Provincial Administration (Republic)

Provincial governorship
o Usually ex-magistrates (proconsuls)
o Annual term
o Private staff & associates
o Imperium within province
o Edict issued on arrival
o Extortion (e.g. Verres in Sicily)

Tax Farmers (publicani)
o Contract to collect fixed sum
o Surplus = profit

Cicero in Cilicia (51/50 BC)

Provincial Administration (Empire)

o Senatorial Provinces (e.g. Asia, Africa)
o Imperial Provinces
  + Egypt (eques as prefect)

Pliny in Bithynia (110-112 AD)

Fergus Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World (1977)
o Theory of reactive rule
o Appeals, embassies -> imperial rescript

Obstacles to government control
o Slow communication
o Primitive record-keeping
o Enforcement difficult to verify

Role of local elites
o Roman citizenship
o Euergetism (= civic philanthropy)

The Roman Economy

M.I. Finley, The Ancient Economy (1973)
o < Social sciences (esp. Max Weber)
o Thesis: ancient economy essentially different from post-medieval West

Major differences
o Wealth = coins, land, slaves
o No large-scale manufacturing
o No (significant) foreign trade
o Limited banking
o No stock market
o No insurance system (unless shipping?)
o No economists/economic theory
 ... & little central planning/policy