It has been already stated that in the provincial administration, as in other matters, a division was made by Augustus between the Emperor and the senate. Henceforward there are senatorial provinces and imperial provinces. The provinces which fell to the share of the senate were chiefly those which were peaceable and settled, and were not likely to require the constant presence of military forces. The Emperor took charge of those which were likely to be troublesome, and might often demand the intervention of the Imperator and his soldiers. Thus (27 B.C.) Augustus received as his proconsular “province” Syria, Gaul, and Hither Spain. With Syria was connected the defence of the eastern frontier; Gaul, which as yet was a single province, he had to protect against the Germans beyond the Rhine; and Hispania Citerior (or Tarraconensis) laid on him the conduct of the Cantabrian war. To the senate were left Sicily, Africa, Crete and Cyrene, Asia, Bithynia, Illyricum, Macedonia, Achaia, Sardinia, and Further Spain (Baetica). In this division there was an attempt to establish a balance between the dominion of the Emperor, (who had also Egypt, though not as a province,) and the senate. But the balance soon wavered in favor of the Emperor, and the imperial provinces soon outweighed the senatorial in number as well as importance. When new provinces were added to the Empire, they were made imperial.
After the division of 27 B.C., several changes took place during the reign of Augustus; but before we consider the provinces separately, it is necessary to speak of the general differences between the senatorial and the imperial government.
The Roman provinces were at first governed by praetors, but Sulla made a new arrangement, by which the governors should be no longer praetors in office, but men who had been praetors, under the title of propraetors. This change introduced a new principle into the provincial government. Henceforward the governors are proconsuls and propraetors.
Under the Empire, those governors who are not subordinate to a magistrate with higher authority than their own, are proconsuls; those who have a higher magistrate above them are propraetors. The governors of the senatorial provinces were all proconsuls, as they were under the control of no superior magistrate; whereas the governors of the imperial provinces were under the proconsular authority of the Emperor and were therefore only propraetors.
The distinction between governors pro consule and governorspro praetore must not be confused with the distinction between consular and praetorian provinces. A propraetor might be either of praetorian or of consular rank, and a proconsul might be either of consular or of praetorian rank. In the case of the senatorial provinces, a definite line was drawn between consular and praetorian provinces. It was finally arranged that only consulars were appointed to Asia and Africa, only praetorians to the rest. In the imperial provinces, the line does not seem to have been so strict; as a rule the praetorian governor commanded only one legion, the consular more than one.
The proconsuls, or governors of the provinces which the senate administered, were elected, as of old, by lot, and only held office for a year. They were assisted in their duties by legati and quaestors who possessed an independent propraetoriam imperium. The proconsul of consular rank (attended by twelve lictors) had three legati (appointed by himself) and one quaestor at his side; he of praetorian rank (attended by six lictors) had one legatus and one quaestor.
The governors of the imperial provinces were entitled legati Augusti pro praetore. They were appointed by the Emperor, and their constitutional position was that the Emperor delegated to them his imperium. But only consulars or praetorians, and therefore only senators, could be appointed. Their term of governorship was not necessarily limited to a year, like that of the proconsuls, but depended on the will of the Emperor. The financial affairs of the imperial provinces were managed by procuratores, generally of equestrian tank, but sometimes freedmen. There were also, for jurisdiction, legati Augusti juridici of senatorial rank, but it is not certain whether they were instituted under Augustus.
But while the senate had no part in the administration of the imperial provinces, except in so far as the governors were chosen from among senators, the Emperor had powers of interfering in the affairs of the senatorial provinces by virtue of the imperium maius, which he possessed over other proconsuls. Moreover he could levy troops in the provinces of the senate, and exercise control over the taxation. Thus the supply of corn from Africa, a senatorial province, went to the Emperor, not to the senate. In both kinds of provinces alike the governors combined supreme civil and military authority; but the proconsuls had rarely, except in the case of Africa, military forces of any importance at their disposition.
Thus there were two sets of provincial governors, those who represented the senate and those who represented the Emperor. It might be thought, at first sight, that the senatorial governors would be jealous of the imperial, who had legions under them and a longer tenure of office. But this danger was obviated by the important circumstance that the legati were chosen from the same class as the proconsuls, and thus the same man who was one year proconsul of Asia, might the next year be appointed legatus of Syria.
In reviewing the provinces of the Roman Empire we may begin with the western, and proceed eastward. With the exception of Africa and Sardinia, there were no subject lands which Augustus did not visit, as Caesar, if not as Augustus. In 27 B.C. he went to Gaul, and thence to Spain, where he remained until 24 B.C., conducting the Cantabrian war. Two years later he visited Sicily, whence he proceeded to the East, Samos, Asia, and Bithynia, settled the Parthian question, and returned to Rome in 19 B.C.. In 16 B.C. he made a second visit to Gaul, in the company of Tiberius, and stayed in the Gallic provinces for three years. In 10 B.C. he visited Gaul again, and in 8 B.C. for the fourth time. Henceforward he did not leave Italy, but deputed the work of provincial organization to those whom he marked out to be his successors.
SECT. II. — 27 B.C.-14 A.D. THE THREE GAULS
Augustus divided Gallia into four provinces : Narbonensis, Aquitania, Lugudunensis, and Belgica. In 22 B.C.. he assigned Narbononsis to the senate, while the others remained under imperial legati.
Narbonensis had become a Roman province in 121 B.C. United with the rest of Gaul after the conquests of Julius Caesar, it was now restored to its separate being. Through the civil wars it became far more than the territory of Narbo; for the federate Greek state of Massilia, which possessed most of the coast-line, was reduced to the condition of a provincial town, and thereby Narbonensis extended from the Pyrenees to the Maritime Alps. The elder Caesar did much towards Romanizing this province. To him Narbo owed its strength and prosperity, and he founded new cities, possessing Roman citizenship, chief among them Arelate which as a commercial town soon took the place of her older Greek neighbor. The canton system of the Celts was gradually supersede in Narbonensis by the Italian system of city communities, and this development was zealously furthered by Augustus. In one interesting case we can see the process. The canton of the Volca; is first organized on the Italian principle under praetors (praetor Volcarum); the next step is that the canton of the Volcas is replaced by the Latin city Nemausus, which is now Nimes. The disappearance of the canton system distinguishes the southern province from the rest of Gaul, and is part of its conspicuously Roman character. This different degree of Romanization had probably a good deal to do with the marked differences between the lands of