A provincial governor was the Roman official sent to run a province. He was usually a senator, and his titles (proconsul, legate or prefect) depended on the kind of province. He judged cases, kept order and commanded any troops there.
Key takeaways
- Governors were usually senators who had already served as praetor or consul [1].
- Senatorial governors (proconsuls) normally served one year, while imperial governors (legates) usually served several [1].
- Britannia, annexed in AD 43, had its capital at Londinium, which is where its governor had his headquarters.
- Egypt was the exception: it was ruled by a prefect from the knightly class, not a senator [1].
How provincial governors worked
A provincial governor was the Roman official who ruled a province, appointed from Rome rather than chosen locally [1]. In the Republic, Rome ruled conquered lands through promagistracies: a consul or praetor whose power was extended so that he could govern abroad [3]. Under the empire the system split in two.
In senatorial provinces the governor was a proconsul, assigned by the Senate and chosen by lot each year [2]. Two of the grandest posts, Africa and Asia, went only to men who had already been consul. The others went to former praetors [1]. In imperial provinces, the emperor's own appointee was a legate (legatus Augusti pro praetore), who could be removed by the emperor at will and usually stayed for several years [1]. Egypt was ruled by a prefect, an equestrian, and the same title was used in Judaea during its early years as a province [1][4].
What did a governor do? He commanded any troops in the province, held the courts, heard disputes and made sure taxes were collected. Historians note that his legal role grew out of local people asking for an authoritative ruling when they could not settle a quarrel themselves [1]. Most daily life was still run by local councils.
An example from our data
The Britannia page gives the province's capital as Londinium, annexed in AD 43 and lost in AD 410. Its outline covers 170,292 km². The governor of a province like this one answered to the emperor, and commanded the soldiers stationed on the frontier.
Judaea shows the prefect model. Our data gives its annexation as AD 6. Before that it had been a client kingdom under Herod the Great, a king named by the Senate, and after Herod's son Archelaus was removed in AD 6 it became a province governed by a prefect [4]. See also the entry on client kingdoms.
Aegyptus, annexed in 30 BC, with its capital at Alexandria, was ruled by a prefect rather than a senator [1].
At the empire's peak in AD 117, the map counts 41 provinces held. That is the number of governors the system had to find and send out. The expansion section of the homepage tells the story of how the number grew.
The thing people get wrong
Governors are often pictured as little kings, free to do as they liked far from Rome. The reality was tighter. They held office for a limited term, usually a year in senatorial provinces [1], and they could be replaced at will if they were imperial legates [1]. Their power in the province was large, but it depended on Rome, and rarely lasted.
The title also confuses people. A proconsul is not a consul who stayed abroad: the word means a man acting in place of a consul. The glossary entry on consuls explains the office itself.
Frequently asked questions
What was a proconsul?
A proconsul was the governor of a senatorial province. He was chosen by lot each year and, on paper, held his own command, separate from the emperor's legates.
Did governors command the army?
Yes, where there was one. Imperial governors commanded the legions in their provinces. Senatorial provinces mostly had no troops.
Who governed Roman Britain?
An imperial governor, a legate of the emperor, based at the provincial capital. Our Britannia page gives the capital, Londinium, and the dates of annexation and loss.
Sources
- Roman province, Wikipedia.
- Roman Empire, Wikipedia.
- Roman Republic, Wikipedia.
- Herod the Great, Wikipedia.
- Every figure from our own map is worked out from the datasets on the data sources page (checked against Ancient World Mapping Center outlines and Pleiades).