Procurator (plural: ''Procuratores'') was a title of certain officials (not magistrates) in ancient Rome who were in charge of the financial affairs of a province, or imperial governor of a minor province.
Fiscal officers
A fiscal procurator (''procurator Augusti'') was the chief financial officer of a
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...
during the
Principate
The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate. ...
(30 BC – AD 284). A fiscal procurator worked alongside the ''
legatus Augusti pro praetore'' (imperial governor) of his province but was not subordinate to him, reporting directly to the emperor. The governor headed the civil and judicial administration of the province and was the commander-in-chief of all military units deployed there. The procurator, with his own staff and agents, was in charge of the province's financial affairs, including the following primary responsibilities:
*the collection of taxes, especially the land tax (''tributum soli''),
poll tax (''tributum capitis''), and the ''portorium'', an imperial duty on the carriage of goods on public highways
*collection of rents on land belonging to
imperial estates
*management of mines
*the distribution of pay to public servants (mostly in the military)
The office of fiscal procurator was always held by an equestrian, unlike the office of governor, which was reserved for members of the higher
senatorial order. The reason for the dual administrative structure was to prevent excessive concentration of power in the hands of the governor, as well as to limit his opportunities for
peculation. It was not unknown for friction to arise between governors and procurators over matters of jurisdiction and finance.
Provincial governors
A ''procurator Augusti'' (often called the ''Praesidial Procurator'', i.e., a garrison- or troop-commanding procurator), however, might also be the governor of the smaller
imperial province
An imperial province was a Roman province during the Principate where the Roman Emperor had the sole right to appoint the governor (''legatus Augusti pro praetore''). These provinces were often the strategically located border provinces.
The pr ...
s (i.e., those provinces whose governor was appointed by the emperor, rather than the
Roman Senate
The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...
). The same title was held by the fiscal procurators, who assisted governors of the
senatorial provinces, who were always senators.
In addition, procurator was the title given to various other officials in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
and Italy.
After the mid-first century, as a result of the
Pax Romana
The Pax Romana (Latin for 'Roman peace') is a roughly 200-year-long timespan of Roman history which is identified as a period and as a golden age of increased as well as sustained Roman imperialism, relative peace and order, prosperous stabilit ...
, the provinces previously governed by
prefects, who were military men, were gradually moved into the hands of procurators, who were essentially civilian fiscal officials. Egypt, as the special private domain of the emperor, which was administered by a
Praefectus Augustalis
During the Roman Empire, the governor of Roman Egypt ''(praefectus Aegypti)'' was a prefect who administered the Roman province of Egypt with the delegated authority ''( imperium)'' of the emperor.
Egypt was established as a Roman province in co ...
, remained the exception. This transfer created some confusion among scholars dealing with
Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of ...
, governor of
Judaea, who was often thought to have been a procurator, until the excavation of the inscribed so-called
Pilate Stone, which proved his title was prefect.
[Jerry Vardaman, ''A New Inscription Which Mentions Pilate as 'Prefect' '', '' Journal of Biblical Literature'' Vol. 81, 1962. pp. 70–71.]
See also
*
Roman governor
*
Roman province
The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...
*
Procurator at Rome (Catholic, canon law)
*
Procurator fiscal (Scotland)
References
Bibliography
* Mattingly, David (2006) ''An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire''
{{Authority control
Ancient Roman titles
Government of the Roman Empire