In Sicily it is clear that the _peregrinus judex_ was a standing institution. Elsewhere, even in the Hellenised East, his existence was more dependent on the grace of the governor. Cicero, in his government of Cilicia, following the precedent of Mucius Scaevola, the ideal governor of Asia, allowed the greatest freedom to the native laws, courts, and judges, and remarks on the quickened life which their use inspired in the provincials.[1537] The attempt, indeed, to substitute her own for the native law was abhorrent to the political sense of Rome, and her most ambitious representatives never attempted to make their edicts into codes. The importance of the edict was chiefly felt in matters of private international law, administrative jurisdiction, and procedure. It stated principles which should regulate the relations between members of different states or between provincials and Romans, it issued rules for the settlement of claims made by the _publicani_, and it supplemented the law of the province by framing regulations for the conduct of private suits. The edict of each province was a separate entity, and drew its name from the country to which it directly applied,[1538] and it had a continuous existence, although the unity and continuity of its life depended too much on the discretion of the individual governor.[1539] The edict might be composed at Rome,[1540] and its author might copy from more than one original. The rulings of his predecessor would doubtless be well known; there were the edicts of other provinces, the work of famous administrators of the past;[1541] and, as a fruitful source of general rules of procedure, there was the _edictum perpetuum_ of the capital In Cicero’s own edict, of which he furnishes a brief description, the principles regulating business and trading relations (especially as existing between Roman companies and provincials) were clearly and fully set forth. As much attention was devoted to the general rules of inheritance and bankruptcy, such as had been evolved by the _imperium_ at Rome, and which were doubtless meant not to supersede the customs of the various communities, but to be a common law for the province as a whole. But much remained that could not be formulated. A province had boundless surprises in store, and Cicero found it wiser to leave the third part of his edict “unwritten.” The principles of the urban praetor were to be drawn upon as occasion required.[1542] The civil jurisdiction of the governor, which was based on the edict, was either personal or delegated, and in both cases required the visitation of circuits (_conventus_, διοικήσεις),[1543] into which the province had been divided at the time of its organisation. A programme of the assize was drawn up, the stay in each circuit was accurately determined,[1544] and the governor held a court (_forum egit_) in each of them in turn.[1545]