[126] The proconsul, like the consul, had absolute power
and he could exercise it to his fancy, for he was alone in his
province;[127] there were no other magistrates to dispute the power
with him, no tribunes of the people to veto his acts, no senate to
watch him. He alone commanded the troops, led them to battle, and
posted them where he wished. He sat in his tribunal (praetorium),
condemning to fine, imprisonment, or death. He promulgated decrees
which had the force of law. He was the sole authority over himself for
he was in himself the incarnation of the Roman people.
=Tyranny and Oppression of the Proconsuls.=--This governor, whom no
one resisted, was a true despot. He made arrests, cast into prison,
beat with rods, or executed those who displeased him. The following is
one of a thousand of these caprices of the governor as a Roman orator
relates it: "At last the consul came to Termini, where his wife took a
fancy to bathe in the men's bath. All the men who were bathing there
were driven out The wife of the consul complained that it had not been
done quickly enough and that the baths were not well prepared.
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