The Roman Empire grew by that inevitable pro- cess of expansion which is tlie lot of all great Empires. Kor the first two and a half centuries of the Republic expansion had been confined to Italy (see Roman Empire). With the conclusion of the First Punic War ('241 B.C.) a new situation had arisen. Having worsted a foreign people in a long- continued contest ('264-241 B.C.), they found it necessary to maintain a stand beyond the bounds of Italy. The war itself had led to the construc- tion of the earliest Roman fleet, and now the prob- lem of governing overseas dominions faced them. One of the conditions of peace between Rome and Carthage was that Carthage should evacuate Sicily. Tliis condition having been complied with, all of Sicily except Syracuse and its territory, which remained in the possession of King Hiero, the ally of Rome, became the first Roman province, Pro- uin.cia Sicilia, governed by an annual pr;etor, elected for the purpose, over and above the regular estab- lishment of two prstors, who remained in the city of Rome.
During the Republic at least, the same method was always carried out in taking over a province. The Senate appointed commissioners (Ugati), usually (if not always) ten in number, who left Rome together for the country in question, and studied its circumstances on the spot. The nornuU Greek-speaking country of that time consisted of a number of TrdXeis {ciuitafes, ' city-States ') with their territory surrounding them. Such of these States as had especially favoured Rome during the pre- ceding war might receive preferential treatment. Individual States, e.g., might be allowed to enter into a special, individual /«rf«.s (treaty) with Rome, and thus join the class of ciuitatesfosderatce. Such a reciprocal treaty presupposed that the two parties to the treaty were in a sense on an equality. Sub- ject States prized this position very highly. But the majority of the communities were treated as subjects in the fullest sense. After the commis- sioners, in consultation with the victorious general, had studied the conditions full}', they made a report to the Senate, which thereupon drafted a lex prouincice, which remained for the future the statute regulating the conditions under which that province was to be governed, the t.axes to be paid, etc. For each Roman province there was in exist- ence a special statute of this nature. The te.xt of none is extant.
Our chief knowledge of provincial government during the Republic concerns Sicily and Cilicia. In the speeches of Cicero against Verres (70 B.C.) there is much information about the government and administration of Sicily, in which Cicero him- self had been quiestor. From Cicero's letters we learn much of the details of his own government of the province Cilicia, where he was governor in the year 51-50 b.c. For the Imperial period we have the correspondence between Pliny, governor of Bithynia-Pontus, and the Emperor Trajan (c. A.D. 113). The experience of the Republic was invalu- aljle to the Empire. For the most part, no doubt, the conditions in the provinces were the same in both periods, with the exception that in the later
period extortion by governors was for various reasons much less frequent. In this article we must confine ourselves as far as possible to the Empire, under which the Apostolic Church came into cxistciu'e.
In the middle of the 1st cent. A.D. the Roman provinces encircled the Mediterranean. The sena- torial provinces, those belonging to the Senate and people by the arrangement of Janu-ary, '27 B.C., were eleven in number — Asia, Africa, Hispania Ba-tica, Callia Narbonensis, Sardinia et Corsica, Sicilia, Macedonia, Acluca, Creta et Cyrenie, Cyprus, Bithyniaet Pontus. These were in a peaceful state, and, with the exception of Africa, had no army. Asia and Africa were governed (miy by ex-consuls with three legati each, and were in a class by them- selves. The others could be governed by ex- jfrsetors, but all were entitled proconsuls (see Pro- CON.SUL) ; each had one legatus. Asia comprised roughly the western third of the country we call Asia Minor, Africa corresponded roughly to the territory of modern Tunis, Hispania B;etica to Andalusia, and Gallia Narhonensis to the south- eastern quarter of France. The im|)ortant Imperial provinces, which required the presence of an army, were twenty-one in number : Suiia (Syria), His- pania Tarraconensis, Germania Superior, Germania Inferior, Britannia, Pannonia Superior, Pannonia Inferior, Moesia Superior, Moesia Inferior, Dal- matia, Lusitania, Gallia Aquitanica, Gallia Lugudunensi-s, Gallia Belgica, Galatia, Pamphylia, Lycia, Cilicia et Syria et Phoenice, Numidia, Cappadocia,* each governed by a legatus Auqusti pro prcetore, and Egypt, governed by an equestrian prmfectiis /Eqypti, acting for his master the Empeior, who reigned as king of Egypt. Some further Imperial provinces of less importance were governed by pi-ocuratores (see under (Jovernment, Procurator). It is inexact to speak of Judtea as a province at this period. It remained from the beginning down to the time of Vespasian a client- State, whether ruled by one king or by a number of princes, or by a Roman procurator in company with an apxiepd^ "ai idiiapxn^. The king was sub- ordinate to the governor of the province Syria. The procurator's position, however, was like that of the prccfectus yEc/ypH. He took the place of the highest ruler (the Emperor), but neither Judiea nor Egypt was part of the Roman Empire in the strict sense of the term (T. Mommsen, Gesam- melte Schriften, vol. iii. : ' Juristische Schriften,' 1907, p. 431, n. 1, contradicting his earlier work. The Provinces of the Roman Empire, Eng. tr., vol. ii. p. 185).