Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 1 - The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution

 The Augustan Revolution

of gladiators for games given by local officials are explicitly to be applied
in both types of province—‘‘let those most honorable men,who are pro-
consuls...andthosewhogovernprovinceswithoutbeingappointedbythe
lot,beaware.’’^52 Moreover,therearespecificreferencestogamesgivenby
priests(sacerdotes)intheimperialprovincesoftheTresGalliae.
ItmaybenotedalsothatwedofindtheSenatedealingwithindividual
placesintheimperialprovinces.In..itwas,itseems,theSenatewhich
heard rival delegations from Lacedaimon and Messenia, although Achaea
wasthenunderanimperiallegate.^53 DiorecordsthatthroughSaoterus,the
favourite of Commodus, Nicomedia obtained from the Senate permission
forafestivalandatempleofCommodus;^54 Bithyniahadbeenanimperial
provincesinceabout.^55

TheEmperorandtheImperialProvinces

ItisnotworthaskingwhethertheEmperorconfinedhisactivitiestotheim-
perialprovinces,sincenoonecouldsuggestthathedid.Butdidheonocca-
sionissueedictsorotherregulationsfortheimperialprovincesalone?There
isonesingleitemofevidence:in..AugustusexcludedCorneliusGallus,
beforehiscondemnationandsuicide,fromtheimperialprovinces.^56

TheEmperorandtheProvincesinGeneral

WehaveanumberofinstancesofgeneraledictsorpronouncementsbyEm-
perorsaffectingalltheprovincesalike.Theearliestofthese,Iwouldtenta-
tivelysuggest,isthatinthenotoriouslypuzzlingAugustaninscriptionfrom
CymeinAsia.^57 Iwouldtakeitthatthefirst,Greek,documentisageneral
pronouncement by Augustus and Agrippa in ..,ordering the restitu-
tionofpublicandsacredpropertiesinalltheprovinces.Onthisviewhekastes
eparchiasin line  does in fact mean ‘‘of every province’’;^58 and the text in

.ILSFIRA^2 I,no.;J.H.OliverandR.E.A.Palmer,‘‘MinutesofanActof
theRomanSenate,’’Hesperia():.
. Tac.,Ann.,,–.
. Dio,,.SeeF.Grosso,La lotta politica al tempo di Commodo(),.
. SeeD.Magie,Roman Rule in Asia Minor(),chap.,n..
. Suet.,Div. Aug.;Dio,,.
.SEGXVIII,;XX,,wherethebibliographyisgiven.
. IcannotfollowtheviewofJ.H.Oliver,‘‘TheMainProblemoftheAugustusIn-
scriptionfromCyme,’’GRBS():,modifiedin‘‘Augustan,FlavianandHadrianic