A province consisted of a variety of parts. Some towns included in it had from the commencement an alliance with Rome, and were in all respects free. Others, which bad been subdued, were declared free, and were not under the immediate jurisdiction of the praetor. The provinces also contained numerous colonies, and both colonies of Roman citizens and colonies of the class called Latium. [LATLsrusi Jos.] Thus towards the close of the republican period a province contained, besides those parts of it which were subject to the complete jurisdic tion of the governor, allied towns, free towns, Roman colonies, and Latin colonies. According to this view, the provincia properly com prised those parts and towns which were subject to taxation and to the prmter's immediate jurisdiction. Some writers assert that the Roman and Latin colonies which were sent from Italy into the pro vinces were in all respects like such colonies in Italy, and that colonies had quiritarian ownership of the soil, and consequently free dom from taxes. But there is some difficulty about this part of the subject. The privileges called Latinitas, or Latium, were often given to particular towns, one effect of which was to release them from the immediate jurisdiction at least of the Roman governor, and to give them a junsdictio, or power of holding courts : citizens who filled certain offices (magistratus in such towns), thereby obtained the Roman citizenship. (Strabo, p. 186, speaking of Nimes.) The taxes which were raised in the provinces varied in the different countries, but generally consisted in a capitation tax and a property tax : the latter was sometimes paid in money and sometimes in kind. The state did not collect the taxes, but they were sold or farmed : thus, after the Sempronia lex, those of the provinces of Asia wero sold by the censors at Rome, and those of Sicily, with some exceptions, were sold in the respective districts of the country, according to a practice established by If iero. There was also money paid for the use of the open pasture-lands, which the Roman state appropriated to itself. The tolls and port duties, as well as the pasture-land tax (seriptura) were farmed by the publican'. [Pumice:sr.] Besides these and other regular sources of revenue, the province was subjected to many ex actions, some of which had a kind of legalised form, and others were merely gifts made to satisfy the demands of the governor, or to secure his favour.
The governor had to give an account of his administration from his own books and those of his quwstor. Originally he gave in this account at Rome ; but after the Julian law (s.c. 61), he was required to deposit two copies in the two principal towns of his province, and to send one to the Ararium at Rome. If the province had ground of complaint against for maladministration (repetundm, peculatus), which was no uncommon thing, application was made to the Roman senate ; and the great Romans, who were the patrons and friends of ;the cities which made the complaint, were also applied to for their aid and interest. If he had betrayed the interests of the Roman state, he was guilty of the offence of majestas. A regular mode of inquiry and trial (qumstio) were adopted for such occasions. Yet little was done without bribing the powerful men at Rome ; and the chance of redress against a governor who had even grossly misconducted himself was very small: it was more frequently obtained through the influence of the powerful Romans, stimulated by motives of private hostility to the accused, than through the justice of the case.
With Augustus commenced a new period. He took under his own care the more important provinces, and those which required a large military force; the rest he left to the care of the senate and the Roman people. This arrangement continued, with some modifications, to the 3rd century. Of the provinces of the senate, two were yearly given to consular men, and the rest to those who had been praetors : these governors were all called proconsuls, and they were assisted by legates. They had the jurisdietio both of the praetor urbanus and peregrinus. Quvestors were also sent with them to their provinces : the quinstors had the same jurisdietio that the mdiles had at Rome. It seems how ever that the power of the proconsuls in their provinces was consider ably diminished. The emperor considered himself as the proconsul of his own provinces ; and he governed them, though residing in Rome, by his representatives called legati Cmsaris, who had praetorian power.
They were selected from those who had held the office of praetor and consul, or were senators of inferior rank. The Imperial governor of Egypt was called prmfeetus, and he was always an eques. They held their office so long as the emperor pleased, and received all their powers directly from him. These governors of the emperor's provinces were called presides and correctores in the later periods, though the name praises was applied under the emperors to a governor either of a sena torial or an Imperial province. They had also legati under them ; but in the place of quiestors there was a procurator Cmsaris, who was an eques or a freedman of the Ciesar ; he looked after the taxes and other dues of the emperor, paid the troops, and attended generally to the business of the Fiscus. After the time of Claudius, the procurator had jurisdiction in matters that concerned the films. There were also procuratores Cmsaris appointed by the emperor in the senatorian pro vinces, who collected certain dues, even in those provinces, for the fiscus, independent of what was the due of the temrium, or public treasury. Sometimes a small province, or a part of a larger one, was governed by a procurator Cmsaris, with the full power of a praises ; this was the case with Judaea, which was a part of Syria, and governed by a procurator who was under tho praises of Syria. The general con stitution of the provinces remained the same, though as before ob served, a greater uniformity in administration was gradually introduced, and from the time of Hadrian the Imperial reseripts and the writings of the Roman jurists contributed to form a body of common law for the whole empire. The taxes continued as before, and were partly paid in money, and partly in kind ; but the object of the Romans was always to have them paid in money. The basis of the taxation was a general census of persons and property, which Augustus introduced, and which was taken from time to time. Certain taxes, as tolls and duties, were let, as before, to the publicani. The towns, at least under the early emperors, seem to have retained their privileges ; though some modifications were very early introduced; for instance, Augustus indirectly deprived the citizens of the colonies of their suffrage at Rome, a measure which seems to have led the way to other changes. Numerous colonies, chiefly if not exclusively of the class called military, were also established by the emperors in the provinces ; and it is to this period that some writers refer the gift of the Jus Italic= to provincial cities.
The inhabitants of the provinces were now divided into three classes as to political rights, Roman citizens, Latin', and Peregrini. The Roman citizens were either Italians resident in the provinces ; or members of Municipia and colonies which had the Roman citizenship ; or those who had individually obtained this right. The two latter classes had all the privileges of Italians, except with some restp:stions as to attaining the senatorian dignity; but many of them obtained the rank of equitas. The Latini had not the connubium only and the commercium, but they could obtain the eivitas in several ways. The Peregrini had neither the connubium nor comrnercium ; in fact, they had none of those rights which characterised a Roman citizen; but yet they served in the army. By a constitution' of Autoninus Caracalla (a.n. 211-17), the citizenship was given to all.persons within tho Roman empire, and accordingly tho of Civis, Latini, and Percgrinin ceased, and the two Latter classes henceferward only existed among manumitted slave..
The administration of the provinces gradually came more under the wer of the emperor, and particularly as to matters which required a decision ; under the Christian emperors, though governors and rower er officers of province. were appointed, the forms of the old Ro'man provincia wero almost entirely supersede.
(Savigny, l;neAiebte des Rinniselien Reeht• ire Mittdalter, vol. I. and Walter, GesehieA(e des Bdwoxdos Ileehts, dtc., Bonn, 1840, afford abun. dant references to original authorities. Incidental information will also be found In the following essays :—' Das Ackergesetz des Sp. Thorley,' ZeitseArift, x. ; Lieber den Inhalt der Lex Hubris% do Gallia Cisalploa; Ibid., x. ; ' Heber dam Jus Italicum; Ibid., vol. v.)