Proconsul. The Greek word ivBiiirarog, for which this is the true < quivalent, is rendered uniformly •• deputy" in the A. V. of Acts xiii. 7. 8, 1'-': xix. 38, and
the derived verb av&viranvw in Acts xviii, 12 is trans- lated "to be deputy." At. the division of the Roman provinces by Augustus, in the year B.C. -J7. into senato- rial and imperial, the emperor assigned to the senate such portions of territory as were peaceable ami could be held without force ol arms (Sueton. Oct. 17; Strabo, xvii,840; DioCass. I'm. 12), an arrangement which re- mained with frequent alterations till the 3d century. Over these senatorial provinces the senate appointed by lot yearly an officer who was called "proconsul" (ibid. 13), who exercised purely civil functions, hail no power Over file and death, aid w a- attended by one or more
legates (ibid. 14). He was neither girt with the sword nor wore the military dress (ibid. 13). He was chosen out of the body of the senate; and it was customary, when any one's consulate expired, to send him as a pro- consul into some province. He enjoyed the same honor with the consuls, hut was allowed only sis lictors with the fasces before him. Such provinces were in conse- quence called '•proconsular." Willi the exception of Africa and Asia, which were assigned to men who had passed the office of consul, the senatorial provinces were given to those who had been praetors, and were divided by lot each year among those who had held this office live years previously. Their term of office n a- one 3 ear. The proconsuls decided cases of equity and justice,
either privately in their palaces, where they received petitions, heard complaints, and -ranted writs under their seals; or publicly in the common hall, with the
formalities generally observed in the courts at Rome. These duties wire, however, more frequently del. -ait d io their assessors, or other judges of their own appoint- ment. As the proconsuls had al-o the direction of jus- tice, of war. and of the revenues, these departments were administered by their lieutenants, or legati, who were usually nominated by the senate. the expense of their journeys to and from their provinces wa- defrayed by the public. Livy (viii and xxdi mentions two other classes of proconsuls those who. being consuls, had their office continued beyond the time appointed by law ; and tho-e who. being previously in a private sta-
PKOCOP
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PROCOPIUS
tion, were invested with this honor, either for the gov- ernment of provinces or to command in war. Some were created proconsuls by the senate without being appointed to any province, merely to command in the army, and to take charge of the military discipline ; others were allowed to enter upon their proconsular office before being admitted to the consulship, but hav- ing that honor in reserve. See Smith, Diet, of Or. and Rom. A ntiq. s. V.
Among the senatorial provinces in the first arrange- ment by Augustus were Cyprus, Achaia, and Asia with- in the ilalys and Taurus (Strabo, xvii, 840). The first and last of these are alluded to in Acts xiii, 7, 8, 12; xix, 38, as under the government of proconsuls. Achaia became an imperial province in the second year of Tiberius, A.D. 1(5, and was governed by a procurator (Tacit. Ann. i, 7G), but was restored to the senate by Claudius (Sueton. Claud. 25), and therefore Gallio, be- fore whom St. Paul was brought, is rightly termed "proconsul" in Acts xviii, 12. See Gallic Cyprus also, after the battle of Actium, was first made an impe- rial province (Dio Cass, liii, 12), but five years after- wards (B.C. 22) it was given to the senate, and is reck- oned by Strabo (xvii, 810) ninth among the provinces of the people governed by aTparrjyoi, as Achaia is the seventh. These arparjjyoi, or propraetors, had the title of proconsul. Cyprus and Narbonese Gaul were given to the senate in exchange for Dahnatia, and thus, says Dio Cassius (liv, 4), proconsuls (avSLnraToi) began to be sent to those nations. In Bockh's Corpus Inscrip- tionum, No. 2631, is the following relating to Cyprus: ?'/ TToXtg K6h>T0i> 'lovXtov KopSov av^inrarov ayveiag. This Quintus Julius Cordus appears to have been pro- consul of Cyprus before the twelfth year of Claudius. He is mentioned in the next inscription (No. 2632) as the predecessor of another proconsul, Lucius Annius Bassus. The date of this last inscription is the twelfth year of Claudius, A.D. 52. The name of another pro- consul of Cyprus in the time of Claudius occurs on a copper coin, of which an engraving is given under Cy- prus. A coin of Ephesus (q. v.) illustrates the usage of the word avSinraroc in Acts xix, 38. — Smith ; Kitto.
Procop, Andrew (also known as Procop the great- er, the elder, or the holy, or the shaven, in allusion to his having received the tonsure in early life), was one of the greatest of the Hussite leaders, and ranks only sec- ond to Ziska, whose successor he was among the Ta- borites. Procop was born of a noble family towards the close of the 14th century. He owed his education to an uncle, a nobleman of Prague. After having trav- elled for some years through France and Spain, Procop returned to his native country just as the religious wars were breaking out. He had taken holy orders, but in- stead of entering the ministry he joined the ranks of the insurgent Hussites, and, by his military genius, rap- idly rose to the first rank. In 1424 Ziska died, and the Taborites elected Procop as their leader. Palacky, in comparing the two great Hussites, says of Procop that if he did not equal Ziska in warlike ability, he sur- passed his predecessor in mind and political farsighted- ness. Procop's history from this time till 1427 presents an almost unbroken series of daring attacks upon the Austrians. At the same time, a larger body of Tabor- ites, who called themselves Orphans, and had been overrunning Lausitz and had burned Lauban, under the leadership of a man subsequently known as Procop the lesser (or younger), now, in concert with the more distin- guished Procop, attacked Silesia, and took part in those internal feuds of the Hussite factions by which Bohe- mia was almost wholly ruined. The threatened ap- proach of three German armies, which had been levied by the neighboring states to carry on an exterminating crusade against the heretics, was alone able to restore unanimity to the divided Hussites, who, under the lead- ership of the two Procops, offered a desperate and suc- cessful resistance to the larger numbers of the Germans, subsequently pursuing their enemies with fire and sword