=The Proconsuls.=—­For the administration of a province the Roman people always appointed a magistrate, consul or praetor, who was just finishing the term of his office, and whose prerogative it prolonged.[126] The proconsul, like the consul, had absolute power and he could exercise it to his fancy, for he was alone in his province;[127] there were no other magistrates to dispute the power with him, no tribunes of the people to veto his acts, no senate to watch him.  He alone commanded the troops, led them to battle, and posted them where he wished.  He sat in his tribunal (praetorium), condemning to fine, imprisonment, or death.  He promulgated decrees which had the force of law.  He was the sole authority over himself for he was in himself the incarnation of the Roman people.

=Tyranny and Oppression of the Proconsuls.=—­This governor, whom no one resisted, was a true despot.  He made arrests, cast into prison, beat with rods, or executed those who displeased him.  The following is one of a thousand of these caprices of the governor as a Roman orator relates it:  “At last the consul came to Termini, where his wife took a fancy to bathe in the men’s bath.  All the men who were bathing there were driven out The wife of the consul complained that it had not been done quickly enough and that the baths were not well prepared.  The consul had a post set up in a public place, brought to it one of the most eminent men of the city, stripped him of his garments, and had him beaten with rods.”

The proconsul drew from the province as much money as he wanted; thus he regarded it as his private property.  Means were not wanting to exploit it.  He plundered the treasuries of the cities, removed the statues and jewels stored in the temples, and made requisitions on the rich inhabitants for money or grain.  As he was able to lodge troops where he pleased, the cities paid him money to be exempt from the presence of the soldiers.  As he could condemn to death at will, individuals gave him security-money.  If he demanded an object of art or even a sum of money, who would dare to refuse him?  The men of his escort imitated his example, pillaging under his name, and even under his protection.  The governor was in haste to accumulate his wealth as it was necessary that he make his fortune in one year.  After he returned to Rome, another came who recommenced the whole process.  There was, indeed, a law that prohibited every governor from accepting a gift, and a tribunal (since 149) expressly for the crime of extortion.  But this tribunal was composed of nobles and Roman knights who would not condemn their compatriot, and the principal result of this system was, according to the remark of Cicero, to compel the governor to take yet more plunder from the province in order to purchase the judges of the tribunal.

It cannot surprise one that the term “proconsul” came to be a synonym for despot.  Of these brigands by appointment the most notorious was Verres, propraetor of Sicily, since Cicero from political motives pronounced against him seven orations which have made him famous.  But it is probable that many others were as bad as he.