The Augustan Revolution
were being delayed byTiberius, towhom they had been sent.^125 A similar
intermingling of responsibilities is illustrated byTacitus under : ‘‘Mean-
whileTiberius...wasdealingwith...petitionsfromtheprovinces.On
hisproposal,senatorialdecreeswerepassedtorelievethetownsofCibyra
inAsiaandAegiuminAchaia,bothdamagedbyearthquake,byremitting
theirtributeforthreeyears’’;^126 Asiawas,ofcourse,apublic,Achaeathenan
imperial,province.Communitiesinsenatorial(andtoalesserextentinim-
perial)provincessentembassiesatwilltoeithertheSenateortheEmperor.
Thus a man from Cos in the Julio-Claudian period is honoured on an in-
scriptionforhavingoftenbeenonembassiesforhiscity,athisownexpense,
to the Emperors, the Senate, and the proconsuls of Asia,^127 while another
man from there had often been ambassador just to the Emperors.^128 Then,
forinstance,underTrajanwefindtheBithyniansfirstaccusingQ.Varenus
beforetheSenate,andthensendingambassadorswithadecreeofthepro-
vincialcounciltotheEmperorstatingthattheyweredroppingthecase:one
of the ambassadors appeared also before the Senate—‘‘explained their rea-
sonsfordroppingtheprosecutionandaskedthatnodecisionshouldbetaken
beforetheEmperorheldaninquiry.’’Trajanundertooktoenquireintothe
intentionsoftheprovince.^129
Theweaknessoftheacceptedinterpretationofthedivisionoftheprov-
incesisnotmerelythatitenvisagesadivisionofresponsibilityandauthority
which simplydid not exist. It is rather that it and its implications depend
onanumberofassumptionsaboutRoman‘‘administration’’(atermwhich
itselftendstomislead)whicharethemselvesinvalid.Ifwelookattheactual
evidence for how the Empireworked,what we see is not an arrangement
ofcompartments,ofadministrativehierarchies,butanarrayofinstitutions,
communities,andpersons,therelationsbetweenwhichdependedonpoliti-
calanddiplomaticchoiceswhichcouldbemadebyanyoftheparties.What
passesfor‘‘administration’’wasinfactlargelyeitherjurisdictionandtheset-
tlementofdisputes,ordiplomacy.Moreover,thecentralizationofpowerin
thehandsofanindividualdidnotmeanthecentralizationofinitiative.On
thecontrary,theimperialpowerwaslargelystaticorinert,anditsactivity
stimulated by pressures and initiatives from below.What initiatives were
takendependedonthestandingofindividualsandcommunities,andtheir
. Suet.,Tib..
. Tac.,Ann.,,.
. A.Maiuri,Nuova Silloge epigrafica di Rodi e Cos(),no..
. W.R.PatonandE.L.Hicks,The Inscriptions of Cos(),no..
. Pliny,Epp.,;,;,;.