ubject to a governor was called _province_
(which signifies mission).

At the end of the republic (in 46), there were seventeen provinces:
ten in Europe, five in Asia, two in Africa--the majority of these very
large. Thus the entire territory of Gaul constituted but four
provinces, and Spain but two. "The provinces," said Cicero, "are the
domains of the Roman people"--if it made all these peoples subjects,
it was not for their advantage, but for its own. Its aim was not to
administer, but to exploit them.

=The Proconsuls.=--For the administration of a province the Roman
people always appointed a magistrate, consul or praetor, who was just
finishing the term of his office, and whose prerogative it
prolonged.[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. The
consul had a post set up in a public place, brought to it one of the
most eminent men of the city, stripped him of his garments, and had
him beaten with rods."

The proconsul drew from the province as much money as he wanted; thus
he regarded it as his private property. Means were not wanting to
exploit it. He plundered the treasuries of the cities, removed the
statues and jewels stored in the temples, and made requisitions on
the rich inhabitants for money or grain. As he was able to lodge
troops where he pleased, the cities paid him money to be exempt from
the presence of the soldiers. As he coul