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In Ancient Rome, a province (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy (293 AD), largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy. The word ''province'' in modern English has its origins in the term used by the Romans. Provinces were generally governed by politicians of senatorial rank, usually former consuls or former praetors. A later exception was the province of Egypt, incorporated by Augustus after the death of Cleopatra: it was ruled by a governor of equestrian rank only, perhaps as a discouragement to senatorial ambition. This exception was unique, but not contrary to Roman law, as Egypt was considered Augustus' personal property, following the tradition of earlier, Hellenistic kings. == Republican provinces == The Latin word ''provincia'' originally meant any task or set of responsibilities assigned by the Senate to an individual who held ''imperium'' ("right of command"), which was often a military command within a specified theater of operations.〔John Richardson, "''Fines provinciae''," in ''Frontiers in the Roman World. Proceedings of the Ninth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Durhan, 16–19 April 2009)'' (Brill, 2011), p. 2ff., and "The Administration of the Empire," in ''The Cambridge Ancient History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1994), vol. 9, pp. 564–565, 580.〕 Under the Roman Republic, the magistrates were elected to office for a period of one year, and those serving outside the city of Rome, such as consuls acting as generals on a military campaign, were assigned a particular ''provincia'', the scope of authority within which they exercised their command. The territory of a people who were defeated in war might be brought under various forms of treaty, in some cases entailing complete subjection ''(deditio)''. The formal annexation of a territory created a "province" in the modern sense of an administrative unit geographically defined. Republican provinces were administered in one-year terms by the consuls and praetors who had held office the previous year and who were invested with ''imperium''.〔Clifford Ando, "The Administration of the Provinces," in ''A Companion to the Roman Empire'' (Blackwell, 2010), p. 179.〕 Rome started expanding beyond Italy during the First Punic War. The first permanent provinces to be annexed were Sicily ''(Sicilia)'' in 241 BC and Sardinia ''(Corsica et Sardinia)'' in 237 BC. Militarized expansionism kept increasing the number of these administrative provinces, until there were no longer enough qualified individuals to fill the posts.〔Andrew Lintott, ''The Constitution of the Roman Republic'' (Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 113ff.; T. Corey Brennan, ''The Praetorship in the Roman Republic'' (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 626–627.〕 The terms of provincial governors often had to be extended for multiple years ''(prorogatio)'', and on occasion the Senate awarded ''imperium'' even to private citizens ''(privati)'', most notably Pompey the Great.〔Lintott, ''Constitution,'' p. 114; Brennan, ''Praetorship,'' p. 636.〕 Prorogation undermined the republican constitutional principle of annual elected magistracies, and the amassing of disproportionate wealth and military power by a few men through their provincial commands was a major factor in the transition from a republic to imperial autocracy.〔Claude Nicolet, ''Space, Geography, and Politics in the Early Roman Empire'' (University of Michigan Press, 1991, originally published in French 1988), pp. 1, 15; Olivier Hekster and Ted Kaizer, preface to ''Frontiers in the Roman World,'' p. viii; Lintott, ''Constitution,'' p. 114; W. Eder, "The Augustan Principate as Binding Link," in ''Between Republic and Empire'' (University of California Press, 1993), p. 98.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Roman province」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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