J. W. Slater. PROCHORUS.— Proohorus was one of the Seven appointoil and ordained in Ac 6". He is said to have been a bishop of Nicomedia. and martyred at Antioch. W. A. SrooXKU.
PROCONSUL.— Down to the time of Aupistus this word had not become one, but was still two words — pro con.m/c, * in place of a c^ui^ul.' It signilied a man with the rank and insignia of a consul, whether he had already held the oltice or not. In practice the title wjis conferred on certain governors of provinces, and only the Emperor possessed the power belonging to tliis office within the walls of the city of Kome. Nothing need here be said of such governors during the Republican period. By the arrangements of .lauuary, 27 B.C., all the provinces of the Roman Empire (see Pkovince) were divided l)etween the Senate and the Emperor Augustus. In conformity with his desire to keep all the real power in his own bands, wliile the semblance was left in tlie hands of the Senate, the governors of Imperial provinces were given humble titles such as I'-gnti Aii(jii.^:ti pro prtrtore, etc., whatever had been their career, but all governors of senatorial provinces were called proconsulcs. The senatorial provinces were divided into two grades^the higher grade, open only to ex-consuls, comprising Asi.a and Africa : and the lower, open to ex-pranors, comprising all the other senatorial provinces. The governors of Asia and Africa were provided with three legati each. In the XT only three proconsuls are referred to— the proconsul of Cj"prus, Sergius Paulus (.Kc 13'"-), the proconsul of Achaia, Gallio (18'-), and the pro- consul of Asia (19^, the plural is generalizing, and does not imply more than one at a time).
A. SOUTER.
PROCURATOR.— The position of procurator, in the sense in which we are familiar with the word, cannot be understood without a knowledge of the word's history. Hefore the Roman Empire was ever thought of, and regularly also after it had come into existence, a procurator ((Jreek, {vi- Tpowos) w.as one qui procurnt, 'who attends to' or ' manages,' particularly the affairs of a house- hold or an estate — an agent, steward, or bailiti', in fact. Such a person was a superior servant, acting for his master, but still a servant. The Emperor required servants to manage his property in various parts of the Empire, and the.se were regularly known by the luune pror urn to re.^\ They derived what importance they had .solely from the high position of their master. If this had been clearly understood, probably we should have been spared much cheap criticism of a man like Pilate,
procurator of .Iiula'a, whose career could be made or marreil by a master's whim. Such a man was in an entirely dillerent position from an ordinary governor of a pro\ince. «ho would be a meml>er of the Senate, still a privileged body, and might be of as good as. or of In'tter blood than, the Emperor himself. It is true that an Emperor could also get rid of such, but not so easily.
I'roruraton.i were of many kinds, but were never of higher rank than the eiiueslrian. Once or twice they were Imperial Ireedmen. The Emperor had jiroi-umtorcs in all provinces, sena- torial and Imperial alike, who attended to Ilia linancial interests there. The Emperors had private property in the provinces, often consisting of estates that had belonged to the domains of various gods and goddesses. These demanded a large stall' of workers of many kinds, and over them were set procuratore..'.: Sometimes these would take over the command of a province on the occasion of the death or absence of the real governor. They are to be distinguished from the procuratores who were actually set over i>rovinces as governors. Only Imperial provinces were thus governed, and only the less important of these (see Governor, Province). They took the place of the earlier military prefects. The following provinces among others were governed at one time or another by them — the two Mauretanias R.a-tia, Noricum, Alpes Maritima\ .\lpes Cottia-, Juda'a, Cappadocia, Epirus, the Hellespont, Cor- sica, Sardinia, Hithynia, Pamphylia. To the student of Christian origins .ImUca is the most interesting. Of Pontius Pilate we know almost nothing, but Felix was the lirst man born a slave who governed a Ronian province and commanded the troops in it. Antonius Felix was brother of Claudius great minister of linance {a rtitioiiiliii.i), Pallas, and, probably on account of his marriage into a higher class, was raised to the equestrian order before hi* apiiointmcnt to ,lu<la'a. Such governors had a lower status than the finance luocuiators in other provinces. The troops under their command were auxiliaries, which were for the most part drawn from the country itself, and militia formed from the able-bodied men of the province. Such troops did not belong to the Imperial army in the strict .sense. In Judiva, e.g., there was an «/a formed of Ctrsariani and Scbas- tc7ii, the ala prima gcminn Sebasteiiorum (appar- ently drafted in Vesp:v^ian's time to Mauretniiia). and five cohorts (cf. Ac 10' for the name of one of them), which also appear to have been raised entirely in the country, and were probably in part also commanded by oHicers of Eastern birth (('.(7., probably, Claudius Lysias, Ac 23'-'*). Onlj- one of these cohorts had its quarters in .lernsalem. The 200 5eJio\d;Joi (probably 'slingers') who were sent as an escort with St. Paul (.\c 23^) jirobably did not form a sep.arate troop. In their qualify of commanders of troops the procurators had bciiffiri- nrii under them. Sometimes also asub-pioeurator (di'TfTrlrpoiros) of equestrian rank is mentioned as an assistant to the procurator. Lower posts, filled by Imperial freedmen and slaves, were those of the tahularii, commciitariin.tci, lihrnrii, arcarii (cf. Ko 16'-^, where di.yH>i.<!ntor would be a more exact translation ; also CIL iii. 556, v. SSIS), and (ti.fpcn.tfttorcs with their vicarii, to which titles the name of the province is always added. These officials, to avoid the appearance of partiality, were never natives of the provinces in which they served.