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44-452: The generic term in Roman legal language was rector provinciae , regardless of the specific titles, which also reflects the province's intrinsic and strategic status, and corresponding differences in authority. By the time of the early Empire , two types of provinces existed— senatorial and imperial —and several types of governor would emerge. Only proconsuls and propraetors fell under

88-774: A Latin generic term for Roman governor , the governor of a Roman province , known after the time of Suetonius , and specifically a legal term (as used in the Codices of the Emperors Theodosius I and Justinian I ) after Emperor Diocletian's Tetrarchy (when they came under the administrative authority of the Vicarius of a diocese and these under a Pretorian prefect), regardless of what their specific titles (of different rank, such as Consularis , Corrector provinciae , Praeses and Proconsul ) may have been. A similar gubernatorial use or as Chief magistrate existed in

132-579: A governor or general's title – pro praetore or pro consule - was determined by the last held previous urban magistracy: that is, former praetors were prorogued in place of a praetor ( pro praetore ) and former consuls were pro consule . This system, however, started to break down after private citizens were given commands in Spain pro consule during the Second Punic war . By the late republic, praetors were almost always prorogued pro consule . However,

176-494: 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 , but elsewhere, there were only auxiliaries . As

220-455: 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 one to five years. While the Emperor had sole authority in provinces with legions, senatorial provinces were provinces where the Senate had

264-501: A man executing a curule office without actually holding that office, also possessed imperium in the same degree as the actual incumbents (i.e., proconsular imperium being more or less equal to consular imperium , propraetorian imperium to praetorian) and was attended by an equal number of lictors . Certain extraordinary commissions , such as Pompey 's famous command against the pirates , were invested with imperium maius , meaning they outranked all other holders of imperium of

308-433: 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 ( Latin for "companions"); the number of these depended on the governor's social standing and rank. These comites would serve as

352-454: A praetorian prefect as something like a chief of staff. The three prefectures thus created were the prefecture of Gaul , the prefecture of Italy (later divided by Constans in 347 or perhaps in 342–47), and the prefecture of the East , each being administered by an imperially-appointed praetorian prefect. The prefect of each prefecture was the highest civilian officer, being subordinate only to

396-400: A province would become 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 five years, or even longer. Much like the senatorial province of Africa, the equestrian province of Roman Egypt

440-431: A sash ritually knotted on the front of his cuirass . Furthermore, any man executing imperium within his sphere of influence was entitled to the curule chair . As can be seen, dictatorial imperium was superior to consular, consular to praetorian, and praetorian to aedilician; there is some historical dispute as to whether or not praetorian imperium was superior to "equine-magisterial" imperium . A promagistrate , or

484-565: A small part of the province and act as their second-in-command. During the era of the Roman Republic , the council was in charge of appointing governors to Rome's provinces. This was done by appointing promagistrates to serve, either by random casting of lots 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 . Initially,

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528-443: A symbol of authority and a mark of their position. 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 status. New conquests generally fell into this equestrian category, but most were later changed in status to reflect the changing conditions of Rome's growing empire. Thus, on conquest,

572-502: A weapon against the Emperor. The first pope who used it in an official act and relied upon it, Leo IX , cites the "Donatio" in a letter of 1054 to Michael Cærularius , Patriarch of Constantinople, to show that the Holy See possessed both an earthly and a heavenly imperium , the royal priesthood. Thenceforth, the "Donatio" acquires more importance and is more frequently used as evidence in the ecclesiastical and political conflicts between

616-404: The pomerium , axes being added to the fasces to indicate an imperial magistrate's power to inflict capital punishment outside Rome (the axes being removed within the pomerium ). The number of lictors in attendance upon a magistrate was an overt indication of the degree of imperium . When in the field, a curule magistrate possessing an imperium greater or equal to that of a praetor wore

660-732: The Dominate , the Emperor Diocletian began in AD 293 reforms of the provincial administration that were completed under the Emperor Constantine the Great in 318. Diocletian set up twelve dioceses (later several were split), originally two to four for each of the four co-emperors under the short-lived Tetrarchy (two senior Augusti , each above a Caesar ), each governed by a vicarius ('vicar') who acted on behalf of

704-715: The Republic of Ragusa (presently Dubrovnik, Croatia), which was governed by a Rector (also used in the Italian form Rettore and the Slavonic equivalent Knez ): The seat of the rector was the Rector's Palace, Dubrovnik . Primo Rettore , from 8 September 1920 to 29 December 1920, was the title of Gabriele D'Annunzio when he created the Italian Regency of Carnaro Imperium In ancient Rome , imperium

748-637: The jurisprudence of jurisconsults . While the Byzantine Eastern Roman Emperors retained full Roman imperium and made the episcopate subservient, in the feudal West a long rivalry would oppose the claims to supremacy within post-Roman Christianity between sacerdotium in the person of the Pope and the secular imperium of the Holy Roman Emperor, beginning with Charlemagne, whose title was claimed to have "restored"

792-452: The praetorian prefect . Each diocese comprised several Roman provinces (known in Greek as eparchies ), each under the authority of a provincial governor, whose title varied from province to province (the range of titles includes republican relics such as proconsul, as well as novelties such as corrector provinciae , moderator provinciae , praeses provinciae and praesidens ). Although

836-448: 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 , where there was always at least a single legion to protect the province from Berber tribes. Augustus decreed that at least ten provinces would be held by

880-401: The Emperor's, or governor's, authority with his approval. The provincial governors were the most important officials in the Roman administration for it was they who were responsible for tax collection, justice in the first instance, and public order in the first instance. They received, from the prefectures, the tax demands three times a year, which they circulated to the municipalities. Under

924-598: The Lombards and the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II , reasserted his right to arbitrate between the contending parties. In the numerous manifestos of the Pope and the Emperor the antagonism between Church and State became more evident: the Pope claimed for himself the imperium animarum ("command of the souls", i.e. voicing God's will to the faithful) and the principatus rerum et corporum in universo mundo ("primacy over all things and bodies in

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968-507: The Republic by the collegiality of the republican magistrates and the right of appeal, or provocatio , on the part of citizens. Imperium remained absolute in the army, and the power of the imperator (army commander) to punish remained uncurtailed. The title imperator later was exclusively held by the emperor, as the commander of the armed forces. In fact, the Latin word imperator is

1012-453: The authority of the Roman people through the agency of the Senate. Though all ten were "proconsular", only two of these provinces ( Asia 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 three years. Each of these men had six lictors who served as bodyguards and also as

1056-430: The classification of promagistrate . The governor was the province's chief judge. He had the sole right to impose capital punishment , 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 , or even the Emperor himself, an expensive, and thus rare, process. An appeal was unlikely to succeed anyway, as

1100-413: The curule aedile , the praetor , the consul , the magister equitum , and the dictator . In a general sense, imperium was the scope of someone's power, and could include anything, such as public office, commerce, political influence, or wealth. Imperium originally meant absolute or kingly power —the word being derived from the Latin verb imperare (to command)—which became somewhat limited under

1144-551: The diocesan vicars. Field units were commanded by a comes ('companion', whence count ) and later by supreme military commanders, the magistri militum . Constantine, again following Diocletian's lead, organized the Roman Empire into three Praetorian prefectures late in his reign. These were based on the territories controlled by the four co-emperors of the Tetrarchy, two of whom, the senior Augusti, had been served by

1188-399: The emperor(s). The prefect was the superior of the vicars and governors. He was the chief appellate judge, head of the administration of the prefecture, chief finance officer, and chief tax collector (though the collection was actually done at municipal and village levels). Rector provinciae Rectors and rectorates in politics and administration included: Rector provinciae was

1232-553: 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 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 or procurators to govern

1276-427: The law within the scope of his magistracy or promagistracy . He could be vetoed or overruled either by a magistrate or promagistrate who was a colleague with equal power (e.g., a fellow consul ), by one whose imperium outranked his – that is, one of imperium maius (greater imperium ), or by a tribune of the plebs . Some modern scholars such as A. H. M. Jones have defined imperium as "the power vested by

1320-663: The office of Western Roman Emperor among the new kingdoms of Western Europe. Both would refer to the heritage of Roman law by their titular link with the very city of Rome: the Pope, Bishop of Rome , versus the Holy Roman Emperor (even though his seat of power was north of the Alps). The Donatio Constantini , by which the Papacy had allegedly been granted the territorial Patrimonium Petri in Central Italy, became

1364-425: The papacy and the secular power: Anselm of Lucca and Cardinal Deusdedit inserted it in their collections of canons; Gratian excluded it from his Decretum , but it was soon added to it as Palea ; the ecclesiastical writers in defence of the papacy during the conflicts of the early part of the 12th century quoted it as authoritative. In one bitter episode, Pope Gregory IX , who had several times mediated between

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1408-424: The practice of appointing equestrians 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 that these procurators received the powers of a governor. Procurators were civilian officials, unlike prefects . Procurators were not magistrates, so did not possess imperium , and merely exercised

1452-580: The provinces that ex-praetors were assigned – regardless of formal title – were usually the more tranquil ones, where chances of revolt or invasion were small. Provinces where imminent military campaigning was expected were instead assigned to recent consuls. These promagistrates held equality with other magistrates with the same level of imperium and were attended by the same number of lictors . Generally speaking, they had autocratic power within their provinces. A provincial governor almost possessed unlimited authority and often extorted vast amounts of money from

1496-469: 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. After Augustus established the Principate , the Emperor himself was the direct governor of Rome's most important provinces (called imperial provinces ) and even in the provinces he did not directly govern,

1540-518: 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 provinces were under the authority of proconsular or propraetorian senators invariably styled 'proconsul', with little need for intervention by

1584-561: The root of the English word emperor . In ancient Rome, imperium could be used as a term indicating a characteristic of people, their wealth in property, or the measure of formal power they had. This qualification could be used in a rather loose context (for example, poets used it, not necessarily writing about state officials). However, in Roman society, it was also a more formal concept of legal authority . A man with imperium (an imperator ) had, in principle, absolute authority to apply

1628-600: The same type or rank (in Pompey's case, even the consuls) within their sphere of command (his being "ultimate on the seas, and within 50 miles inland"). Imperium maius later became a hallmark of the Roman emperor . Another technical use of the term in Roman law was for the power to extend the law beyond its mere interpretation, extending imperium from formal legislators under the ever-republican constitution: popular assemblies, senate, magistrates, emperor and their delegates to

1672-401: The state in a person to do what he considers to be in the best interests of the state". Imperium was indicated in two prominent ways: a curule magistrate or promagistrate carried an ivory baton surmounted by an eagle as his personal symbol of office; any such magistrate was also escorted by lictors bearing the fasces (traditional symbols of imperium and authority), when outside

1716-407: 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

1760-438: The vicar's authority was supreme within his diocese, he was under the authority of praetorian prefect whose power he partook of the emperor himself. Constantine completely removed the governors' military commands, a process begun under Diocletian. In those provinces where soldiers were stationed, the dux ( Latin for leader) commanded border military units. Some duces commanded units in several provinces: they were watched by

1804-549: The whole world"), while the Emperor wished to restore the imperium mundi , imperium (as under Roman Law) over the (now Christian) world. Rome was again to be the capital of the world and Frederick was to become the real emperor of the Romans, so he energetically protested against the authority of the Pope. The emperor's successes, especially his victory over the Lombards at the battle of Cortenuova (1237), only aggravated tensions between Church and State. The pope again excommunicated

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1848-440: Was a form of authority held by a citizen to control a military or governmental entity. It is distinct from auctoritas and potestas , different and generally inferior types of power in the Roman Republic and Empire . One's imperium could be over a specific military unit , or it could be over a province or territory . Individuals given such power were referred to as curule magistrates or promagistrates . These included

1892-437: Was an exception to the general rule of legions only being stationed in imperial provinces. Egypt was not a normal province; it was considered the personal possession of the Emperor, and its governor, the praefectus Aegypti , was considered the hold 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

1936-435: Was senior to other provincial governors through holding imperium maius , or supreme imperium . In imperial provinces, the Emperor would appoint legates 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

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