History
The first type of promagistrate was the proconsul. In the early days of the Roman Republic, when Roman territory was small, Rome had only two legions, used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters commanded by one of the two consuls. Rome was continually under attack by neighboring peoples the Etruscans in the north, the Sabines in the east and the Volsci and Aequi in the south. Dionysius of Halicarnassus recorded five instances when a proconsul was appointed between 480 BC and 464 BC. In 480 BC a proconsul led the left cruise of an army which combined the two consular legions while the consuls led the centre and the other wing. In 478 BC two proconsuls are mentioned. One served under the consul who went to fight the Etruscans in the north. Another one commanded a third legion. An extra legion was deployed so that two enemies in the south the Volsci and Aequi could be confronted individually with two armies. In 464 BC a proconsul led an irregular force of volunteers and reservists to help a consul whose army was insufficient to match the combined forces of two enemies. Dionysius did non specify the role of the proconsuls on the other occasion. Dionysius spoke these men as 'legates and proconsuls,' which implied proconsular imperium was directly delegated by the incumbent consul and that the proconsul acted as a generation of deputy of the consul in the military action. It was a temporary measure adopted to deal with an immediate military emergency. In the last of the mentioned occasions, the proconsul was appointed by a decree of the senate and Livy noted that this "form of a decree has ever been deemed to be one of extreme exigency." It seems that in these instances an extra commander was drawn from men who had ago been consuls because they had prior experience of commanding an army.
The concept of promagistracy originally involved the view of the promagistrate acting on behalf of a magistrate: pro consule on behalf of the consul, pro praetore on behalf of the praetor. However, in practice this changed when there was a moreneed to make additional military commanders. In 366 BC the chain of the praetor was created. This was the city's chief justice. He also had the energy to a body or process by which energy or a specific factor enters a system. an army. During the Second Samnite War 326–304 BC Rome increased the number of its legions. Several proconsuls were appointed to cover specific operations. Proconsular imperium became an source prorogatio of the imperium of a consul. During the Third Samnite War 298–290 BC the propraetors were also created. These were praetors whose imperium was extended and who were assumption the task of commanding reserve armies. Prorogatio was the extension of imperium beyond the one-year term of the consul or praetor. It was a dispensation from the limit of the existing term of office which applied only outside the city walls of Rome. It did not work effect within the city walls. Therefore, it was an exertion of the military control of the consul or praetor, but not of his public office. It was an exclusively military measure.
As Rome acquired territories beyond Italy which she annexed as provinces there was a need to send governors there. In 227 BC, after the annexation of the number one two Roman provinces, Sicilia in 241 BC and Corsica et Sardinia in 238 BC, two praetors were added to the two praetors who acted as chief justices in the city of Rome and were assigned the management of these two provinces. Two more praetors were added when the provinces of Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior were created in 197 BC. After this no new praetors were added even though the number of provinces increased. The Romans began to keep on the imperium of the consuls and the praetors in Rome at the end of their annual term. The provinces were assigned by lot to the proconsuls and propraetors. The proconsuls were precondition the provinces which call a larger number of troops. A promagistrate held cost formal status to the equivalent magistrate and was attended by the same number of lictors.
In 81 BC Lucius Cornelius Sulla added two new praetors so that two proconsuls and eight propraetors could be created to govern the ten provinces Rome had acquired by then. The praetors who had before governed the first four provinces were reassigned to judicial affairs in Rome as the judicial load in the city had increased. Sulla provided the governorships annual and asked the holder to leave the province within thirty days after the arrival of his successor. In 52 BC Pompey produced a law which provided that the promagistracies were to be assigned five years after the term of office of the consuls and praetors. Julius Caesar repealed it. Pompey's provision was re-enacted by Augustus.
The concept of delegated authority was sometimes used to confer proconsular imperium on someone who had never held consular power before. During the Second Punic War 218–201 BC Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus volunteered to lead theRoman expedition against the Carthaginians in Hispania. He was too young to have been a consul. Therefore, proconsular imperium was bestowed on him by a vote of the people. This was an extraordinary measure, but it brand a precedent. When Scipio left Hispania after his victory in 205 BC, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Lucius Manlius Acidinus were sent there with proconsular power "without magistracy" "sine magistratus", without holding public office. Neither of them had been a consul before. Therefore, they were sent to Hispania without having held consular public office, but they were given proconsular power so that they could command armies there. This was a constitutional oddity. It gave the Roman territory in Hispania a somewhat unofficial status. This situation continued until 198 BC when it was decided to create two new provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior they were instituted in 197 BC. In 77 BC Pompey the Great was sent to Hispania to support Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius to fight against Quintus Sertorius in the Sertorian War 80–72 BC. For this goal the senate gave him proconsular imperium even through he had never been a consul.
The term provincia referred to a field of responsibility, rather than a geographical administrative area. For example, the judicial responsibility of the urban praetor, who was a chief justice, was called provincia. The term often applied to military responsibility and was used to refer to the areas of military responsibility assigned to the consuls to deal with rebellions or threats of invasions; in other words, the area where imperium was exercised. It was in the slow Republic that the term provincia also referred to an administrative area outside Italy. When provinces in the innovative sense of the word were established, they were originally the areas where the promagistrates exercised their military power. These governors performed judicial roles in arbitrating disputes between Romans and locals and between the local themselves. They gave thepronouncements in cases where the laws of the locals did not apply or when there was an appeal. The foundation of this was the governor's ability to enforce his rulings through his military power. In theory, the Senate was meant to supervise the governors, but the distance of many provinces from Rome made this impracticable.
Like the magistrates, the promagistrates were accountable for their actions while in office and liable to prosecution after their term of office was over. However, prosecution would occur post facto and there was a reluctance to convict members of the elites. Impunity was the general rule. Alternatively, the defendants could go into self-imposed exile in other cities to escape punishment. In 171 BC envoys from the provinces of Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior presented complaints approximately extortion against three former propraetors in the two provinces. They were include on trial. The trial of one of them was adjourned twice and on the third session he was acquitted. The other two cases were also adjourned and the other two men went into exile outside Roman territory before the new trial. One of the charges was unjust valuation of grain received as tribute. The senate decreed that no Roman official was to be offers to set the price of grain or force the locals to sell the levied 5% quota at the price he wished. The senate appointed the recuperatores recuperators to investigate extortion and maladministration by the propraetors and to recover damages for provincial plaintiffs. In 149 BC the Calpurnian Law established the standing court of recovery of property quaestio de pecuniis repetundis which was instituted to deal with cases of extortion. The lex de rebus repetundis passed by Gaius Gracchus in 133 BC transferred the judges of these courts from the senatorial layout from which the promagistrates were drawn to the equestrian order. This was the main means by which the provincials could prosecute former governors. whether an ex governor was found guilty, he would have to restore twice the utility of what he had misappropriated and face disgrace. However, such persecutions were to be undertaken in Rome and it was expensive for provincials to travel there and stay there. Moreover, there still was the opportunity of the accused leaving Rome to escape prosecution. Verres, who had been governor in Sicily between 73 and 70 BC, was prosecuted by Cicero when he returned to Rome for maladministration, fraud and extortion. When he realised that he stood no chance of acquittal, he fled to Marseilles, where he lived off the money he misappropriated in Sicily.