Most of the towns or communities throughout the empire were in the position described.  Some communities, however, such as Thessalonica, though situated inside a province, were for some special service in the past exempted from the interference of the governor, and were allowed to exercise their own laws to the full, even upon Roman citizens who might happen to reside there.  These were called “free” towns.  In other cases the community, having come into voluntary alliance with Rome at an earl; date and before conquest, was still treated as an “allied” state, and was exempted from either interference or taxation, so long as it supplied its quota of soldiers when called upon.  Such cities, however, were distinctly the exception, and most of them in the end preferred to come directly within the Roman sphere of administration.  They often found their burdens smaller and less capricious than when they taxed themselves through their own authorities.

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The function of the governor was to see that the various local bodies did their work, kept within their rights, and paid their taxes.  He also, either in person or by his deputies, administered justice wherever the Roman laws were concerned.  Where they were not concerned, he necessarily acted as Gallio did with the Jewish charges against Paul at Corinth; he dismissed the case as not demanding his jurisdiction.  Said Gallio:  “If it were a question of a misdemeanour or a crime, I should be called upon to bear with you; but if they are questions of (mere) words and names and of your (Jewish) law, you must see to it yourselves.”  When the Greeks who were standing by proceeded to beat the chief of Paul’s Jewish accusers, the governor shut his eyes to the matter.  This may have been a laxity, but it would almost appear as if Gallio liked their behaviour.

For the purposes of justice a province was divided into “Assize Districts,” and the governor or his deputies went on circuit.  In the court he sat upon a platform in his official chair and with his lictors in attendance.  The official language of the court and of its records was of course Latin, but in the Eastern half of the empire the bench cannot always have pretended not to understand Greek.  Since it would not, however, understand Hebrew, the Jews would need to speak through a representative who knew Latin, and this is apparently the reason for the appearance of Tertullus against St. Paul at Caesarea.  A Roman citizen—­that is, a person possessed of full Roman rights—­if he either denied the jurisdiction or was in danger of being condemned to capital punishment, might, unless he had been caught red-handed in certain heinous crimes, appeal to Caesar and claim to be sent to Rome.  Unless the governor had been expressly entrusted with exceptional powers, or unless the case was so self-evident that he had nothing to fear from refusing, he had no alternative but to send the appellant on to the metropolis.  Arrived there, the prisoner was taken to the guardrooms or cells in the barracks of a special prefect who had charge of such arrivals from abroad, and his case would in due course be taken either by the emperor himself, if it was sufficiently important, or by magistrates to whom the emperor delegated his powers for the purpose.