Condition of the Provinces under the Republic.—The Roman people regarded the provinces as so many estates from which they were to derive revenue. Hence agriculture and com merce were encouraged, settlements were made, roads and aque ducts were constructed ; in short, the Roman aimed at exploiting his empire by a system of prudent economy. But the Roman governors were apt to look on their provinces as their own pe culiar prey; they had usually bought their way to office at vast expense, and they now sought in the provinces the means of reim bursing themselves for the expenditure they had incurred at Rome. Redress was to be had by a complaint to the senate ; after 149 B.C. there was a court established at Rome for the trial of cases of extortion (repetundae) by provincial governors. But, even when the provincials had arraigned their oppressor, it was difficult to secure his condemnation at the hands of juries com posed of men who had a fellow-feeling for the offender because they had themselves committed, or hoped for means of commit ting, similar offences. Besides the governor, two classes joined in wringing the uttermost farthing from the unhappy provincials. These were the publicani (q.v.) or farmers of the taxes, and the money-lenders (negotiatores). Both these classes were recruited from the equites (q.v.) and, since from 122 B.C. the juries were drawn at first exclusively and after 7o B.C. partially from that order, the provincial governor could not check their excesses without risking a condemnation at the hands of their brethren. Accordingly he generally made common cause with them.
Augustus, in 27 B.0 , divided the provinces into imperial and senatorial. Those which required the presence of an army were placed under the direct control of the emperor; those which needed no troops were left to the senate. (I) The senatorial provinces were ruled by annual governors called proconsuls. Their powers were much the same as they had been under the republic, except that they had now no troops, or only a handful to main tain order. (2) The imperial provinces were governed by imperial lieutenants (legati Caesaris), who were nominated by the em peror and held office at his pleasure ; all of them had the power of the sword (ins gladii). For the administration of the finances these lieutenants had procurators under them, while the gover nors of the senatorial provinces continued to have quaestors. Certain other possessions were regarded as domains of the emperor, and were managed by a procurator or praefect (see PRAEFECT), responsible to the emperor See T. Mommsen, Roman, Provinces under the Empire (1884) ; T. M Taylor, Constitutional History of Rome (1899) ; J. E. Sandys, Companion to Latin Studies (1921), with useful bibliography. For imperial domains, see H F. Pelham, Essays on Roman History (1911), pp. 275-299