In the East, Rome was confronted with a well organized and powerful State whose claims to empire were second only to her own. The victory of Carrhae (53 B.c.) had encouraged among the Parthians the idea of an invasion of Syria and Asia Minor, while it had awakened in Rome a genuine fear of the formidable power which had so suddenly arisen in the East. Caesar was at the moment of his death preparing to avenge the death of Crassus by 'L. R. Taylor, in Trans. Amer. Phil. Assn. 192o, 116.
an invasion of Parthia, and Antony's schemes of founding an East ern empire which should rival that of Alexander included the conquest of the kingdom beyond the Euphrates. Augustus, how ever, adhered to the policy which he recommended to his suc cessors of "keeping the empire within its bounds"; and the Parthians, weakened by internal feuds and dynastic quarrels, were in no mood for vigorous action. Roman pride was satisfied by the restoration of the standards taken at Carrhae. Four legions guarded the line of the Euphrates, and, beyond the fron tiers of Pontus and Cappadocia, Armenia was established as a "friendly and independent ally." The Provinces.—Next in importance to the rectification and defence of the frontiers was the reformation of the administra tion, and the restoration of prosperity to the distracted and exhausted provinces. The most serious defect of the republican system had been the absence of any effective control over the Roman officials outside Italy. This was now supplied by the general proconsular authority vested in the emperor. The prov inces were for the first time treated as departments of a single State, while their governors, from being independent and virtually irresponsible rulers, became the subordinate officials of a higher authority. Over the legati of the imperial provinces the control of the emperor was as complete as that of the republican procon sul over his staff in his own province. They were appointed by him, held office at his good pleasure, and were directly responsible to him for their conduct. The proconsuls of the senatorial provinces were in law magistrates equally with the princeps, though inferior to him in rank; it was to the senate that they were, as of old, responsible; they were still selected by lot from among the senators of consular and praetorian rank. But the distinction did not seriously interfere with the paramount author ity of the emperor. The provinces left nominally to the senate were the more peaceful and settled districts in the heart of the empire, where only the routine work of civil administration was needed, and where the local municipal governments were as yet comparatively vigorous. The senatorial proconsuls themselves were indirectly nominated by the emperor through his control of the praetorship and consulship. They wielded no military and only a strictly subordinate financial authority, and, though Augustus and Tiberius, at any rate, encouraged the fiction of the responsibility of the senatorial governors to the senate, it was in reality to the emperor that they looked for direction and advice, and to him that they were held accountable. Moreover, in the
case of all governors this accountability became under the empire a reality. Prosecutions for extortion (de pecuniis repetundis), which were now transferred to the hearing of the senate, were tolerably frequent during the first century of the empire ; but a more effective check on maladministration lay in the appeal to Caesar from the decisions of any governor, which was open to every provincial, and in the right of petition. Finally, the author ity both of the legate and the proconsul was weakened by the presence of the imperial procurator, to whom was entrusted the administration of the fiscal revenues ; while both legate and proconsul were deprived of that right of requisitioning supplies which, in spite of a long series of restrictive laws, had been the most powerful instrument of oppression in the hands of repub lican governors. The financial reforms of Augustus are marked by the same desire to establish an equitable, orderly and econom ical system, and by the same centralization of authority in the emperor's hands. The institution of an imperial census or valua tion of all land throughout the empire, and the assessment upon this basis of a uniform land tax, in place of the heterogeneous and irregular payments made under the republic, were the work of Augustus, though the system was developed and perfected by the emperors of the and century and by Diocletian. The land tax itself was directly collected, either by imperial officials or by local authorities responsible to them, and the old wasteful plan of selling the privilege of collection to publicani was henceforward applied only to such indirect taxes as the customs duties. The rate of the land tax was fixed by the emperor, and with him rested the power of remission even in senatorial provinces. The effect of these reforms is clearly visible in the improved financial condition of the empire. Under the republic the treasury had been nearly always in difficulties, and the provinces exhausted and impoverished. Under the emperors, at least throughout the 1st century, in spite of a largely increased expenditure on the army, on public works, on shows and largesses, and on the machinery of government itself, the better emperors, such as Tiberius and Vespasian, were able to accumulate large sums, while the provinces showed but few signs of distress. Moreover, while the republic had almost entirely neglected to develop the internal resources of the provinces, Augustus set the example of a liberal expenditure on public works, in the construction of harbours, roads and bridges, the reclamation of waste lands and the erection of public buildings.