The provincial system started when Rome expanded beyond the Italian boot. The first provinces, the Italic islands, were just beyond peninsular borders. Spain (Hispania) followed. Rome sent magistrates to govern the provinces. These were ex-consuls and ex-praetors known as proconsuls and propraetors, who went to their province after their year in office, with some support staff and soldiers to protect the province. The provinces might supply Rome with food, money or bodies for the military. Predictably, corruption became an issue among the magistrates serving as provincial governors.
The meaning of the term province changed over time. It might mean a territory with an imperium-holding pro-magistrate in charge or an area over which Rome exerted military power, or a specific territory.
The Roman provincial system lasted from about 210 B.C., during the Punic Wars, to the fall of Rome, in A.D. 476. Borders and names of provinces changed. It is customary to divide provincial history into an early period, ending with the Battle of Actium. This date corresponds with the end of the Republic, and the start of the Imperial period, under Rome's first emperor, Augustus. During the Republic, the provinces were either consular or praetorian [Johnson et al.] run by pro-magistrates with imperium. With the start of the principate, the provinces were divided into senatorial and imperial provinces, with the imperial under the control of magistrates appointed by the emperor. Later divisions of the history of the provinces are disputed; however, the reign of Marcus Aurelius can be counted as the start of a new provincial era because of sustained conflict with the provinces, according to early twentieth century classical historians Arnold and Shuckburgh. Diocletian or Constantine mark another point of change in the Roman provincial system since it was at this time that the main government of Rome shifted eastward and the Empire was divided into different types of administrative districts.
I. European Provinces
Western
Europe Central
- Rhaetia et Vincelicia (15 B.C.)
- Noricum (15 B.C.)
- Pannonia (A.D.10)
Europe Eastern
- Illyricum (167-59 B.C.)
- Macedonia (146 B.C.)
- Achaia (146 B.C.)
- Moesia (29 B.C.)
- Thrace (A.D. 46)
- Dacia (A.D. 107)
II. African Provinces
- Africa (146 B.C.)
- Cyrenaica et Creta (74 B.C., 63 B.C.)
- Numidia (46 B.C.)
- Egypt (30 B.C.)
- Mauretania (A.D. 42)
III. Asian Provinces
Asia Minor
- Asia (133 B.C.)
- Bithynia et Pontus (74 B.C., 65 B.C.)
- Cilicia (67 B.C.)
- Galatia (25 B.C.)
- Pamphylia et Lycia (25 B.C.-A.D. 43)
- Cappadocia (A.D. 17)
Southwestern Asia
- Syria (64 B.C.)
- Judea (63 B.C.-A.D. 70)
- Arabia Petraea (A.D. 105)
- Armenia (A.D. 114)
- Mesopotamia (A.D. 115)
- Assyria (A.D. 115)
IV. Islands
- Sicily (241 B.C.)
- Sardinia et Corsica (238 B.C.)
- Cyprus (58 B.C.)
Sources:
- The Roman System of Provincial Administration to the Accession of Constantine the Great, by William Thomas Arnold [journalist and historian] and Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh [classicist and ancient historian] (1906).
- Ancient Roman statutes: a translation with introduction, commentary, glossary, and index, by Allan Chester Johnson, Paul Robinson Coleman-Norton, Frank Card Bourne, Clyde Pharr; 2003.
- "The 'Praetor' of Propertius 1.8 and 2.16 and the Origins of the Province of Illyricum," by Danijel Dzino; The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 58, No. 2 (Dec., 2008), pp. 699-703.
- Outlines of Ancient History: For the Use of High Schools and Academies, by Carey Morey
