Literature. — The best large history is T. Mommsen, Rom- ische Geschichte, vols, i.-iii. (Republic), vol. v. (Provinces under Empire), last ed., 1904, Eng. tr. in 7 volumes (5 vols. ' Republic,' best ed., 1S94 ; 'J vols. 'Provinces,' best ed., 1909); the best small histories are H. F. Pelham, Outlineti of Roman Hisiorj/^, 1903 ; aj>d J. B. Bury, A Uistorn nf the Unman Empire'', 1S96 ; on a smaller scale still, but very good, are W. Smith, A Smaller Bist'Ti/ of Rome, new ed., 1&9S; M. A. Hamilton,^ Junior History 0/ Rome to the Death of Ctesar, IHIO. There are maps of * Imperium Romanum' in Kiepert's Atlait Antiquns (no, 12), 1S85, Perthes' Atlas Antiquus, 1895; Murray's Handy Classical Maps ; Smith, op. cit., p. 344 ; Bury, op. cit., pp. 83, 103. There is a handy list of Roman provinces with details in Co7npa.nion to Latin Stttdies, ed. Sandys, 1910, pp. 401-409. On the fascinating subject of the Roman northern frontier the best account in English is E. G. Hardy, Studies in Roman History, 2nd ser., 1909, pp. 1-129 ; further details in German and Austrian journals specially devoted to the subject. On Britain see F. J. Haverfield, Romanization of Roman Britain'^, 1915, and, for details of individual sites, his contributions to the Victoria County History, 1900 fl. ; on Roman London his classic art. in JliS i. [1911-12J. A. SOUTER.
ROMAN LAW IN THE NT.— The student of Christian origins cannot neglect the influence which the law of the Roman Empire had on the infant Church. The marvellous talent of the Roman authorities for organization, and especially their wise adaptability, which saved them from enforcing a rigid unifonnity in legal details in all the countries which they conquered, were to a large degree instrumental, under Divine provi- dence, in furthering Christianity throughout the Empire. Though the Emperors and their officials became, at a comparatively late date (see below, 4) persecutors, yet there can be no doubt that the Roman system of law and organization was a, most powerful help to the apostles in preaching the gospel. In lliis article we may trace the various direct and indirect allusions to that system in the Christian literature of the apostolic period.
1. Administrators of the law. — The greater part of the Roman world was divided into provinces, which were either senatorial, i.e. under the rule of the Roman Senate, or imperatorial, i.e. under the direct rule of the Emperor. The older and settled provinces usually came under the former head, and those in which there was danger from external enemies usuallj' under the latter ; but there were not infrequent exchanges between Emperor and Senate, and a province might be at one date sena-
ROMAN LAW IN THE NT
KOMAN LAW IN THE NT 405
torial and at another imperatorial. It is therefore a f;oo(l test of accuracy in a historical writer to examine whether he names the Roman governor rightly in any given incident (see below).
(n) Senatorial provinces. — Such a province was governed by a proconsul (dvOiiFaros, Ac 13"' '- U)^' ; cf. IS'-, dfHoTaTcvofm). St. Luke rightly calls Sergius Paulus in Cyprus a proconsul (13'), for shortly before St. Paul visited the island it became a senatorial province, though it ceased soon after- wards to be such. An inscription found in N. Cyprus by Cesnola has 'in the proconsulship of Paulus' (kamsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, p. 74, who qtiotes D. G. Hogarth, Devia Cypria, London, 1889, p. 114). St. I.uke also rightly speaks of Gallio as proconsul of Achaia (18'-). This province had gone through many changes : having been at one time a separate i>ro- viiice, at other times joined to Macedonia, it had from A.D. 15 been a joint imperatorial province, but in A.D. 44, before St. Paul came to Corinth, liad again been disjoined from Macedoiua and had become senatorial (Ramsay, HUB i. 23). The senatorial provinces mentioned in the NT are : Macedonia (senatorial after the time of Claudius) ; Achaia; Asia (the western part of Asia Minor); Bithynia-Pontus, a united province in NT times (part of ancient Pontus was joined to Galatia, part given to the Polemonian kingdom ; see below, c) ; Cyprus (see above) ; Crete-Cyrene, a joint pro- vince. In Ac 19^ the plural avdv-n-aToi is used ; the meaning is not that there were more than one pro- consul at Ephesiis at a time, or that the proconsul's counsellors were called by this name (a conjecture for which there is no evidence), but that ' there are such things as proconsuls.'
(6) Imperatorial provinces. — Such a province was ordinarily governed hy & propraetor (in full, legatus Augusti pro prcetore ; in Greek, avTiuTpaTifycn or irpeo-/3eKT!)s). Neither of these Greek names is found in the NT, but several imperatorial pro- vinces are there named : Syria-Cilicia-Phenice, a 'oint province;* Galatia; Illyricum ['\\\vpiK6v),\ S'.W. of Macedonia and W. of the provinces of Moesia Superior and Thracia, which are not re- ferred to in the NT, and do not contain any of the places there mentioned ; Pamphylia ; Lycia. (The last two were joined together in A.D. 74 : Lycia is mentioned in Ac 27^ as a separate pro- vince [cf. 1 Mac IS'"]; Patara[Ac21'] was within it. )
Some imperatorial provinces were governed by procurators, such as Judiea (when it was not a de- pendent kingdom) and Cappadocia, though Judiea was not perhaps strictly a ' province ' ; the governor of Egypt was called a prefect. Both these names are used in other senses. A procurator (^irirpoTros or 5iOLKT]T-fis, in the NT more loosely 7(7fMwi', Mt 27"-, Ac 23=' 24' 26**, etc., and so Josephus, Ant. XVIII. iii. 1, though this word is used generally of Roman governors! as contrasted with senu-independent