--ED.
CHAPTER XXI
THE CONQUERED PEOPLES
THE PROVINCIALS
=The Provinces.=--The inhabitants of conquered countries did not enter
into Roman citizenship, but remained strangers (peregrini), while yet
subjects of the Roman empire. They were to pay tribute--the tithe of
their crops, a tax in silver, a capitation tax. They must obey Romans
of every order. But as the Roman people could not itself administer
the province, it sent a magistrate in its place with the mission of
governing. The country subject to a governor was called _province_
(which signifies mission).
At the end of the republic (in 46), there were seventeen provinces:
ten in Europe, five in Asia, two in Africa--the majority of these very
large. Thus the entire territory of Gaul constituted but four
provinces, and Spain but two. "The provinces," said Cicero, "are the
domains of the Roman people"--if it made all these peoples subjects,
it was not for their advantage, but for its own. Its aim was not to
administer, but to exploit them.
=The Proconsuls.=--For the administration of a province the Roman
people always appointed a magistrate, consul or praetor, who was just
finishing the term of his office, and whose prerogative it
prolonged.
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