A man could not avoid his 
 responsibilities to the State even by enUsting in the army. The 
 reason of this was that the decuriones were held responsible 
 for the quota of taxation which the town was called upon to 
 furnish; and as the concentration of wealth in a few handfe 
 the dislocation of commerce and industry caused by the balS 
 barian inroads, and the increasing demands of the centrqi* 
 administration for the payment of its countless ofiicials and thfe 
 maintenance of its troops all went together, the weight of the 
 taxation both upon the middle and lower classes, and upon the 
 decuriones who had to make good a deficit, became more thata 
 human nature could endure '- ' 
 
 ' Orelli, 4041. 
 
 ' lb. 3940 : ' Omnibus oneribus honoribusque fiincto.' 
 
 " Marquardt, i. 512. 
 
 * For the municipia in the Constantine period, see Finlay, i. 1 10. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 How far did this great mass of the Roman Empire form a 
 unity? Along with the many causes which tended to bring 
 about a certain uniformity between all its parts, there were at 
 least two centrifugal causes at work. The essential difference 
 between East and West was never got over, and the rise of a 
 new religion divided for some time the Roman world into the 
 two great classes of Pagans and Christians. It is only with 
 Constantine that Christianity ceases to divide and becomes 
 rather a bond of union. It was as introducing disunion and 
 division that it was so fiercely attacked ; and persecutors would 
 have justified themselves by similar reasons to those which have 
 been urged in modern times. But the universal peace, the 
 active trade, the community of feeling caused by the possession 
 of like privileges and like interests, the diffusion of the Romans 
 over the provinces and the way the different races of the Empire 
 penetrated into the parts most removed from their own homes, 
 the one language, and the one administration, — all these tended 
 
 , to make of Europe a single brilliant whole. Nor were the 
 frontiers a strict and impassable line, and we should err if we 
 looked upon the Roman world as a space of light and civilisa- 
 tion surrounded by a black night of barbarism. On every side 
 the light radiated out beyond the frontier, and it. is only by slow 
 
 I degrees that it faded into the dim Northern world. The races 
 just beyond the frontier were in many cases in a condition of 
 more or less real subjection. They were visited by Roman 
 traders, and now and then had even the pleasure of listening to 
 a company of Greek or Roman players. If the barbarians had 
 been wholly barbarians they would hardly have shattered the 
 power of Rome. Mere savages never have held their own and 
 
240 ROMAN PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 never will against civilised troops. Even the typically German 
 hero Arminius had served in the Roman legions and could 
 apparently talk Latin, while his brother Flavus remained faithful 
 to the service which he forsook. Tacfarinas had served as an 
 auxiliary in the Roman camp in Africa, and Boiocalus, chief of 
 the Ampsivarii, had served under Tiberius and Germanicus. 
 When Classicus rebelled he assumed the insignia of a Roman 
 general and Civilis had himself saluted Caesar. Among the 
 Parthians there were the Roman prisoners who had survived 
 Carrhae, and the Germans also had often spared and taken 
 back their captives with them across the Rhine. As the burden 
 of the taxes and the conscription grew heavier, it became a 
 common practice for Roman subjects to settle beyond the 
 frontier, and so secure themselves from the recruiting officer and 
 the tax-gatherer. In this way the barbarians themselves were 
 half Romanised, and it was not till the brutal Huns, lying far 
 outside the radius of Roman influence, had fought their way 
 southwards, that the Southern world felt the full bitterness of 
 conquest. The rapidity with which the invaders of the fourth 
 century adapted themselves to their new position, and the 
 almost timid conservatism which their leaders in some points 
 showed, attest the impression made both on their intellects and 
 their imaginations by the colossal and majestic system which 
 Rome had reared.