Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/291

Rh in the provinces had even a larger share of local self-government than the Roman municipalities, but they were subject to the arbitrary interference of the governors.

Equalization of Italy and the Provinces. — These colonial and municipal measures improved the condition of the provinces, and other changes contributed to the same result. The troops were being withdrawn from provinces not bordering on the imperial frontiers; and the distinction between the civil jurisdiction of the consuls and praetors and the military jurisdiction of the proconsuls and propraetors lost a great deal of its significance, when the martial procedure was practically the same as the civil, and one dictator ruled over all. Thus the sharp contrast that had existed of old between the Italian and the provincial territory was being effaced, the ideas of Gaius Gracchus and the democrats were realized in a brilliant fashion, and imperial unity was progressing apace.

The Roman Provinces. — In addition to these measures Caesar directly promoted the welfare of the provinces by reorganizing the provincial administration. At the end of the republic there were fourteen provinces: Sicily, Sardinia with Corsica, hither and further Spain, Narbonese Gaul, cisalpine Gaul with Illyricum, Macedonia with Greece, Asia, Bithynia with Pontus, Cilicia with Cyprus, Syria, Crete, Cyrene, and Africa. Caesar made Illyricum an independent province, and established the two governorships of Lugdunese and Belgian Gaul, making seventeen in all.

The Provincial Administration. — While the republican proconsuls and propraetors had been practically sovereign and independent, Caesar could keep the governors under strict control. Formerly the distribution of provinces depended on the decree of the senate or people, on personal agreement, or on the drawing of lots. Caesar now appointed all