Sublime

Rome sent one of her citizens into a country. She made that country the province of this man, — that is to say, his charge, his own care, his personal affair; this was the sense of the word provincia. At the same time she conferred upon this citizen the imperium; this signified that she gave up in his favor, for a determined time, the sovereignty w

It had been established in the fifth century BCE to represent the interests of the plebeians, but some of its rights and privileges made it a particularly attractive office for anyone looking for political power in much later periods. In particular, it carried the right to propose laws to the…

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Roman prefect of Egypt, Gaius Galerius.

At the end of 45 BCE he caused a particular stir when the death of one of the sitting consuls was announced on the very last day of the year. Caesar instantly convened an assembly to elect one of his friends, Caius Caninius Rebilus, to the vacant post for just half a day. This prompted a flood of jokes from Cicero: Caninius was such an extraordinar

As to invoking the justice of Rome against his acts of violence or his crimes, the provincials could not do this unless they could find a Roman citizen who would act as their patron,631 for, as to themselves, they had no right to demand the protection of the laws of the city, or to appeal to its courts.

The emperor Tiberius summed up the basic ethics of Roman rule rather well when he said, in reaction to some excessive profits turned in from the provinces, ‘I want my sheep shorn, not shaven’.

Consul Varro, for example, was known to be proud and a bit impetuous.

These were the strategi. The word signifies chief of the army, but the authority of these officers was not purely military; they had the care of the relations with other cities, of the finances, and of whatever concerned the police of the city.