| Roman provincial management system is the product of the great abroad conquer,which was perfected during the Principate period from the end of the 1st century BC to the 3rd century AD.Since the mid-3rd century BC,the Roman Republic embarked on a series of overseas expansions,conquering the entire Mediterranean world and establishing Roman provinces there.The Roman Provinces of the Republic were set up to maintain their control over the provinces,but the provincial viceroys who owned great authority were increasingly out of Roman’s control.The management function of the provincial government was also imperfect,so that the provincial management was increasingly corrupt and chaotic,leading to provincial viceroys maintaining an army and defying orders from the central government,which left a hidden danger for the overthrow of the political system of the republic.After Marius’ military reform,provincial viceroys were more closely connected with the army in the provinces,and the Roman Republic gradually entered the state of civil war.Finally,as the provincial viceroy of Gaul,Caesar led the army of the province to attack Rome in 49 BC,and the republic’s political system fell.After Augustus established the principate system,the expansion of the empire slowed down,and the development direction of the provincial system changed from expanding the provincial territory to strengthening the institutional construction within the province.After the development of the first and second centuries,provincial viceroys were placed under the tight control of the Princeps,and their military activities were effectively controlled by Rome.On the one hand,the Princeps dispatched his trusted personnel to inspect and control the provinces,and at the same time,he established a fiscal and tax management system which was controlled by the Princeps’ s agent and independent of the provincial viceroys,thus effectively restricting and dividing the power of the provincial viceroys.With the improvement of the provincial management system,the functions of the provincial government have been expanded,so as to get more and more deeply involved in the areas of civil administration,justice and finance and taxation in the province,and more effectively realize the control of the local community within the provinces.Till then,Rome’s provincial management system developed to a perfect level,and presented a highly centralized form,which,in turn,promoted the development of the Princeps’ s official system and the Princeps’ s central institutions,so as to strengthen the Princeps’ s power in Rome.In addition,while improving the status of provincial residents,enabling them to obtain peaceful and standardized local management mode and a more equitable distribution of financial burden,it also left a hidden danger for the expansion of centralized power in the era of monarchy.With the crisis of the 3rd century,the principate system tended to collapse and was finally replaced by the monarchy established by Diocletian in 284 AD.In the monarchy period,the centralization of power expanded further on the basis of the principate era.In accordance with this,the provincial management system also developed towards the further division of local power,which was conducive to the monarchy.Under this system,the civil,financial and military departments of the provinces became independent systems and were completely subject to the regional and central government,which reflected the unprecedented expansion of centralized power in the monarchical era,allowing monarchs to exploit local populations with greater impunity.The imperial bureaucracy also became more and more overstaffed,which brought heavy burden and oppression to the provincial residents.This is the final result of the development of provincial management system in the era of the principate system. |
