Thus Achaea and Macedonia were relinquished by the Senate in A.D. 15, but restored to it in A.D. 44,[1] and Marcus Aurelius took over or surrendered districts according to the necessities of war.[2] But in the middle of the Principate the Senate possessed but eleven,[3] the Princeps twenty-one under regular governors,[4] nine administered by procurators,[5] one, Egypt, ruled by an equestrian praefect.
As in the Republic, the only true provincial civitates were those which were stipendiariae. The free or free and allied communities were still technically exempt from the governor's control. But the free cities were lessened in number and restricted in privileges. The supposed abuse of its self-governing powers by a foederata civitas might cause the treaty to be rescinded and the state to be brought under direct provincial rule;[6] while, even when libertas was retained, its merits might be suspected, and the state might be placed under the financial tutelage of curatores ([Greek: logistai]) or the administrative care of correctores ([Greek: diorthôtai]) appointed by the Princeps.[7] It is also certain that libertas no longer conferred immunity from taxation. We know that, of the cities of Asia which are described as tributary in the reign of Tiberius,[8] two, Magnesia ad Sipylum and Apollonidea, were liberae,[9] while Byzantium, which had been in alliance with Rome during the Republic, also paid tribute in the reign of Claudius.[10] This change, which is specially noticeable in the East, has been with great probability attributed to Pompeius. While granting or renewing charters and privi-*
- ↑ Tac. Ann. i. 76; Dio Cass. lx. 24; Suet. Claud. 25.
- ↑ Vita Marci 22 "Provincias ex proconsularibus consulares (i.e. governed by consular legati) aut ex consularibus proconsulares aut praetorias pro belli necessitate fecit."
- ↑ Asia, Africa, Baetica, Narbonensis, Sardinia and Corsica, Sicilia, Macedonia, Achaea, Creta and Cyrene, Cyprus, Bithynia.
- ↑ Tarraconensis, Germania superior, Germania inferior, Brittania, Pannonia sup., Pannonia inf., Moesia sup., Moesia inf., Dacia, Dalmatia, Cappadocia, Syria, Lusitania, Aquitania, Lugdunensis, Belgica, Galatia, Pamphylia and Lycia, Cilicia, Arabia, Numidia. See Marquardt Staatsv. i. p. 494.
- ↑ Alpes Maritimae, Alpes Cottiae, Alpes Poeninae, Raetia, Noricum, Thracia, Epirus, Mauretania Tingitana, Mauretania Caesariensis. See Marquardt l.c.
- ↑ Suet. Aug. 47, Claud. 25, Vesp. 8.
- ↑ Mommsen Staatsr. ii. p. 858; Marquardt Staatsverw. i. p. 358. The earliest known commissioner dates from the time of Trajan. He was "missus in provinciam Achaiam . . . ad ordinandum statum liberarum civitatum" (Plin. Ep. viii. 24).
- ↑ Tac. Ann. ii. 47.
- ↑ Strabo xiii. p. 621; Cic. pro Flacco 29, 71.
