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The Roman provinces (Latin : provincia, pl. provinciae) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as governor. [1] [ better source needed ]
For centuries, it was the largest administrative unit of the foreign possessions of ancient Rome. [1] With the administrative reform initiated by Diocletian, it became a third level administrative subdivision of the Roman Empire, or rather a subdivision of the imperial dioceses (in turn subdivisions of the imperial prefectures). [1]
A province was the basic and, until the Tetrarchy (from AD 293), the largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside Roman Italy.
During the republic and early empire, provinces were generally governed by politicians of senatorial rank, usually former consuls or former praetors. [1] [ better source needed ] A later exception was the province of Egypt, which was incorporated by Augustus after the death of Cleopatra and was ruled by a governor of only equestrian rank, perhaps as a discouragement to senatorial ambition. [1] That exception was unique but not contrary to Roman law, as Egypt was considered Augustus's personal property, following the tradition of the kings of the earlier Hellenistic period. [1]
The English word province comes from the Latin word provincia. [2] The Latin term provincia had an equivalent in eastern, Greek-speaking parts of the Greco-Roman world. In the Greek language, a province was called an eparchy (Greek : ἐπαρχίᾱ, eparchia), with a governor called an eparch (Greek : ἔπαρχος, eparchos). [3]
The Latin provincia, during the middle republic, referred not to a territory, but to a task assigned to a Roman magistrate. That task might require using the military command powers of imperium but otherwise could even be a task assigned to a junior magistrates without imperium: for example, the treasury was the provincia of a quaestor and the civil jurisdiction of the urban praetor was the urbana provincia. [2] In the middle and late republican authors like Plautus, Terence, and Cicero, the word referred something akin to a modern ministerial portfolio: [4] "when... the senate assigned provinciae to the various magistrates... what they were doing was more like allocating a portfolio than putting people in charge of geographic areas". [5]
The first commanders dispatched with provinciae were for the purpose of waging war and to command an army. However, merely that a provincia was assigned did not mean the Romans made that territory theirs. For example, Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus in 211 BC received Macedonia as his provincia but the republic did not annex the kingdom, even as Macedonia was continuously assigned until 205 BC with the end of the First Macedonian War. Even though the Second and Third Macedonian Wars saw the Macedonian province revived, the senate settled affairs in the region by abolishing Macedonia and replacing it with four client republics. Macedonia only came under direct Roman administration in the aftermath of the Fourth Macedonian War in 148 BC. [6] Similarly, assignment of various provinciae in Hispania was not accompanied by the creation of any regular administration of the area; indeed, even though two praetors were assigned to Hispania regularly from 196 BC, no systematic settlement of the region occurred for nearly thirty years and what administration occurred was ad hoc and emerged from military necessities. [7]
In the middle republic, the administration of a territory – whether taxation or jurisdiction – had basically no relationship with whether that place was assigned as a provincia by the senate. Rome would even intervene on territorial disputes which were part of no provincia at all and were not administered by Rome. [8] The territorial province, called a "permanent" provincia in the scholarship, emerged only gradually.
The acquisition of territories, however, through the middle republic created the recurrent task of defending and administering some place. The first "permanent" provincia was that of Sicily, created after the First Punic War. In the immediate aftermath, a quaestor was sent to Sicily to look out for Roman interests but eventually, praetors were dispatched as well. The sources differ as to when sending a praetor became normal: Appian reports 241 BC; Solinus indicates 227 BC instead. Regardless, the change likely reflected Roman unease about Carthaginian power: quaestors could not command armies or fleets; praetors could and initially seem to have held largely garrison duties. [9] This first province started a permanent shift in Roman thinking about provincia. Instead of being a task of military expansion, it became a recurrent defensive assignment to oversee conquered territories. These defensive assignments, with few opportunities to gain glory, were less desirable and therefore became regularly assigned to the praetors. [10]
Only around 180 BC did provinces take on a more geographically defined position when a border was established to separate the two commanders assigned to Hispania on the river Baetis. [11] Later provinces, once campaigns were complete, were all largely defined geographically. [12] Once this division of permanent and temporary provinciae emerged, magistrates assigned to permanent provinces also came under pressures to achieve as much as possible during their terms. Whenever a military crisis occurred near some province, it was normally reassigned to one of the consuls; praetors were left with the garrison duties. [13] In the permanent provinces, the Roman commanders were initially not intended as administrators. However, the presence of the commander with forces sufficient to coerce compliance made him an obvious place to seek final judgement. A governor's legal jurisdiction thus grew from the demands of the provincial inhabitants for authoritative settlement of disputes. [14]
In the absence of opportunities for conquest and with little oversight for their activities, many praetorian governors settled on extorting the provincials. This profiteering threatened Roman control by unnecessarily angering the province's subject populations and was regardless dishonourable. It eventually drew a reaction from the senate, which reacted with laws to rein in the governors. [15] After initial experimentation with ad hoc panels of inquest, various laws were passed, such as the lex Calpurnia de repetundis in 149 BC, which established a permanent court to try corruption cases; troubles with corruption and laws reacting to it continued through the republican era. [16] By the end of the republic, a multitude of laws had been passed on how a governor would complete his task, requiring presence in the province, regulating how he could requisition goods from provincial communities, limiting the number of years he could serve in the province, etc. [17]
Prior to 123 BC, the senate assigned consular provinces as it wished, usually in its first meeting of the consular year. The specific provinces to be assigned were normally determined by lot or by mutual agreement among the commanders; only extraordinarily did the senate assign a command extra sortem (outside of sortition). [18] But in 123 or 122 BC, the tribune Gaius Sempronius Gracchus passed the lex Sempronia de provinciis consularibus, which required the senate to select the consular provinces before the consular elections and made this announcement immune from tribunician veto. [19] The law had the effect of, over time, abolishing the temporary provinciae, as it was not always realistic for the senate to anticipate the theatres of war some six months in advance. Instead, the senate chose to assign consuls to permanent provinces near expected trouble spots. From 200 to 124 BC, only 22 per cent of recorded consular provinciae were permanent provinces; between 122 and 53 BC, this rose to 60 per cent. [20]
While many of the provinces had been assigned to sitting praetors in the earlier part of the second century, with new praetorships created to fill empty provincial commands, by the start of the first century it had become uncommon for praetors to hold provincial commands during their formal annual term. Instead they generally took command as promagistrate after the end of their term. The use of prorogation was due to an insufficient number of praetors, which was for two reasons: more provinces needed commands [21] and the increased number of permanent jury courts ( quaestiones perpetuae ), each of which had a praetor as president, exacerbated this issue. [22] Praetors during the second century were normally prorogued pro praetore, but starting with the Spanish provinces and expanding by 167 BC, praetors were more commonly prorogued with the augmented rank pro consule ; by the end of the republic, all governors acted pro consule. [23]
Also important was the assertion of popular authority over the assignment of provincial commands. This started with Gaius Marius, who had an allied tribune introduce a law transferring to him the already-taken province of Numidia (then held by Quintus Caecilius Metellus), allowing Marius to assume command of the Jugurthine War. [24] This innovation destabilised the system of assigning provincial commands, exacerbated internal political tensions, and later allowed ambitious politicians to assemble for themselves enormous commands which the senate would never have approved: the Pompeian lex Gabinia of 67 BC granted Pompey all land within 50 miles of the Mediterranean; Caesar's Gallic command that encompassed three normal provinces. [25]
In the late Republican period, Roman authorities generally preferred that a majority of people in Rome's provinces venerated, respected, and worshipped gods from Rome proper and Roman Italy to an extent, alongside normal services done in honor of their "traditional" gods. [26]
The increasing practices of prorogation and statutorily-defined "super commands" driven by popularis political tactics [27] undermined the republican constitutional principle of annually-elected magistracies. This allowed the powerful men to amass disproportionate wealth and military power through their provincial commands, which was one of the major factors in the transition from a republic to an imperial autocracy. [28] [29] [30] [31] [32]
The senate attempted to push back against these commands in many instances: it preferred to break up any large war into multiple territorially separated commands; for similar reasons, it opposed the lex Gabinia which gave Pompey an overlapping command over large portions of the Mediterranean. [33] The senate, which had long acted as a check on aristocratic ambitions, was unable to stop these immense commands, which culminated eventually with the reduction of the number of meaningfully-independent governors during the triumviral period to three men and, with the end of the republic, to one man.
During his sixth and seventh consulships (28 and 27 BC), Augustus began a process which saw the republic return to "normality": he shared the fasces that year with his consular colleague month-by-month and announced the abolition of the triumvirate by the end of the year in accordance with promises to do so at the close of the civil wars. [34] At the start of 27 BC, Augustus formally had a provincial command over all of Rome's provinces. That year, in his "first settlement", he ostentatiously returned his control of them and their attached armies to the senate, likely by declaring that the task assigned to him either by the lex Titia creating the Triumvirate or that the war on Cleopatra and Antony was complete. [35] In return, at a carefully-managed meeting of the senate, he was given commands over Spain, Gaul, Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, and Egypt to hold for ten years; these provinces contained 22 of the 28 extant Roman legions (over 80 per cent) and contained all prospective military theatres. [36]
The provinces that were assigned to Augustus became known as imperial provinces and the remaining provinces, largely demilitarised and confined to the older republican conquests, became known as public or senatorial provinces, as their commanders were still assigned by the senate on an annual basis consistent with tradition. [37] Because no one man could command in practically all the border-regions of the empire at once, Augustus appointed subordinate legates for each of the provinces with the title legatus Augusti pro praetore . These lieutenant legati probably held imperium but, due to their lack of an independent command, were unable to triumph and could be replaced by their superior (Augustus) at any time. [38] These arrangements were likely based on the precedent of Pompey's proconsulship over the Spanish provinces after 55 BC entirely through legates, while he stayed in the vicinity of Rome. [39] [40] In contrast, the public provinces continued to be governed by proconsuls with formally independent commands. [37] In only three of the public provinces were there any armies: Africa, Illyricum, and Macedonia; after Augustus' Balkan wars, only Africa retained a legion. [41]
To make this monopolisation of military commands palatable, Augustus separated prestige from military importance and inverted it. The title pro praetore had gone out of use by the end of the republic and was regardless in inferior status to a proconsul. More radically, Egypt (which was sufficiently powerful that a commander there could start a rebellion against the emperor) was commanded by an equestrian prefect, "a very low title indeed" as prefects were normally low-ranking officers and equestrians were not normally part of the elite. [42] In Augustus' "second settlement" of 23 BC, he gave up his continual holding of the consulship in exchange for a general proconsulship – with a special dispensation from the law that nullified imperium within the city of Rome – over the imperial provinces. [43] He also gave himself, through the senate, a general grant of imperium maius, which gave him priority over the ordinary governors of the public provinces, allowing him to interfere in their affairs. [44]
Within the public and imperial provinces there also existed distinctions of rank. In the public provinces, the provinces of Africa and Asia were given only to ex-consuls; ex-praetors received the others. The imperial provinces eventually produced a three-tier system with prefects and procurators, legates pro praetore who were ex-praetors, and legates pro praetore who were ex-consuls. [45] The public provinces' governors normally served only one year; the imperial provinces' governors on the other hand normally served several years before rotating out. [46] The extent to which the emperor exercised control over all the provinces increased during the imperial period: Tiberius, for example, once reprimanded legates in the imperial provinces for failing to forward financial reports to the senate; by the reign of Claudius, however, the senatorial provinces' proconsuls were regularly issued with orders directly from the emperor. [47]
The emperor Diocletian introduced a radical reform known as the tetrarchy (AD 284–305), with a western and an eastern senior emperor styled Augustus , each seconded by a junior emperor (and designated successor) styled caesar . [1] [ better source needed ] Each of these four defended and administered a quarter of the empire. In the 290s, Diocletian divided the empire anew into almost a hundred provinces, including Roman Italy. [1] Their governors were hierarchically ranked, from the proconsuls of Africa Proconsularis and Asia through those governed by consulares and correctores to the praesides . The provinces in turn were grouped into (originally twelve) dioceses, headed usually by a vicarius , who oversaw their affairs. Only the proconsuls and the urban prefect of Rome (and later Constantinople) were exempt from this, and were directly subordinated to the tetrarchs. [1]
Although the Caesars were soon eliminated from the picture, the four administrative resorts were restored in 318 by Emperor Constantine I, in the form of praetorian prefectures, whose holders generally rotated frequently, as in the usual magistracies but without a colleague. [1] Constantine also created a new capital, named after him as Constantinople, which was sometimes called 'New Rome' because it became the permanent seat of the government. [1] In Italy itself, Rome had not been the imperial residence for some time and 286 Diocletian formally moved the seat of government to Mediolanum (modern Milan), while taking up residence himself in Nicomedia. [1] During the 4th century, the administrative structure was modified several times, including repeated experiments with Eastern-Western co-emperors. [48]
Detailed information on the arrangements during this period is contained in the Notitia Dignitatum (Record of Offices), a document dating from the early 5th century. Most data is drawn from this authentic imperial source, as the names of the areas governed and titles of the governors are given there. There are however debates about the source of some data recorded in the Notitia, and it seems clear that some of its own sources are earlier than others. Some scholars compare this with the list of military territories under the duces , in charge of border garrisons on so-called limites , and the higher ranking Comites rei militaris, with more mobile forces, and the later, even higher magistri militum. [49]
Justinian I made the next changes in 534–536 by abolishing, in some provinces, the strict separation of civil and military authority that Diocletian had established. [1] This process was continued on a larger scale with the creation of Exarchates in the 580s and culminated with the adoption of the military theme system in the 640s, which replaced the older administrative arrangements entirely. [1] [ better source needed ] Some scholars use the reorganization of the empire into themata in this period as one of the demarcations between the Dominate and the Byzantine (or the Later Roman) period.[ citation needed ]
Year | Province | Notes |
---|---|---|
241 BC | Sicilia (Sicily) | Taken over from the Carthaginians and annexed at the end of the First Punic War. |
237 BC | Sardinia and Corsica | Taken over from the Carthaginians and annexed soon after the Mercenary War, in 238 BC and 237 BC respectively. |
197 BC | Hispania Citerior | Along the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula; part of the territories taken over from the Carthaginians. |
197 BC | Hispania Ulterior | Along the southern coast of the Iberian Peninsula; part of the territories taken over from the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War. |
147 BC | Macedonia | Annexed after the Achaean War. |
146 BC | Africa | Modern-day Tunisia, eastern Algeria, and western Libya; created after the destruction of Carthage in the Third Punic War. |
129 BC | Asia | Formerly the Attalid kingdom, in western Anatolia (now in Turkey), bequeathed to Rome by its last king, Attalus III, in 133 BC. |
120 BC | Gallia Narbonensis | Southern France; previously called Gallia Transalpina to distinguish it from Gallia Cisalpina. Annexed following attacks on the allied Greek city of Massalia (Marseille). |
67 BC | Crete and Cyrenaica | Cyrenaica was bequeathed to Rome in 78 BC but not organised as a province until Crete was annexed in 66 BC. |
63 BC | Bithynia et Pontus | The Kingdom of Bithynia was bequeathed to Rome by its last king, Nicomedes IV, in 74 BC. Organised as a Roman province at the end of the Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BC) by Pompey, incorporating the western part of the defeated Kingdom of Pontus in 63 BC. |
63 BC | Syria | Created by Pompey after deposing the last Seleucid king Philip II Philoromaeus. |
63 BC | Cilicia | Initially created as a military command area in 102 BC during a campaign against piracy. Fully came under Roman control at the end of the Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BC), reorganised by Pompey in 63 BC. |
58 BC | Cyprus | Annexed after the death of its last king Ptolemy of Cyprus and added to the province of Cilicia, creating the province of Cilicia et Cyprus. |
46 BC | Africa Nova | Eastern Numidia annexed by Julius Caesar and named Africa Nova (new Africa) to distinguish it from Africa Vetus (old Africa). Western Numidia was added to Africa Nova in 40 BC. |
Cisalpine Gaul (in northern Italy) was occupied by Rome in the 220s BC and became considered geographically and de facto part of Roman Italy, [50] but remained politically and de jure separated. It was legally merged into the administrative unit of Roman Italy in 42 BC by the triumvir Augustus as a ratification of Caesar's unpublished acts (Acta Caesaris). [51] [52] [53] [54] [55]
Year | Province | Notes |
---|---|---|
Under Augustus | ||
30 BC | Aegyptus | Taken over by Augustus after the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII. Governed by Augustus' praefectus, Alexandreae et Aegypti. |
27 BC | Achaia | Augustus separated it from Macedonia. |
27 BC | Hispania Tarraconensis | Former Hispania Citerior reorganized by Augustus (imperial proconsular province). |
27 BC | Lusitania | Created by Augustus in the reorganization of Hispania (imperial proconsular province). |
27 BC | Illyricum | Initially senatorial, became imperial in 11 BC. Later divided into Dalmatia and Pannonia. |
27 BC or 16–13 BC | Aquitania | Created in territories conquered by Julius Caesar (imperial proconsular province). |
27 BC or 16–13 BC | Gallia Lugdunensis | Created in territories conquered by Julius Caesar (imperial proconsular province). |
25 BC | Galatia | Annexed after the death of its last king Amyntas. |
25 BC | Africa Proconsularis | Merged Africa Nova and Africa Vetus. |
22 BC | Gallia Belgica | Created in territories of Gaul (imperial proconsular province). |
15 BC | Raetia | Imperial procuratorial province. |
14 BC | Hispania Baetica | Former Hispania Ulterior reorganized by Augustus (senatorial propraetorial province). |
7 BC | Germania Antiqua | Lost after the defeat in 9 AD. |
AD 6 | Moesia | Initially a military district, became a province in AD 6. |
AD 6 | Judaea | Created after the deposition of Herod Archelaus. |
Under Tiberius | ||
AD 17 | Cappadocia | Created after the death of its last king Archelaus. |
Under Claudius | ||
AD 42 | Mauretania Tingitana | Annexed and divided after the death of Ptolemy. |
AD 42 | Mauretania Caesariensis | Annexed and divided after the death of Ptolemy. |
AD 41/53 | Noricum | Became a proper province during Claudius' reign. |
AD 43 | Britannia | Conquered by Claudius, divided into Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior in AD 197. |
AD 43 | Lycia | Annexed by Claudius, merged with Pamphylia in AD 74. |
AD 46 | Thracia | Annexed by Claudius (imperial procuratorial province). |
AD 47? | Alpes Atrectianae et Poeninae | Created during Claudius' reign. |
Under Nero | ||
AD 62 | Pontus | Annexed with Colchis, later incorporated into Cappadocia. |
AD 63 | Bosporan Kingdom | Annexed into Moesia Inferior, restored as a client kingdom in 68 AD. |
AD 63 | Alpes Maritimae | Likely became a province under Nero. |
AD 63 | Alpes Cottiae | Became a province under Nero. |
Under Vespasian | ||
AD 72 | Commagene | Annexed to Syria. |
AD 72 | Lesser Armenia | Annexed to Syria. |
AD 74 | Lycia et Pamphylia | Merged territories under Vespasian. |
Under Domitian | ||
AD 83/84 | Germania Superior | Created by Domitian's campaigns in southern Germany. |
AD 83/84 | Germania Inferior | Created alongside Germania Superior. |
AD 92 | Chalcis | Annexed to Syria. |
Under Trajan | ||
AD 100 | Territories of Iturea, Trachonitis, Batanea, etc. | Annexed to Syria. |
AD 106 | Arabia | Annexed without resistance by Trajan. |
AD 107 | Dacia | Divided into Dacia Superior and Dacia Inferior in 158. |
AD 103/114 | Epirus Nova | Separated from Macedonia. |
AD 114 | Armenia | Annexed by Trajan, later restored as a client kingdom by Hadrian. |
AD 116 | Mesopotamia | Seized by Trajan, later returned to the Parthians. |
AD 116 | Assyria | Created by Trajan, relinquished by Hadrian. |
Under Septimius Severus | ||
AD 193 | Numidia | Separated from Africa Proconsularis. |
AD 194 | Syria Coele and Syria Phoenice | Divided into two provinces. |
Under Caracalla | ||
AD 214 | Osrhoene | Annexed into the empire. |
Under Aurelian | ||
AD 271 | Dacia Aureliana | Created after the evacuation of Dacia Trajana. |
A quaestor was a public official in ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times.
Praetor, also pretor, was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected magistratus (magistrate), assigned to discharge various duties. The functions of the magistracy, the praetura (praetorship), are described by the adjective itself: the praetoria potestas, the praetorium imperium, and the praetorium ius, the legal precedents established by the praetores (praetors). Praetorium, as a substantive, denoted the location from which the praetor exercised his authority, either the headquarters of his castra, the courthouse (tribunal) of his judiciary, or the city hall of his provincial governorship. The minimum age for holding the praetorship was 39 during the Roman Republic, but it was later changed to 30 in the early Empire.
Marcus Porcius CatoUticensis, also known as Cato the Younger, was an influential conservative Roman senator during the late Republic. A staunch advocate for liberty and the preservation of the Republic’s principles, he dedicated himself to protecting the traditional Roman values he believed were in decline. A noted orator and a follower of Stoicism, his scrupulous honesty and professed respect for tradition gave him a political following which he mobilised against powerful generals of his day, including Julius Caesar and Pompey.
In ancient Rome, a promagistrate was a person who was granted the power via prorogation to act in place of an ordinary magistrate in the field. This was normally pro consule or pro praetore, that is, in place of a consul or praetor, respectively. This was an expedient development, starting in 327 BC and becoming regular by 241 BC, that was meant to allow consuls and praetors to continue their activities in the field without disruption.
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The equites constituted the second of the property/social-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques.
A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority.
A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire.
Macedonia was a province of ancient Rome, encompassing the territory of the former Antigonid Kingdom of Macedonia, which had been conquered by the Roman Republic in 168 BC at the conclusion of the Third Macedonian War. The province was created in 146 BC, after the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeated Andriscus of Macedon, the last self-styled King of Macedonia in the Fourth Macedonian War. The province incorporated the former Kingdom of Macedonia with the addition of Epirus, Thessaly, and parts of Illyria, Paeonia and Thrace.
Sicilia was the first province acquired by the Roman Republic, encompassing the island of Sicily. The western part of the island was brought under Roman control in 241 BC at the conclusion of the First Punic War with Carthage. A praetor was regularly assigned to the island from c. 227 BC. The Kingdom of Syracuse under Hieron II remained an independent ally of Rome until its defeat in 212 BC during the Second Punic War. Thereafter the province included the whole of the island of Sicily, the island of Malta, and the smaller island groups.
Consularis is a Latin adjective indicating something pertaining to the position or rank of consul. In Ancient Rome it was also used as a noun to designate those senators who had held the office of consul or attained consular rank as a special honour. In Late Antiquity, the title became also a gubernatorial rank for provincial governors.
The leges provinciae were sets of laws first enacted in 146 BC designed to aid in the regulation and administration of the Roman provinces. Written specifically for each province, the leges provinciae was drafted by the victorious general with the help of a commission of ten legati, or advisors, who were usually of senatorial rank. Then the charter was enacted, provided it was approved by the Senate.
The constitution of the Roman Republic was a set of uncodified norms and customs which, together with various written laws, guided the procedural governance of the Roman Republic. The constitution emerged from that of the Roman Kingdom, evolved substantively and significantly – almost to the point of unrecognisability – over the almost five hundred years of the republic. The collapse of republican government and norms beginning in 133 BC would lead to the rise of Augustus and his principate.
The executive magistrates of the Roman Empire were elected individuals of the ancient Roman Empire. During the transition from monarchy to republic, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the executive to the Roman Senate. During the transition from republic to empire, the constitutional balance of power shifted back to the executive. Theoretically, the senate elected each new emperor, although in practice, it was the army which made the choice. The powers of an emperor, existed, in theory at least, by virtue of his legal standing. The two most significant components to an emperor's imperium were the "tribunician powers" and the "proconsular powers". In theory at least, the tribunician powers gave the emperor authority over Rome's civil government, while the proconsular powers gave him authority over the Roman army. While these distinctions were clearly defined during the early empire, eventually they were lost, and the emperor's powers became less constitutional and more monarchical.
The constitution of the late Roman Empire was an unwritten set of guidelines and principles passed down, mainly through precedent, which defined the manner in which the late Roman Empire was governed. As a matter of historical convention, the late Roman Empire emerged from the Roman Principate, with the accession of Diocletian in AD 284, his reign marking the beginning of the Tetrarchy. The constitution of the Dominate outrightly recognized monarchy as the true source of power, and thus ended the facade of dyarchy, in which emperor and Senate governed the empire together.
Cappadocia was a province of the Roman Empire in Anatolia, with its capital at Caesarea. It was established in 17 AD by the Emperor Tiberius, following the death of Cappadocia's last king, Archelaus.
Thracia or Thrace is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians. Thrace was ruled by the Odrysian kingdom during the Classical and Hellenistic eras, and briefly by the Greek Diadochi ruler Lysimachus, but became a client state of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire as the Sapaean kingdom. Roman emperor Claudius annexed the kingdom as a Roman province in 46 AD.
A legatus Augusti pro praetore was the official title of the governor or general of some Imperial provinces of the Roman Empire during the Principate era, normally the larger ones or those where legions were based. Provinces were denoted imperial if their governor was selected by the emperor, in contrast to senatorial provinces, whose governors were elected by the Roman Senate.
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