Meanwhile, provincials other than full Roman citizens enjoyed no such privilege.  They could make no appeal.  The governor was supreme judge, and his verdict or sentence was carried out.  In matters of doubt, whether administrative or judicial, the governor might refer to the emperor for direction or advice, and we have at a somewhat later date a considerable collection of letters and their replies which passed in this manner between Pliny and the Emperor Trajan.

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A glance at the map will show some provinces named in heavy type and some in italics.  Those in italics are the provinces to which the Senate has the right to appoint the governors, in this case called “proconsuls.”  Of course His Highness the Head of the State is graciously pleased to approve the choice of the Senate; which means that the Senate will not attempt any appointment which the emperor would dislike.  The revenues of these provinces go into a treasury controlled by the Senate.  Of those named in heavy type the emperor is himself the governor or proconsul.  Theoretically he is made governor of all these simply because they contain, or may need, armies, and he is the commander-in-chief of those armies.  But since he is at Rome, and in any case cannot be everywhere at once, he governs all such provinces by means of his deputies, whom he appoints for himself.  They are his lieutenants, and are so called—­to wit, “lieutenants of Caesar” and “deputies of the commander.”  The revenues of these imperial provinces are collected by an “agent” or “factor” of Caesar, and go into a treasury controlled by the emperor.  In any one of his provinces the emperor would be its governor, and would exercise the usual military and civil powers of a governor.  His lieutenant to each province simply acts in his place, receives the same powers, and is the governor of that province exactly as the proconsul sent by the Senate is governor in his.  But whereas the governors in the senatorial provinces wear the garb of peace, and are appointed, like other civil officers, for one year only, the “deputies of Caesar,” the commander-in-chief, wear the military garb, and are kept in office just so long as their superior thinks fit.  It is as if in modern times the governor of the one kind of province made his public appearances in civilian dress, and the governor of the other kind in uniform.

The actual outcome of this system was that the provinces of the emperor were on the whole better administered than those of the Senate.  In the latter, changes were too frequent, and a governor might sometimes strain a point to enrich himself quickly.  But it must on no account be imagined that at this date a governor could with impunity be extortionate or oppress the provincials, as he too often did in the good old days of the republic.  He was paid his salary, which might be anything up to L10,000; his allowances and power of making requisitions, such