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67-457: In the 3rd century, the Roman Empire suffered troubling economic difficulties that spread over a wide portion of its provinces . Drastic decreases in population throughout the western parts of the empire, along with a general degradation of society within the cities, exacerbated the crisis leading to a shortage of labor. The latifundia , or great estates, added to the troubles by forcing many of

134-630: A provincia was assigned did not mean the Romans made that territory theirs. For example, Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus in 211 BC received Macedonia as his provincia but the republic did not annex the kingdom, even as Macedonia was continuously assigned until 205 BC with the end of the First Macedonian War . Even though the Second and Third Macedonian Wars saw the Macedonian province revived,

201-539: A "permanent" provincia in the scholarship, emerged only gradually. The acquisition of territories, however, through the middle republic created the recurrent task of defending and administering some place. The first "permanent" provincia was that of Sicily, created after the First Punic War . In the immediate aftermath, a quaestor was sent to Sicily to look out for Roman interests but eventually, praetors were dispatched as well. The sources differ as to when sending

268-610: A double phalanx to protect its rear. Reserves would be located behind or between each division. In the Late Roman Empire the army was divided into two major units, the limitanei border guards and mobile armies consisting of comitatenses . The limitanei would deal with smaller raids, or, in the case of larger invasions, try to defend or stall long enough for the comitatenses legions to arrive. These comitatenses would be grouped into field armies . This strategy has been described as " defense in depth ." To conserve manpower ,

335-473: A majority of people in Rome's provinces venerated, respected, and worshipped gods from Rome proper and Roman Italy to an extent, alongside normal services done in honor of their "traditional" gods. The increasing practices of prorogation and statutorily-defined "super commands" driven by popularis political tactics undermined the republican constitutional principle of annually-elected magistracies. This allowed

402-467: A military crisis occurred near some province, it was normally reassigned to one of the consuls; praetors were left with the garrison duties. In the permanent provinces, the Roman commanders were initially not intended as administrators. However, the presence of the commander with forces sufficient to coerce compliance made him an obvious place to seek final judgement. A governor's legal jurisdiction thus grew from

469-479: A multitude of laws had been passed on how a governor would complete his task, requiring presence in the province, regulating how he could requisition goods from provincial communities, limiting the number of years he could serve in the province, etc. Prior to 123 BC, the senate assigned consular provinces as it wished, usually in its first meeting of the consular year. The specific provinces to be assigned were normally determined by lot or by mutual agreement among

536-432: A praetor became normal: Appian reports 241 BC; Solinus indicates 227 BC instead. Regardless, the change likely reflected Roman unease about Carthaginian power: quaestors could not command armies or fleets; praetors could and initially seem to have held largely garrison duties. This first province started a permanent shift in Roman thinking about provincia . Instead of being a task of military expansion, it became

603-486: A process which saw the republic return to "normality": he shared the fasces that year with his consular colleague month-by-month and announced the abolition of the triumvirate by the end of the year in accordance with promises to do so at the close of the civil wars. At the start of 27 BC, Augustus formally had a provincial command over all of Rome's provinces. That year, in his "first settlement", he ostentatiously returned his control of them and their attached armies to

670-406: A reaction from the senate, which reacted with laws to rein in the governors. After initial experimentation with ad hoc panels of inquest, various laws were passed, such as the lex Calpurnia de repetundis in 149 BC, which established a permanent court to try corruption cases; troubles with corruption and laws reacting to it continued through the republican era. By the end of the republic,

737-695: A recurrent defensive assignment to oversee conquered territories. These defensive assignments, with few opportunities to gain glory, were less desirable and therefore became regularly assigned to the praetors. Only around 180 BC did provinces take on a more geographically defined position when a border was established to separate the two commanders assigned to Hispania on the river Baetis . Later provinces, once campaigns were complete, were all largely defined geographically. Once this division of permanent and temporary provinciae emerged, magistrates assigned to permanent provinces also came under pressures to achieve as much as possible during their terms. Whenever

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804-616: A stronger populace. The defensive situation under Diocletian, however, had changed considerably in the East. The Persian Sassanids had grown more menacing in their quest for previous territory, and the barbarians were becoming a more serious problem along the lower part of the Danube . Judging the threats to be of dire importance, Diocletian took up residence in Nicomedia , where he established his capital there, leaving Maximian , his co-emperor, in charge of

871-645: A thousand years. The Roman army was reorganised to consist of mobile field units and garrison soldiers capable of countering internal threats and barbarian invasions . Constantine pursued successful campaigns against the tribes on the Roman frontiers—the Franks , the Alemanni , the Goths , and the Sarmatians —even resettling territories abandoned by his predecessors during the Crisis of

938-544: The lex Gabinia which gave Pompey an overlapping command over large portions of the Mediterranean. The senate, which had long acted as a check on aristocratic ambitions, was unable to stop these immense commands, which culminated eventually with the reduction of the number of meaningfully-independent governors during the triumviral period to three men and, with the end of the republic, to one man. During his sixth and seventh consulships (28 and 27 BC), Augustus began

1005-570: The Apostate by the church. Upon the death of Julian during his campaign against the Sassanid Empire, Jovian was hastily declared emperor by his soldiers. He sought peace with the Persians on humiliating terms and reestablished Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire. His reign lasted only eight months. Valens was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after

1072-405: The proconsuls of Africa Proconsularis and Asia through those governed by consulares and correctores to the praesides . The provinces in turn were grouped into (originally twelve) dioceses , headed usually by a vicarius , who oversaw their affairs. Only the proconsuls and the urban prefect of Rome (and later Constantinople) were exempt from this, and were directly subordinated to

1139-475: The East ( Praefectura praetorio per Orientem ) was made up of five dioceses- Aegyptus , Oriens , Pontus , Asiana , and Thracia . This enabled the empire to harness the control of each prefecture by providing a distinct difference between military and civil administration. Focus from the West to the East had been shifting over the course of the 2nd century because of economic strength of the usage of gold coinage and

1206-423: The East had chosen to depend upon gold coinage for the most part, creating a very reliable means by which to sustain itself. The Roman Emperors Diocletian and Constantine I both played an important role in reforming the organization of the whole empire. The empire in its entirety had become difficult to control, and Diocletian resolved this by creating a Tetrarchy that allowed for augusti to rule in each of

1273-784: The Third Century. Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity . He called the First Council of Nicaea in 325 that produced the statement of Christian belief known as the Nicene Creed . The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built on his orders at the purported site of Jesus ' tomb in Jerusalem and became the holiest place in Christendom . Constantius II was the second son of Constantine I and Fausta . He ascended to

1340-416: The West. Constantine was acclaimed as emperor by the army at Eboracum (modern-day York ) after his father's death in 306, and he emerged victorious in a series of civil wars against Emperors Maxentius and Licinius to become sole ruler of both West and East by 324. The age of Constantine marked a distinct epoch in the history of the Roman Empire. He built a new imperial residence at Byzantium and renamed

1407-579: The arrangements during this period is contained in the Notitia Dignitatum (Record of Offices), a document dating from the early 5th century. Most data is drawn from this authentic imperial source, as the names of the areas governed and titles of the governors are given there. There are however debates about the source of some data recorded in the Notitia , and it seems clear that some of its own sources are earlier than others. Some scholars compare this with

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1474-659: The battles of Mursa Major and Mons Seleucus . Magnentius committed suicide after the latter battle, leaving Constantius as sole ruler of the empire. His subsequent military campaigns against Germanic tribes were successful: he defeated the Alemanni in 354 and campaigned across the Danube against the Quadi and Sarmatians in 357. In contrast, the war in the east against the Sassanids continued with mixed results. In 351, having difficulty managing

1541-420: The city Constantinople after himself. This marks the beginning of Byzantine history. As emperor, Constantine enacted administrative, financial, social, and military reforms to strengthen the empire. He restructured the government , separating civil and military authorities. To combat inflation he introduced the solidus , a gold coin that became the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than

1608-429: The commanders; only extraordinarily did the senate assign a command extra sortem (outside of sortition). But in 123 or 122 BC, the tribune Gaius Sempronius Gracchus passed the lex Sempronia de provinciis consularibus , which required the senate to select the consular provinces before the consular elections and made this announcement immune from tribunician veto. The law had the effect of, over time, abolishing

1675-467: The consulship in exchange for a general proconsulship – with a special dispensation from the law that nullified imperium within the city of Rome – over the imperial provinces. He also gave himself, through the senate, a general grant of imperium maius , which gave him priority over the ordinary governors of the public provinces, allowing him to interfere in their affairs. Within the public and imperial provinces there also existed distinctions of rank. In

1742-401: The demands of the provincial inhabitants for authoritative settlement of disputes. In the absence of opportunities for conquest and with little oversight for their activities, many praetorian governors settled on extorting the provincials. This profiteering threatened Roman control by unnecessarily angering the province's subject populations and was regardless dishonourable. It eventually drew

1809-487: The emperor. The emperor Diocletian introduced a radical reform known as the tetrarchy (AD 284–305), with a western and an eastern senior emperor styled Augustus , each seconded by a junior emperor (and designated successor) styled caesar . Each of these four defended and administered a quarter of the empire. In the 290s, Diocletian divided the empire anew into almost a hundred provinces, including Roman Italy . Their governors were hierarchically ranked, from

1876-491: The empire alone, Constantius elevated his cousin Constantius Gallus to the subordinate rank of caesar , but had him executed three years later after receiving scathing reports of his violent and corrupt nature. Shortly thereafter, in 355, Constantius promoted his last surviving cousin, Gallus' younger half-brother, Julian, to the rank of caesar . However, Julian claimed the rank of Augustus in 360, leading to war between

1943-451: The end of the republic and was regardless in inferior status to a proconsul. More radically, Egypt (which was sufficiently powerful that a commander there could start a rebellion against the emperor) was commanded by an equestrian prefect, "a very low title indeed" as prefects were normally low-ranking officers and equestrians were not normally part of the elite. In Augustus' "second settlement" of 23 BC, he gave up his continual holding of

2010-484: The end of the republic, all governors acted pro consule . Also important was the assertion of popular authority over the assignment of provincial commands. This started with Gaius Marius , who had an allied tribune introduce a law transferring to him the already-taken province of Numidia (then held by Quintus Caecilius Metellus ), allowing Marius to assume command of the Jugurthine War . This innovation destabilised

2077-517: The foreign possessions of ancient Rome. With the administrative reform initiated by Diocletian , it became a third level administrative subdivision of the Roman Empire, or rather a subdivision of the imperial dioceses (in turn subdivisions of the imperial prefectures ). A province was the basic and, until the Tetrarchy (from AD 293), the largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside Roman Italy . During

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2144-540: The general would do his best to avoid a pitched battle . Rather than attack the enemy, the legions would form a shield wall and wait for the enemy to attack the Romans. The Romans would use their superior coordination to defeat the enemy. The Emperor would command a comitatenses field army to put down rebellions . Comitatenses is the Latin nominative plural of comitatensis , an adjective derived from comitatus ('company, party, suite'; in this military context it came to

2211-431: The heavy infantry. The auxiliaries , auxilia palatina , and the peltasts were the medium infantry, and the psiloi were the light infantry. Comitatenses regiments consisted of 1,024 soldiers. Comitatenses legions could consist of 6,000 to 7,000 soldiers. Some of these soldiers would be lightly armed, while others would be heavily armed. During a battle the army would divide into 3-4 divisions. The army might use

2278-555: The latter's accession to the throne. Valens was defeated and killed in the Battle of Adrianople , which marked the beginning of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire . "Valens was utterly undistinguished, still only a protector , and possessed no military ability: he betrayed his consciousness of inferiority by his nervous suspicion of plots and savage punishment of alleged traitors," writes A.H.M. Jones . But Jones admits that "he

2345-431: The list of military territories under the duces , in charge of border garrisons on so-called limites , and the higher ranking Comites rei militaris , with more mobile forces, and the later, even higher magistri militum . Justinian I made the next great changes in 534–536 by abolishing, in some provinces, the strict separation of civil and military authority that Diocletian had established. This process

2412-511: The lower classes). Roman province The Roman provinces ( Latin : provincia , pl. provinciae ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire . Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as governor . For centuries, it was the largest administrative unit of

2479-614: The man of letters". He was the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, and he believed that it was necessary to restore the empire's ancient Roman values and traditions in order to save it from dissolution. He purged the top-heavy state bureaucracy and attempted to revive traditional Roman religious practices at the expense of Christianity. Julian also forbade the Christians from teaching classical texts and learning. His rejection of Christianity and his promotion of Neoplatonic Hellenism in its place caused him to be remembered as Julian

2546-463: The middle and late republican authors like Plautus, Terence, and Cicero, the word referred something akin to a modern ministerial portfolio: "when... the senate assigned provinciae to the various magistrates... what they were doing was more like allocating a portfolio than putting people in charge of geographic areas". The first commanders dispatched with provinciae were for the purpose of waging war and to command an army. However, merely that

2613-407: The middle republic, referred not to a territory, but to a task assigned to a Roman magistrate. That task might require using the military command powers of imperium but otherwise could even be a task assigned to a junior magistrates without imperium : for example, the treasury was the provincia of a quaestor and the civil jurisdiction of the urban praetor was the urbana provincia . In

2680-567: The novel meaning of 'the field army'), itself derived from comes ('companion', but hence specific historical meanings, military and civilian). However, historically it became the accepted (substantiated) name for those Roman imperial troops ( legions and auxiliary) which were not merely garrisoned at a limes (fortified border, on the Rhine and Danube in Europe and near Persia and the desert tribes elsewhere)—the limitanei or ripenses , i.e. "along

2747-427: The other hand normally served several years before rotating out. The extent to which the emperor exercised control over all the provinces increased during the imperial period: Tiberius, for example, once reprimanded legates in the imperial provinces for failing to forward financial reports to the senate; by the reign of Claudius, however, the senatorial provinces' proconsuls were regularly issued with orders directly from

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2814-426: The permanent seat of the government. In Italy itself, Rome had not been the imperial residence for some time and 286 Diocletian formally moved the seat of government to Mediolanum (modern Milan ), while taking up residence himself in Nicomedia . During the 4th century, the administrative structure was modified several times, including repeated experiments with Eastern-Western co-emperors. Detailed information on

2881-402: The powerful men to amass disproportionate wealth and military power through their provincial commands, which was one of the major factors in the transition from a republic to an imperial autocracy . The senate attempted to push back against these commands in many instances: it preferred to break up any large war into multiple territorially separated commands; for similar reasons, it opposed

2948-450: The provinces had been assigned to sitting praetors in the earlier part of the second century, with new praetorships created to fill empty provincial commands, by the start of the first century it had become uncommon for praetors to hold provincial commands during their formal annual term. Instead they generally took command as promagistrate after the end of their term. The use of prorogation was due to an insufficient number of praetors, which

3015-406: The public provinces, the provinces of Africa and Asia were given only to ex-consuls; ex-praetors received the others. The imperial provinces eventually produced a three-tier system with prefects and procurators, legates pro praetore who were ex-praetors, and legates pro praetore who were ex-consuls. The public provinces' governors normally served only one year; the imperial provinces' governors on

3082-486: The region occurred for nearly thirty years and what administration occurred was ad hoc and emerged from military necessities. In the middle republic, the administration of a territory – whether taxation or jurisdictrion – had basically no relationship with whether that place was assigned as a provincia by the senate. Rome would even intervene on territorial disputes which were part of no provincia at all and were not administered by Rome. The territorial province, called

3149-413: The remaining provinces, largely demilitarised and confined to the older republican conquests, became known as public or senatorial provinces , as their commanders were still assigned by the senate on an annual basis consistent with tradition. Because no one man could command in practically all the border-regions of the empire at once, Augustus appointed subordinate legates for each of the provinces with

3216-436: The republic and early empire, provinces were generally governed by politicians of senatorial rank, usually former consuls or former praetors . A later exception was the province of Egypt, which was incorporated by Augustus after the death of Cleopatra and was ruled by a governor of only equestrian rank, perhaps as a discouragement to senatorial ambition. That exception was unique but not contrary to Roman law, as Egypt

3283-597: The senate settled affairs in the region by abolishing Macedonia and replacing it with four client republics. Macedonia only came under direct Roman administration in the aftermath of the Fourth Macedonian War in 148 BC. Similarly, assignment of various provinciae in Hispania was not accompanied by the creation of any regular administration of the area; indeed, even though two praetors were assigned to Hispania regularly from 196 BC, no systematic settlement of

3350-596: The senate, likely by declaring that the task assigned to him either by the lex Titia creating the Triumvirate or that the war on Cleopatra and Antony was complete. In return, at a carefully-managed meeting of the senate, he was given commands over Spain, Gaul, Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, and Egypt to hold for ten years; these provinces contained 22 of the 28 extant Roman legions (over 80 per cent) and contained all prospective military theatres. The provinces that were assigned to Augustus became known as imperial provinces and

3417-423: The smaller estates out of the market, which bled more labor from the labor force in order to sustain their estates. In the East, although there was a labor shortage, the population problem was not nearly as acute, rendering it stronger and more able to withstand a serious crisis. The West, in its reaction to the economic hardships that resulted in very high prices, had gone to a barter system to survive. In contrast,

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3484-510: The system of assigning provincial commands, exacerbated internal political tensions, and later allowed ambitious politicians to assemble for themselves enormous commands which the senate would never have approved: the Pompeian lex Gabinia of 67 BC granted Pompey all land within 50 miles of the Mediterranean; Caesar's Gallic command that encompassed three normal provinces. In the late Republican period, Roman authorities generally preferred that

3551-410: The temporary provinciae , as it was not always realistic for the senate to anticipate the theatres of war some six months in advance. Instead, the senate chose to assign consuls to permanent provinces near expected trouble spots. From 200 to 124 BC, only 22 per cent of recorded consular provinciae were permanent provinces; between 122 and 53 BC, this rose to 60 per cent. While many of

3618-486: The tetrarchs. Although the Caesars were soon eliminated from the picture, the four administrative resorts were restored in 318 by Emperor Constantine I , in the form of praetorian prefectures , whose holders generally rotated frequently, as in the usual magistracies but without a colleague. Constantine also created a new capital, named after him as Constantinople , which was sometimes called 'New Rome' because it became

3685-400: The throne with his brothers Constantine II and Constans upon their father's death. In 340, Constantius' brothers clashed over the western provinces of the empire. The resulting conflict left Constantine II dead and Constans as ruler of the west until he was overthrown and assassinated in 350 by the usurper Magnentius . Unwilling to accept Magnentius as co-ruler, Constantius defeated him at

3752-451: The title legatus Augusti pro praetore . These lieutenant legati probably held imperium but, due to their lack of an independent command, were unable to triumph and could be replaced by their superior (Augustus) at any time. These arrangements were likely based on the precedent of Pompey's proconsulship over the Spanish provinces after 55 BC entirely through legates, while he stayed in

3819-509: The two. Ultimately, no battle was fought as Constantius became ill and died late in 361, though not before naming Julian as his successor. In 363, Julian embarked on an ambitious campaign against the Sassanid Empire . The campaign was initially successful, securing a victory outside Ctesiphon , but later the Persians flooded the area behind him and Julian took a risky decision to withdraw up

3886-476: The units of the field armies of the late Roman Empire . They were the soldiers that replaced the legionaries , who had formed the backbone of the Roman military since the late republic. Units such as the Joviani and Herculiani had 5,000 soldiers and 726–800 cavalrymen. Many units' sizes would vary. There were three types of units, the heavy infantry , medium infantry , and light infantry . The comitatenses were

3953-506: The valley of the Tigris River, and eventually during a skirmish Julian was mortally wounded, leaving his army trapped in Persian territory. Following his death, the Roman forces were obliged to cede territory in order to escape, including the fortress city of Nisibis . Julian was a man of unusually complex character: he was "the military commander, the theosophist , the social reformer, and

4020-477: The vicinity of Rome. In contrast, the public provinces continued to be governed by proconsuls with formally independent commands. In only three of the public provinces were there any armies: Africa , Illyricum , and Macedonia ; after Augustus' Balkan wars , only Africa retained a legion. To make this monopolisation of military commands palatable, Augustus separated prestige from military importance and inverted it. The title pro praetore had gone out of use by

4087-431: The western and eastern halves of the empire, while two caesars would be their seconds. In case of the loss of either augusti , the caesar would take their place, and a new caesar would be selected. The only significant change made by Constantine to this system was the replacement of the selection of caesars with a succession by bloodline. To alleviate the concerns of territorial administration, Diocletian divided

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4154-495: The whole of the empire into one hundred distinct provinces. Administrative control was brought under the auspices of the emperor, and the whole of Italia was relegated to the status of a regular province, now also compelled to pay taxes. Each province was assigned to a diocese , twelve in total. Constantine organized the provinces even further by creating prefectures, each one consisting of several dioceses, and each diocese consisting of several provinces. The Praetorian prefecture of

4221-400: Was a conscientious administrator, careful of the interests of the humble. Like his brother, he was an earnest Christian." He diminished the oppressive burden of the taxes which had been instituted by Constantine and his sons, and was humbly deferential to his brother in the latter's edicts of reform, as the institution of Defensors (a sort of substitute for the ancient Tribunes , guardians of

4288-601: Was considered Augustus's personal property, following the tradition of the kings of the earlier Hellenistic period . The English word province comes from the Latin word provincia . The Latin term provincia had an equivalent in eastern, Greek-speaking parts of the Greco-Roman world . In the Greek language, a province was called an eparchy ( Greek : ἐπαρχίᾱ , eparchia ), with a governor called an eparch ( Greek : ἔπαρχος , eparchos ). The Latin provincia , during

4355-608: Was continued on a larger scale with the creation of extraordinary Exarchates in the 580s and culminated with the adoption of the military theme system in the 640s, which replaced the older administrative arrangements entirely. Some scholars use the reorganization of the empire into themata in this period as one of the demarcations between the Dominate and the Byzantine (or the Later Roman) period. Cisalpine Gaul (in northern Italy )

4422-425: Was for two reasons: more provinces needed commands and the increased number of permanent jury courts ( quaestiones perpetuae ), each of which had a praetor as president, exacerbated this issue. Praetors during the second century were normally prorogued pro praetore , but starting with the Spanish provinces and expanding by 167 BC, praetors were more commonly prorogued with the augmented rank pro consule ; by

4489-420: Was occupied by Rome in the 220s BC and became considered geographically and de facto part of Roman Italy , but remained politically and de jure separated. It was legally merged into the administrative unit of Roman Italy in 42 BC by the triumvir Augustus as a ratification of Caesar 's unpublished acts ( Acta Caesaris ). Comitatenses The comitatenses and later the palatini were

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