A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law The term Roman law denotes the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the seventh century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve Tables to the Corpus Juris throughout one or more of the many provinces In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy (circa 296), largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy. The word province in modern English has its origins in the term used by the Romans constituting the Roman Empire The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor, Augustus. A Roman governor is also known as a propraetor or proconsul.
The generic term in Roman legal language was Rector provinciae The word rector has a number of different meanings; they indicate an academic, religious or political administrator. The word is related to rectrix ("helmsman"), one of a bird's tail feathers, regardless of the specific titles, which also reflect the province's intrinsic and strategic status, and corresponding differences in authority.
By the time of the early empire The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor, Augustus, there were two types of provinces — senatorial A senatorial province was a Roman province where the Roman Senate had the right to appoint the governor . These provinces were away from the Empire's borders and free from the likelihood of rebellion, and so had few if any legions stationed in them (thus lessening the chance the Senate might try to seize power from the Emperor). They were often and imperial An imperial province was a Roman province where the Emperor had the sole right to appoint the governor . These provinces were often the strategically located border provinces — and several types of governor would emerge. Only proconsuls and propraetors fell under the classification of promagistrate A promagistrate is a person who acts in and with the authority and capacity of a magistrate, but without holding a magisterial office. A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the promagistracy was invented in order to provide Rome with governors of overseas territories instead of having to elect more magistrates each year. Promagistrates were.
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Duties of the governor
The governor of any Roman province had many tasks to carry out during his administration.
Firstly, he was responsible for taxation and financial management. Depending on the basis of his appointment, he was either the Emperor The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin titles such as imperator (from which English emperor ultimately derives), augustus, caesar and princeps were all associated with it. In practice, the emperor was supreme ruler of Rome and supreme commander of the's personal agent, or the Roman Senate The Roman Senate was a political institution in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being founded in the first days of the city . It survived the fall of the kings in 509 BC, the fall of the Roman Republic in the first century BC, the split of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, and the fall of the Western Roman’s financial agent, and had to supervise the local authorities, the private tax collectors, and levy taxes. A governor could mint coins and negotiate with wealthy institutions such as temples and private money-lenders that could advance money. The governor was also the province's chief accountant. He inspected the books of major cities and various operations as well as supervising large-scale building projects throughout the province. He would also need to keep the peace between countries
Aside from these financial duties, the governor was the province's chief judge. The governor had the sole right to impose capital punishment Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the killing of a person by judicial process as a punishment for an offense. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from Latin capitalis, literally "regarding the head" . Hence, a capital crime was, and capital cases were normally tried before him. To appeal a governor's decision necessitated travelling to Rome and presenting one's case before either the Praetor Urbanus Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: The commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties (per the historical period). The functions of the magistracy, the praetura (praetorship),, or even the Emperor himself, an expensive, and thus rare, process. An appeal was unlikely to succeed anyway, as a governor wouldn’t generally take the chance of convicting someone contrary to the Emperor's wishes. The governor was also supposed to travel across his province to administer justice in the major towns where his attention was required.
Finally, and most importantly, he commanded the military forces within the province. In the more important provinces, this could consist of legions The Roman legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio ("conscription" or "army") to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly (and more commonly), to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. In this latter, but elsewhere, there were only auxiliaries. As a part of his standing orders the governor had the authority to use his legions to stamp out organized criminal gangs or rebels in the area without need for the Emperor's or Senate's approval.
Every governor had at his disposal a diversity of advisors and staff, who were known as his comites Comes was a common epithet for a hero or a (usually minor) divinity, marking it out as linked to a (usually major or equal) divinity, or several celestials to each other, e.g. as a nuclear family.[citation needed] (Latin Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. With the Roman conquest, Latin was spread to countries around the Mediterranean, including a large part of Europe. Romance languages such as Aragonese, Corsican, Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Sardinian, Spanish and others, are descended from Latin, while for "companions"); the number of these depended on the governor's social standing and rank. These comites would serve as the governor's executive council, with each supervising a different aspect of the province, and assisting the governor in decision making. In the provinces with a significant legionary presence, the governor's second-in-command was usually a quaestor A Quaestor was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed, a man elected in Rome and sent to the province to serve a mainly financial role, but who could command the military with the governor's approval. In other provinces, governors themselves appointed non-magistrate prefects Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition or procurators A procurator was the title of various officials of the Roman Empire, posts mostly filled by equites . A procurator Augusti was the governor of the smaller imperial provinces (i.e. those provinces whose governor was appointed by the emperor, rather than elected by the Roman Senate). The same title was held by the chief financial officers of to govern a small part of the province and act as their second-in-command.
Republican governors
During the era of the Roman Republic The Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterised by a republican form of government. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, c. 509 BC, and lasted 482 years until its subversion, through a series of civil wars, into the Principate form of government and the Imperial period, the council was in charge of appointing governors to Rome's provinces. This was done by appointing promagistrates A promagistrate is a person who acts in and with the authority and capacity of a magistrate, but without holding a magisterial office. A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the promagistracy was invented in order to provide Rome with governors of overseas territories instead of having to elect more magistrates each year. Promagistrates were to serve, either by random casting of lots Sortition, also known as allotment or drawing lots, is an equal-chance method of selection by some form of lottery, and most commonly refers to selecting decision makers as a random sample from a larger preselected pool of candidates. In Ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the primary method for appointing officials, and its use was widely or by senatus consultum (advice of the Senate); however, these appointments were not formally binding on a legal basis and could be nullified by Roman assemblies The Roman Assemblies were institutions in Ancient Rome. They functioned as the machinery of the Roman legislative branch, and thus passed all legislation. Since the assemblies operated on the basis of direct democracy, ordinary citizens, and not elected representatives, would cast all ballots. The assemblies were subject to strong checks on their.
The governor's level of authority was determined by what type of imperium he sometimes possessed. Most provinces were governed by propraetors A promagistrate is a person who acts in and with the authority and capacity of a magistrate, but without holding a magisterial office. A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the promagistracy was invented in order to provide Rome with governors of overseas territories instead of having to elect more magistrates each year. Promagistrates were who had served an annual term in the praetorship Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: The commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties (per the historical period). The functions of the magistracy, the praetura (praetorship), the year before. The provinces governed by propraetors were usually the most tranquil ones, where chances of revolt or invasion were small, but in some cases propraetors would be given command of more troubled provinces.
Provinces that lay on the empire's borders, thereby requiring a permanent military garrison, were governed by proconsuls A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for leaders appointed by foreign powers who had served a term as consul Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic. The relating adjective is consular, from the Latin consularis (which has been used, substantiated, as a title in its own right) (the highest rank of magistrate) the year before their governorship. They were given the authority to command provinces with actual Roman legions, rather than just using the militia.
These promagistrates held equality with other magistrates with the same level of imperium Imperium is a Latin word which, in a broad sense, translates as 'power'. In ancient Rome the concept applied to people and meant something like 'power status' or 'authority' or could be used with a geographical connotation and meant something like 'territory'. It is not to be mistaken with 'auctoritas' or potestas and were attended by the same number of lictors The lictor, perhaps derived from the Latin verb ligare , was a member of a special class of Roman civil servant, with special tasks of attending and guarding magistrates of the Roman Republic and Empire who held imperium[clarification needed]; essentially, a bodyguard. The origin of the tradition of lictors goes back to the time when Rome was a. Generally speaking, they had autocratic power within their provinces'. A provincial governor almost possessed unlimited authority and often extorted vast amounts of money from the provincial population—but, though he retained immunity from prosecution as long as he held his imperium, once he left office he became vulnerable to prosecution for his actions during his term.
Imperial governors
Imperial provinces
After Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.[note 1] Born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, he was adopted posthumously by his great-uncle Gaius Julius Caesar in 44 BC, and between then and 27 BC was officially named Gaius Julius Caesar. In 27 BC the Senate awarded him the established the principate The Principate is the first period of the Roman Empire, extending from the beginning of the reign of Caesar Augustus to the Crisis of the Third Century, after which it was replaced with the Dominate. The Principate is characterized by a concerted effort on the part of the Emperors to preserve the illusion of the formal continuance of the Roman, the Emperor himself was the direct governor of Rome's most important provinces (called imperial provinces An imperial province was a Roman province where the Emperor had the sole right to appoint the governor . These provinces were often the strategically located border provinces) and, even in the provinces he did not directly govern, was senior to other provincial governors through holding imperium maius Imperium is a Latin word which, in a broad sense, translates as 'power'. In ancient Rome the concept applied to people and meant something like 'power status' or 'authority' or could be used with a geographical connotation and meant something like 'territory'. It is not to be mistaken with 'auctoritas' or potestas, or supreme imperium. In imperial provinces, the Emperor would appoint legates A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes. In order to command an army independently of the dux or provincial governor, legates were required to be of praetorian rank or higher; a legate could be invested to govern in his name. The Emperor had sole say in the appointing of these legates, who were lower in rank than other provincial governors, as officially they were only representatives of the province's true governor, the Emperor.
The principate did not totally do away with the system of selecting proconsuls and propraetors. In provinces with one legion, a legate bearing praetorian imperium, thus being a propraetor, not only governed the province in the Emperor’s name, but also controlled the legion himself. However, in provinces with more than one legion, each legion was commanded by its own legate with praetorian imperium, while the province as a whole was commanded by a legate with consular imperium, who had general command over the entire army stationed there, as well as administering the province as a proconsul.
Appointment to these governorships was completely at the whim of the Emperor and could last anywhere from 1 to 5 years.
Senatorial provinces
While the Emperor had sole authority in provinces with legions, senatorial provinces A senatorial province was a Roman province where the Roman Senate had the right to appoint the governor . These provinces were away from the Empire's borders and free from the likelihood of rebellion, and so had few if any legions stationed in them (thus lessening the chance the Senate might try to seize power from the Emperor). They were often were provinces where the Senate The Roman Senate was a political institution in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being founded in the first days of the city . It survived the fall of the kings in 509 BC, the fall of the Roman Republic in the first century BC, the split of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, and the fall of the Western Roman had the right to appoint governors. These provinces were away from the Empire's borders and free from the likelihood of rebellion, and so had few, if any, legions stationed in them (thus lessening the chance the Senate might try to seize power from the Emperor).
These senatorial provinces were under the direct control of a proconsular senator, with little need for intervention by the Emperor (although the Emperor had the power to appoint these governors if he wished). Most senatorial provinces, since they were not under the direct authority of the Emperor, did not grant the governor legions to command. There was one exception to this rule, the province of Africa The Roman province of Africa was established after the Romans defeated Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day northern Tunisia, north-eastern Algeria and the Mediterranean coast of modern-day western Libya along the Syrtis Minor. The Arabs later named roughly the same region as the original province, where there was always at least a single legion to protect the province from Berber Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Today many of them speak tribes.
Augustus decreed that there would be at least ten senatorial provinces. Though all ten were "proconsular", only two of these provinces (Asia The Roman province of Asia or Asiana , in Byzantine times called Phrygia, was an administrative unit added to the late Republic. It was a Senatorial province governed by a proconsul. The arrangement was unchanged in the reorganization of the Roman Empire in 211 and Africa), were actually governed by senators with proconsular imperium, the remaining eight being governed by propraetors. The two proconsular governors served for one year, while the eight praetors served typically for up to 3 years. Each of these men had six lictors who served as bodyguards and also as a symbol of authority and a mark of their position.
Equestrian procurator
The Emperor also had under his control a number of smaller, but potentially difficult provinces that did not need an entire legion. These provinces were put under the control of governors of equestrian The Roman equestrian order constituted the lower of the two aristocratic classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the patricians (patricii), a hereditary caste that monopolised political power during the regal era (to 501 BC) and during the early Republic (to 338 BC). A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques (plural: equites). Equites status. New conquests generally fell into this equestrian category but most were later changed in status to reflect the changing conditions of Roman's growing empire. Thus, a province would become upon conquest a procuratorial province until it was decided that it should become either an imperial or senatorial province and thus governed by either a propraetor or proconsul. Like the other imperial provinces, the equestrian governors could serve any length of time up to 5 years, or even longer.
Much like the senatorial province of Africa, the equestrian province of Aegyptus (Egypt) was an exception to the general rule of legions only being stationed in imperial provinces. Egypt was not a normal province like any other, it was considered the personal possession of the Emperor, and its governor, the praefectus aegypti, was considered the highest ranking equestrian post during the early empire. Later, the post would fall second to that of the praetorian command, but its position remained highly prestigious.
Though the practice of appointing equestrians The Roman equestrian order constituted the lower of the two aristocratic classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the patricians (patricii), a hereditary caste that monopolised political power during the regal era (to 501 BC) and during the early Republic (to 338 BC). A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques (plural: equites). Equites to help manage provinces officially began with Augustus, governors from years before had appointed procurators to help them govern. However, it was not until the reign of Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Tiberius Claudius Drusus, then Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus until his accession, was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he succeeded his nephew Caligula. The son of Drusus and Antonia Minor, he was born in Lugdunum in Gaul, and was the first emperor to be that these procurators A procurator was the title of various officials of the Roman Empire, posts mostly filled by equites . A procurator Augusti was the governor of the smaller imperial provinces (i.e. those provinces whose governor was appointed by the emperor, rather than elected by the Roman Senate). The same title was held by the chief financial officers of received the powers of a governor. Though by definition the procurators were prefects Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition, a procuratorship was a more formal way of denoting a prefect’s authority to govern. It is important to note that procurators were not magistrates, so did not own imperium, and merely exercised the Emperor’s, or governor's, authority with his approval.
Late imperial governors
Under the Dominate The Dominate was the 'despotic' latter phase of government in the ancient Roman Empire from the conclusion of the Third Century Crisis of 235–284 until the formal date of the collapse of the Western Empire in AD 476. It followed the period known as the Principate. In the Eastern half of the Empire, and especially from the time of Justinian I,, i.e. the Late Roman Empire, the Roman Emperor The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin titles such as imperator (from which English emperor ultimately derives), augustus, caesar and princeps were all associated with it. In practice, the emperor was supreme ruler of Rome and supreme commander of the Diocletian Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , commonly known as Diocletian, was Roman Emperor from 284 to 305 began in 293AD reforms of the provincial administration that were completed under the Emperor Constantine the Great Caesar Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus , commonly known as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Best known for being the first Christian Roman emperor,[notes 1] Constantine reversed the persecutions of his predecessor, Diocletian, and issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which in 318. Diocletian set up 12 dioceses A Roman or civil diocese was one of the administrative divisions of the later Roman Empire, starting with the Tetrarchy. It formed the intermediate level of government, grouping several provinces and being in turn subordinated to a praetorian prefecture (later several were split; see under Roman province In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy (circa 296), largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy. The word province in modern English has its origins in the term used by the Romans), originally two to four for each of the four co-emperors under the shortlived Tetrarchy The term Tetrarchy describes any system of government where power is divided among four individuals, but usually refers to the tetrarchy instituted by Roman Emperor Diocletian in 293, marking the end of the Crisis of the Third Century and the recovery of the Roman Empire. This Tetrarchy lasted until c.313, when internecine conflict eliminated most (two senior Augusti, each above a Caesar), each governed by a Vicarius (a form of Governor-General). Each diocese comprised several Roman provinces, now rather known as eparchy, each under the authority of a provincial governor (see above), of various ranks and carrying a series of titles, including republican relics such as Proconsul and novelties such as Corrector provinciae, Moderator Provinciae, Praeses provinciae. The Vicarius's authority was supreme within his diocese, only being vetoed by the Praetorian Prefect (see below) or the Emperor himself.
Also, since the reign of Constantine, the governors lost their military command (and some related competences) to new, strictly military officers. Within each of the provinces, the governor was assisted by a dux (Latin for leader) whose job was to manage the legions garrisoned within the province. When it came to the diocesan level, another dux was appointed to command the legion(s) within each diocese. Soon the ducatus (military territory of a dux) would however be determined independently, in several cases comprising several provinces, while at higher territorial levels military commands were created under the titles of (military) Comes and Magister militum
Emperor Constantine completed Diocletian's reforms and organized the Roman Empire into four pretorian prefectures, actually the former territorial circonscriptions of the former four imperial tetrarchs to which each praetorian prefect had acted as chief of staff: the Prefecture of the Gauls, the Prefecture of Italy and Africa, the Prefecture of Illyricum, and the Prefecture of Oriens, with each administrated by an imperially appointed Praetorian prefect. The Prefect of each Prefecture was the highest civil service echelon, being subordinate only to the Emperor(s) (soon there were two, Eastern to become Byzantine and Western in Rome, later in Ravenna, each inheriting two prefectures as Augustus). The Prefect did not moderate between the various governors and vicarii and the Emperor, but acted as the Emperor's representative and had the authority to issue orders and administer justice within his Prefecture.
As within the dioceses level, the civil and military parts of the Prefecture were divided between the Praetorian Prefect, as the highest civil officer, and the Magister Militum as the highest military office. The Magister Militum was identified as to which Prefecture he belonged by the territorial name following his title, such as Magister Militum per Gallias. There was, however, one supreme Magister Militum that was the most senior military rank in the (soon each) whole empire, subordinate only to the Emperor.
- A list of the provinces within the dioceses and the dioceses within the prefectures can be found on the Roman provinces page.
See also
Sources and references
- Notitia dignitatum (authentic imperial chancery document, early Vth century)
- Pauly-Wissowa
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Jay Guin
Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:00:40 GM
The . Roman governor. Pliny [ca. AD 110-115] places the Christian gathering for a common meal at a separate time from the stated religious assembly. Early Christians Speak, p. 130. The Wikipedia gives a fair summary of what we know about ...
Q. I was reading Wikipedia and it said this: "Pilate personally felt that Jesus was not guilty of any crime against the Romans, and since there was a custom at Passover for the Roman governor to free a prisoner (a custom not recorded outside the Gospels), Pilate offered the crowd a choice between Jesus of Nazareth and an insurrectionist named Barabbas. The crowd chose to have Barabbas freed and Jesus crucified. Pilate washed his hands to indicate that he was innocent of the injustice of the decision (Matthew 27:11 26)." So it doesn't seem like he had a choice. If he let Jesus go, then the crowd would probably have killed Jesus themselves.
Asked by jcbsgln - Mon Mar 5 16:10:51 2007 - - 8 Answers - 1 Comments
A. Sounds pretty accurate. It doesn't sound like he is guilty of murder.
Answered by Angel - Mon Mar 5 16:15:37 2007
