The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 1Mommsen, Theodor
History
The Provinces of the Roman Empire, from Caesar to Diocletian. v. 1
Mommsen, Theodor
Roman provinces -- Administration; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
[3: After the campaign of Crassus the conquered land was probably
organised in such a way that the coast went to the Thracian kingdom, as
Zippel has shown (_Röm. Illyricum_, p. 243), and the western portion
was, just like Thrace, assigned in fief to the native princes, in
place of one of whom must have come the _praefectus civitatium Moesiae
et Triballiae_ (_C. I. L._ v. 1838), who was still acting under
Tiberius. The usual assumption that Moesia was at first combined with
Illyricum, rests only on the circumstance that in the enumeration of
the provinces apportioned in the year 727 between emperor and senate
in Dio, liii. 12 it is not named, and so was contained in "Dalmatia."
But this enumeration does not extend at all to the vassal-states and
the procuratorial provinces, and so far all is in due keeping with
our assumption. On the other hand, weighty arguments tell against the
usual hypothesis. Had Moesia been originally a part of the province
of Illyricum, it would have retained this name; for on the division
of a province the name was usually retained, and only a defining
epithet added. But the appellation Illyricum, which Dio doubtless
reproduces _l.c._, was always in this connection restricted to the
upper (Dalmatia) and the lower (Pannonia). Moreover, if Moesia was a
part of Illyricum, there was no room left for that Prefect of Moesia
and Triballia, or in other words for his kingly predecessor. Lastly,
it is far from probable that in 727 {27.} a command of such extent and
importance should have been entrusted to a single senatorial governor.
On the other hand, everything admits of easy explanation, if small
client-states arose in Moesia after the war of Crassus; these were as
such from the outset under the emperor, and, as the senate did not take
part in their successive annexation and conversion into a governorship,
this might easily be unnoticed in the Annals. It was completed in or
before the year 743 {11.}, seeing that the governor, L. Calpurnius
Piso then waging war against the Thracians, to whom Dio (liv. 34)
erroneously assigns the province of Pamphylia, can only have had as his
province Pannonia or Moesia, and, as at that time Tiberius was acting
as legate in Pannonia, there is left for him only Moesia. In 6 A.D.
there certainly appears an imperial governor of Moesia.]
[4: The official title of Cottius was not king, like that of his
father Donnus, but "president of the cantonal union" (_praefectus
civitatium_), as he is named on the still standing arch of Susa
erected by him in honour of Augustus in the year 745-6 {9-8.}. But the
position was beyond doubt held for life, and, under reservation of the
superior's right to confirm it, also hereditary; so far therefore the
union was certainly a principality, as it is usually so termed.]
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