Page:Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire (1926, Abbot and Johnson, municipaladminis00abbo).pdf/34

 rank. Sometimes between these two officials was a procurator regionis. The procurators were not under the control of the proconsul, but were directly responsible to the emperor. The business affairs of an estate were in charge of a conductor, who was a freeman or a freedman and was responsible for the management of the entire estate. Most of the land was rented to tenants under five-year contracts, and each tenant was personally responsible for the payment of the rental to the imperial collector. In case of non-payment the conductor proceeded against him. Part of the land in an estate could be leased by the conductor and worked directly by him or leased to tenants. For the purpose of working this land he could require a certain number of days' labor annually from each tenant.

With this sketch in mind of the administrative arrangements on ane state, let us fill in some of the details of the plan. No specimen of the fundamental law for an estate has come down to us in its entirety, but the articles of the lex Manciana and lex Hadriana which are extant prove that it provided in the minutest detail for the regulation of the affairs of the imperial domains. It established a system of administration; it specified the powers and duties of the procurator, the conductor, and their assistants; it determined the rights and duties of the colonus, fixed his rental, and provided for him a method of appeal. Such a law was drawn up for a large region. Consequently it might violate the usage of a particular locality. There were two points especially in which this seems to have happened, viz. in determining the amount of corn, wine, or other