The Introduction, or First Chapter, Trajan to Pliny. (2)

“WITH good cause, dearest Pliny, have you doubted what answer to return to the censors, inquiring whether they ought to elect a man into the senat that is of another city, tho of the same province; seeing on the one side the authority of the law, and of custom on the other to the contrary, might well disorder you. To innovat nothing for the time past, I think well of this expedient: they who are already elected senators, tho not according to the law, of what city soever they be, may remain for the present; but for the future Pompey’s laws should return to their full virtue, which if we should cause to look back, might create trouble.”

This might serve, but there will be no hurt in being a little fuller in the discovery of provincial government.

The provinces so fram’d, as has bin shewn, were subdivided into certain circuits call’d dioceses; that of Asia had six, Alabandæ, Sardes (antiently the senat of Cræsus) Smyrna, Ephesus, Adramytis, Pergamum. That of Cilicia had also six, the Pamphylian, Isaurian, and Cilician, the metropolis wherof was Tarsus, a free city; to these were taken out of the province of Asia, Cibyra, Sinnadæ, Apamea: what were the dioceses of the other two Sigonius, whom I follow, dos not shew. At these in the winter (for the summer was spent commonly with the army) the people of the province assembl’d at set times, as at our assizes, where the Roman governors did them justice.

The governors or magistrats, to whose care a province was committed, were of two kinds: the first and chief was consul or pretor, which appellations differ’d not in power, but in dignity, that of consul being more honorable, who had twelve lictors, wheras the pretor had but six; if the annual magistracy of either of these came to be prorogu’d, he was call’d proconsul or propretor.

The second kind of magistrat in a province was the questor, receiver or treasurer, who being also annual, was attended by lictors of his own; if he dy’d within his year, the consul, proconsul, or pretor might appoint one for that time in his place, who was call’d proquestor. The power of the consul, proconsul, or pretor, was of two kinds, the one civil, the other military; the former call’d magistracy, the latter empire.

The pomp of these assuming and exercising their magistracy was reverend; the consul or proconsul had legats, somtimes more but never under three, appointed him by the senat: these were in the nature of counsillors to assist him in all affairs of his province; he had tribuns, colonels, or field officers, for the military part of his administration; he had also secretarys, serjeants, heralds or criers, lictors or insignbearers, interpreters, messengers, divines, chamberlains, physicians; and besides these his companions, which for the most part were of the younger sort of gentlemen or gallants that accompany’d him for his ornament, and their own education. Into this the somwhat like train of the questor (who by the law was in place of a son to the proconsul, and to whom the proconsul was to give the regard of a father) being cast, it made the pretorian cohort or guard always about the person of the proconsul, who in this equipage having don his devotions at the capitol, departed the city, paludatus, that is in his royal mantle of gold and purple, follow’d for som part of the way with the whole train of his friends, wishing him much joy and good speed.

In his province he executed his twofold office, the one of captain general, the other of the supreme magistrat. In the former relation he had an army either receiv’d from his predecessor, or new levy’d in the city; this consisted in the one half of the legions (as I have elsewhere shewn) and in the other of associats: for the greatness of the same, it was proportion’d to the province, or the occasion; to an ordinary province in times of peace, I believe an army amounted not to above one legion with as many auxiliarys, that is, to a matter of twelve thousand foot, and twelve hundred horse. The magistracy or jurisdiction of the proconsul, or pretor, was executed at the Metropolitan city of each diæcis, which upon this occasion was to furnish the pretorian cohort with lodging, salt, wood, hay, and stable-room at the charge of the country. These, tho Cicero would hardly receive any of them, were, towards the latter time of the commonwealth, extended by the provincial magistrats to so great a burden to the people, that it caus’d divers laws to be pass’d in Rome (de repetundis) for restitution to be made to the provinces, by such as had injur’d them. Upon such laws was the prosecution of Verres by Cicero. When and where this kind of court was to be held, the consul, proconsul, or pretor, by proclamation gave timely notice. Being assembl’d at the time, and the city appointed, in the townhall stood a tribunal; upon this the sella curulis, or a chair of state, in which sat the consul, proconsul, or pretor, with his pretorian cohort or band about him, furnish’d with all manner of pomp, and officers requisit to the ornament or administration of so high a magistracy. The jurisdiction of this court was according to the laws made for the administration of the province; but because they could not foresee all things (as appear’d by the questions which Pliny put upon the laws of Pompey, to Trajan) it came to pass, that much was permitted to the edicts of the provincial pretors, as was also in use at Rome with the pretors of the city: and if any man had judg’d otherwise in his province, than he ought to have don in the city, made an edict contrary to the law of his province, or judg’d any thing otherwise than according to his own edict, he was held guilty of, and questionable for a heinous crime. But what the law of this or that province (which differ’d in each) was, would be hard particularly to say; only in general it was for the main very much resembling that of Sicily, call’d Rupilia.

LEGE Rupilia, or by the law of Rupilius, a cause between one citizen and another being of the same city, was to be try’d at home by their own laws. A cause between one provincial and another being of divers citys, was to be try’d by judges whom the pretor should appoint by lot. What a privat man claim’d of a people, or a people of a privat man, was to be refer’d to the senat of som third city. Upon what a Roman claim’d of a provincial, a provincial was to be appointed judg. Upon what a provincial claim’d of a Roman, a Roman was to be appointed judg. For decision of other controversys, select judges from among the Romans (not out of the pretorian cohort, but out of such Romans, or other citizens free of Rome, as were present in the same court) were to be given. In criminal causes, as violence, peculat, or treason, the law, and the manner of proceding was the same in the provinces, as in Rome.

For the tributs, customs, taxes, levys of men, mony, shipping, ordinary or extraordinary, for the common defence of the Roman republic, and her provinces, the consuls, proconsuls, or pretors proceding according to such decrees of the senat as were in that case standing or renew’d upon emergent occasions; in gathering these lay the magistracy or office of the questor: if the proconsul were indispos’d, or had more business than he could well turn his hand to, courts of this nature might be held by one or more of his legats. With matter of religion they meddl’d not; every nation being so far left to the liberty of conscience, that no violence for this cause was offer’d to any man: by which means both Jews and Christians, at least till the time of the persecuting emperors, had the free exercise of their religion throout the Roman provinces. This the Jews lik’d well for themselves, nor were they troubl’d for the Heathens; but to the Christians they always grudg’d the like privilege. Thus when they could no otherwise induce Pilat to put Christ to death, they accus’d Christ of affecting monarchy, and so affrighted Pilat, being a mean condition’d fellow, while they threaten’d to let Tiberius know he was not Cæsar’s friend, that he comply’d with their ends. But when at Corinth, where Gallio (a man of another temper) was proconsul of Achaia, they would have bin at this sport again, and with a great deal of tumult had brought Paul before the tribunal, Gallio took it not well, that they should think he had nothing else to do than to judg of words, and names, and questions of their law; for he car’d no more for the disputes between the Christians and the Jews, than for those between the Epicureans and the Stoics. Wherfore his lictors drave them from the tribunal, and the officious Corinthians, to shew their love to the proconsul, fell on knocking them out of the way of other business.

Now tho the commonwealth of the Achæans, being at this time a Roman province under the proconsul Gallio, injoy’d no longer her common senat, strategus and demiurges, according to the model shewn in the former book; yet remain’d each particular city under her antient form of popular government, so that in these, especially at Corinth, many of the Greecs being of the same judgment, the Jews could not dispute with the Christians without tumult. Of this kind was that which happen’d at Ephesus, where Christianity growing so fast, that the silversmiths of Diana’s temple began to fear they should lose their trade; the Jews liking better of Heathenism than Christianity, set Alexander, one of their pack, against Paul.

This place (in times when men will understand no otherwise of human story than makes for their ends) is fallen happily unto my hand; seeing that which I have said of a Roman province, will be thus no less than prov’d out of Scripture. For the chancellor of Ephesus perceiving the ecclesia (so it is in the original) or assembly (as in our translation) uncall’d by the senat, or the magistracy to be tumultuously gather’d in the theater (their usual place, as in Syracusa and other citys, of meeting) betakes himself to appease the people with divers arguments: among which he has these. First, as to matter of religion. You have brought hither, says he, these men which are neither robbers of temples, (Churches our bible has it before there was any church to be robb’d) nor yet blasphemers of the goddess: in which words (seeing that they offering no scandal, but only propagating that which was according to their own judgment, were not obnoxious to punishment) he shews that every man had liberty of conscience. Secondly, as to law: if Demetrius and the craftsmen which are with him have a matter against any man, the law, says he, is open. Thirdly, as to the matter of government, which appears to be of two parts, the one provincial, the other domestic: for the former, says he, there are (ἀνϑύπατοι) proconsuls (he speaks in the plural number with relation to the legats, by whom the proconsul somtimes held his courts; otherwise this magistrat was but one in a province, as at this time for Asia Publius Suilius) and to the latter, says he, if you desire any thing concerning other matters, that is, such as appertain to the government of the city (in which the care of the temple was included) it shall be determin’d in a lawful ecclesia, or assembly of the people. By which you may see that notwithstanding the provincial government, Ephesus, tho she was no free city, (for with a free city the proconsul had nothing of this kind to do) had (ἀυ[Editor: illegible character]ονομίαν) the government of her self (as those other citys mention’d in Pliny’s epistles) by the senat, and the people; for wherever one of these is nam’d, as the senat by Pliny, or the people by Luke, the other is understood. When the chancellor had thus spoken, he dismiss’d the ecclesia. It is Luke’s own word, and so often as I have now repeated it, so often has he us’d it, upon the same occasion. Wherfore I might henceforth expect two things of divines; first, that it might be acknowleg’d that I have good authors, Luke and the chancellor of Ephesus, for the word ecclesia in this sense; and secondly, that they would not persuade us, the word ecclesia has lost its signification, lest they condemn this place of Scripture to be no more understood. The manner of provincial government being thus prov’d, not only out of profane authors, but out of Scripture it self; and the citys that were least free having had such power over themselves, and their territorys; why, if the Romans took no more of them for this protection, than was paid to their former lords, did they not rather undertake the patronage of the world than the empire; seeing Venice, and Dantzic, while the one was tributary to the Turk, the other to the king of Poland, were nevertheless so free estates, that of a king, or a commonwealth that should have put the rest of the world into the like condition, no less in our day could have bin said? and yet that the Romans, when the nature of the eastern monarchys shall be rightly consider’d, took far less of these citys than their old masters, will admit of little doubt. Cicero surely would not ly; he, when proconsul of Cilicia, wrote in this manner concerning his circuit, to his friend Servilius: two days I staid at Laodicea, at Apamea five, at Sinnadæ three, at Pilomenis five, at Iconium ten; than which jurisdiction or government there is nothing more just or equal. Why then had not those citys their senats and their ecclesiæ, or congregations of the people, as well as that of Ephesus, and those wherof Pliny gives an account to Trajan?

CORINTH was in Achaia; Perga of Pamphylia, Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe of Lycaonia, were in Cilicia; and with these, as som reckon, Attalia, Ephesus and the other Antioch were in Syria. Achaia, Cilicia, and Syria, were Roman provinces at the time of this perambulation of the apostles: the citys under provincial administration, whether free or not free, were under popular government; whence it follows, that Corinth, Ephesus, Antioch of Syria, Antioch of Pisidia, Perga, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Attalia, being at this time under provincial administration, were at the same time under popular government. There has been no hurt in going about, for the proof of this; tho indeed to shew that these citys (had quandam ἀυτονομίαν) were under popular government, we needed have gone no further than the text, as where the chancellor of Ephesus, to get rid of a tumultuous ecclesia or assembly of the people, promises them a lawful one. In Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and the rest, you hear not of any king (as where Herod stretch’d out his hand to please the Jews, and vex the church) but of the people, of their rulers, of their assemblys, and of their tumults. The people at Lystra are now agreed to give the apostles divine honors; and anon, both at Iconium and Lystra, to stone them. Now to determin of divine honor or of life and death, are acts of soverain power. It is true, these nevertheless may happen to be usurp’d by a mere tumult; but that cannot be said of these congregations, which consisted as well of the magistrats and rulers, as of the people, and where the magistrats shew that they had no distinct power wherby to restrain the people, nor other means to prevail against them, than by making of partys: which passages, as they prove these commonwealths on the one side to have bin ill constituted, evince on the other, that these citys were under popular government.