It was as a representative of the emperor, as legatus Augusti on a special commission, that Pliny went out to Bithynia, his appointment made by Trajan and not subject to senatorial debate or lot. Even so his authority was greater than that of anyone else in the province, except in the highly unlikely event of the princeps coming in person. However, the greater power of Trajan could not be ignored. Pliny took with him a set of instructions (mandata) issued by the emperor, which were longer and more prescriptive than the suggestions the Senate made to someone like Cicero. It would be difficult for provincials to appeal over his head to Rome unless they had his permission, but it was certainly not impossible. There was also a procurator overseeing the imperial estates and some of the taxation of the province and this man corresponded directly with the princeps and his advisors. In this case the relations between the two men were good.4
Bithynia and Pontus was not a major military province and was garrisoned by at most a handful of auxiliary units – one cohors equitata consisting of infantry and a small force of cavalry is definitely attested, a second is almost certain, and there may have been other regiments. In normal times the province was under senatorial control, its governor a proconsul selected by lot from a list drawn up by the Senate of sufficient men to fill the number of posts coming vacant in the public provinces. Sometimes the princeps’ advice on selection was sought, and even when it was not it is clear that they would not choose anyone who was obviously out of favour. In office, these governors had limited independence and their decisions could be overruled by the princeps if a matter was brought to his attention. They were also bound by rulings made by past emperors, and would need to seek approval to change these. Augustus may at first not have issued mandata to proconsuls, but probably began to do so later in his reign and this became normal under his successors.5
In the early second century AD Bithynia and Pontus was a troubled region. Several of its former governors were prosecuted for corruption, while there were bitter rivalries for dominance within its major cities and widespread misuse of public money. Trajan decided to intervene, temporarily adding the region to his provinces and sending Pliny there as his legate. He was princeps and the Senate could not refuse, although in this case it is unlikely that it resented the move, since it still meant that one of their number was given the command.6
On the whole, proconsuls and imperial legates did much the same job, and successful senators served in both capacities at different stages in their careers. The essentially civilian role of the proconsul was emphasised in the wearing of the toga on ceremonial occasions, while the overtly military legates wore a sword, military cloak and cuirass. The former were accompanied by six lictors bearing fasces, the latter probably by five, marking their lesser imperium as representatives rather than magistrates in their own right. Both types of governor held essentially identical authority over the garrisons of their provinces in every important respect, and it was simply that the proconsuls had far fewer troops at their disposal. Their tenure was also shorter, often no longer than the traditional twelve months. In contrast it was rare for a legate to hold command for less than three years, and many were in post for even longer, giving the province greater continuity of leadership and allowing the governor to address more serious problems, whether military or civil. Pliny died before the end of his third year in the post and we do not know how long he was due to be in the province, but he was sent expressly to restore order to its finances and administration so there may not have been a fixed term.7
Throughout his time in the province Pliny wrote to Trajan, often seeking guidance on specific problems. A tenth book of correspondence was published posthumously, consisting of letters to the emperor, and it is dominated by his time as governor – his letters from Bithynia and Trajan’s replies make up 107 out of a total of 121. Although we do not know the circumstances of their preparation and release, this must surely have occurred with at least the approval and perhaps the active involvement of Trajan and his advisors. It was an era when many technical manuals were being written, and in some ways the letters from Bithynia have a similar, instructional feel to them, showing the way that a good governor should go about his job. Pliny’s approach to a problem involved looking for precedents and past rulings, trying to find the most beneficial solution for the provincial communities, and seeking the emperor’s decision on some issues where he was unsure. This was clearly how Trajan wished his principate to be seen, as efficient, benevolent, respectful to local traditions and obedient to the spirit as well as the letter of the law. The Trajan of these letters has the same tone of friendship and interest in the welfare of provincial communities that can be seen in many inscriptions recording replies from emperors to requests from cities and individuals.
All imperial legates sent reports and queries to the princeps, and we cannot say whether or not Pliny wrote more often than was normal – or indeed whether there were originally far more letters, some too brief or too mundane to be included in the published version. The tendency to address just one issue in each letter was more likely intended to make it easier for the imperial secretariat to check for precedents and to respond or advise the princeps rather than being a sign that letters were extensively rewritten before publication. It is possible that some of the questions were asked in order to permit Trajan to give the official response, although this would assume that it was always planned to publish the letters. One instance is the repeated requests for specialists such as architects and surveyors to be sent out from Italy or from a military province – the army produced very skilled technicians of all kinds. Only once does the princeps agree, saying that he will instruct the legate of Moesia to send a man to supervise a complex canal-building scheme. Otherwise, he invariably assures Pliny that not simply Bithynia but any province will have competent specialists among the population, an answer with a general application.8
All in all, the letters in Pliny’s tenth book appear genuine and give us our best picture of a provincial governor under the Principate, worthy of comparison with Cicero’s letters from Cilicia. As always, the different circumstances of the early second century AD compared to the middle of the first century BC are obvious. No doubt Pliny wrote plenty of letters to friends, relations and other connections while in his province, but none of these were published. What mattered was the relationship between princeps and legate and the provincial communities. Throughout Pliny addressed Trajan as domine – master or lord – and was in turn called ‘my dear Secundus’. Augustus had not cared to be called dominus, but under his successors – even ones considered to be good rulers and respectful of the Senate – this became normal. Some of the replies have a formal style, reflecting their drafting by imperial secretaries, but now and again the tone of familiarity or of exasperation at the provincials is surely the authentic voice of the emperor.9
BITHYNIA AND PONTUS – WASTE, CORRUPTION AND RIVALRIES
Pliny’s province stretched along the Asian shore of the Black Sea, from the Bosphorus in the west to the territory of the city of Amisus in the east. It had first become a Roman province during Pompey’s reorganisation of the eastern Mediterranean following the defeat of Mithridates, and many of the arrangements put in place then remained in force. Although much of the region was essentially rural, all important administration focused on the cities, which were Hellenic in culture and would produce several of the second century’s most prominent Greek writers. Prior to Roman rule, the cities were controlled by satraps imposed by regional kings, so had less tradition of independence than the Greek communities in some other areas. To the south were the provinces of Asia under the charge of a proconsul and Galatia commanded by a legate.10
Part of the coastline of the province was under the command of an equestrian ‘prefect of the Pontic shore’ (praefectus orae Ponticae), under the governor’s supervision. This man may have had some troops of his own in addition to ones detached from the garrison of the province, and there was also a flotilla of warships, the clas
sis Pontica. Even so, it is unlikely that there were as many as 2,000 military personnel in the province and probably the total was significantly lower – perhaps barely 1,000 or even less if the units were under-strength. The nearest major army was based in Cappadocia and could not have intervened quickly in the case of trouble, so it is clear that the Romans did not expect any serious military problems in what was not a frontier province – hence its normal allocation to a proconsul. Pliny’s letters contain not the slightest hint that he considered a rebellion to be remotely possible or that he might need to spend some of the summer on campaign. If there was a problem with banditry, then it was on a far smaller scale than that faced by Cicero in Cilicia. The troops in Bithynia and Pontus under Pliny’s command functioned primarily as a paramilitary police force, and as escorts for the governor and other officials and as administrators.11
The creation of the Principate did not alter many of the fundamental structures of Roman provincial government. Most dayto-day affairs continued to be left to the provincial communities. We have fewer details about Pliny’s staff, but it is unlikely that this was significantly larger than Cicero’s cohort in Cilicia. Pliny had a single legate as subordinate, Servilius Pudens, probably chosen by the emperor – in normal times the proconsul was allocated a legate by the Senate. Governors were also free to take personal friends or connections with them to their province, as under the Republic. It was felt right and proper for these to advise him, forming the council (concilium) considered appropriate for any magistrate, including the princeps. Such men could also be given tasks to perform on his behalf. Later in the second century, another senator and letter writer, Fronto, was allocated the proconsulship of Asia, and immediately began to gather associates to assist him,
. . . so that the resources of my friends should put me in better position to cope with the demanding business it involved. I summoned from home kinsmen and friends of known loyalty and integrity. I wrote to Alexandria to close friends telling them to make haste to Athens and wait for me there . . . From Cilicia too I urged men of distinction to come . . . [Fronto notes that he had acted on behalf of individuals and communities from that province.] From Mauretania again I summoned to my side Julius Senex, a man who is extremely devoted to me and who is correspondingly dear, to enlist his help, not only because of his loyalty and willingness to work, but for his indefatigable energy as a soldier in flushing out brigands and crushing them.12
As in the past, the state provided few professional civil servants, and governors relied heavily on their households and personal connections. In some cases such associates were well suited to their tasks. Fronto noted that his friends from Alexandria – probably including the historian Appian – were ‘extremely learned’ and so were to have charge of his correspondence in Greek, which would form the greater part of his work in a province where Latin was rarely used. Some men appear to have made a career out of assisting governors as specialists, such as the bandit hunter Julius Senex. In the event, illness prevented Fronto from taking up his post and the arrangements came to nothing.
An inscription recording the visit on 1 May AD 165 of the proconsul of Macedonia to the shrine at Samothrace lists his entourage of four friends, three lictors and three messengers (viatores), fifteen slaves and five auxiliaries, one a junior officer and another marked down as a messenger and so probably a cavalryman. There was also an imperial slave and three or four slaves belonging to other members of the group. The entire entourage took part in the rites at the temple. There were surely other staff members who were not present, and the number of civil servants – with only three instead of six lictors – seems small, as is his military escort, judging from the number of soldiers often allocated to more junior officials. The prefect of the Pontic shore was supposed to take only ten picked soldiers, two cavalrymen and a centurion from the troops under Pliny’s command, but in fact had more and claimed to governor and emperor that he needed them. Pliny let him keep them until Trajan made a decision on the matter. Pliny also mentions that ten selected soldiers were allocated to the procurator, but that his assistant the imperial freedman Maximus insisted that he needed six more and seems to have acquired them. On request Pliny granted him two cavalrymen as escort for a journey to collect grain in Paphlagonia. Trajan told Pliny that he was ‘quite right to supply my freedman Maximus with soldiers for his present requirement’, but that in future he should make do with just four men.13
It is striking that a governor would write to the emperor about the assignment of individual rank-and-file soldiers, perhaps again a case of asking so that the official response could be given. Trajan repeats his wish that as few soldiers as possible be detached from their units, but is willing to relax this rule where necessary. Thus both officials appear to be permitted more soldiers than originally allocated. In contrast he orders Pliny to end a temporary expedient of using soldiers to guard prisons in place of the public slaves, who were not doing the job well. He also refused to detach a centurion and some men to regulate the heavy traffic passing through the city of Juliopolis, saying that this would set a dangerous precedent and allow many other cities to demand the same favour. This reflected both the aim of keeping units up to strength and capable of training for their military role, and also the Roman expectation that local communities should manage their own affairs rather than presume that the empire would deal with them.14
Public provinces like Bithynia and Pontus had very small garrisons, with the units quickly depleted of men, and especially officers, suited to detached service. Educated men were needed for the army’s own administration – not least, keeping track of all those posted away on various duties. Usually these provinces contained only auxiliaries, and levels of literacy among such soldiers varied depending on where they were recruited. There were some exceptions. One cohort of Legio III Augusta was sent annually from Numidia to serve the proconsul of Africa. Legates of military provinces had far greater manpower at their disposal. Each legion had a legate of its own, as well as one senatorial and five equestrian tribunes, and sixty centurions. It is estimated that about 100 soldiers of lower ranks were also trained for and available to the governor for administrative tasks, joining his staff or officium. This means that in a province with three legions the legate had a pool of officers of varying ranks, some of whom could be detached to his staff or act independently, and some 300 military bureaucrats, not including his armed bodyguard of mounted and foot singulares drawn from the auxilia. Although at first sight an impressive total – to which could be added friends, slaves and freedmen, but fewer public officials than a proconsul – such a command also required maintaining a level of preparedness for warfare and perhaps actual campaigning. Controlling, equipping and supplying an army of three legions and auxiliaries was a major task in itself, even in peacetime, and surely occupied a good deal of the legate’s and his staff’s attention.15
One other addition to the governors’ staffs came with the Principate, although it was not a deliberate reform intended to add to their administrative capabilities, nor was it compulsory. Under the Republic a governor might take adolescent or older sons with him, but the rest of his family remained in Italy. A governor did not take his wife to his province, although some took mistresses or found them locally. During the civil wars this started to change and several leaders, such as Pompey and Mark Antony, took their wives to the provinces, although not on campaign. Augustus was accompanied by Livia on most of his travels during his principate, a practice which was followed by several of the younger members of his extended family and soon became normal for most governors and many army officers, especially since tours in the provinces tended to last longer. In Matthew’s Gospel, Pontius Pilate’s wife was with him in Jerusalem, and her dream prompted him to wash his hands of responsibility.16
Under Tiberius a senator with a long record of military service proposed that the Senate should vote to ban governors from taking their wives with them. The man had never taken his wife on any of his forty ca
mpaigns or tours of duty, in spite of which they had six children and – at least in his view – a happy marriage. He argued that the presence of women hindered military operations, while some wives were inclined to interfere with military discipline or set themselves up to be courted by the provincials wishing to use their influence over their husbands. There was so much opposition to the motion that it was not even brought to the vote. Pliny took his wife Calpurnia with him to Bithynia, and she endured the sea voyages, the heat and the long journeys by carriage.17
The Principate saw no move to create permanent provincial capitals as administrative centres, although in some cases governors acquired comfortable residences in one or more cities. Even so, just like a governor in Cicero’s day, Pliny spent his time moving from each assize city to the next. This was one of the reasons why the governor’s staff remained modest in size, since it was forced to be itinerant as he made himself available to the provincials. The status of assize centre continued to be greatly prized, and it is unlikely that under the Principate a governor could have followed Cicero’s example and held court in one place, making people travel to him. A governor spent a lot of time on the road – or occasionally travelling by river or sea if this was possible.
This was made easier as the system of good, all-weather roads was extended throughout the provinces and by the creation of the Imperial Post, with relays of horses and vehicles for the use of those travelling on official business. Local communities were obliged to support this, and subject to requisition of animals, transport, drivers and guides – at times a considerable burden. Permits to make use of the post were issued by the emperor and some allotted to governors, but it is clear that it was frequently abused. Pliny’s final letter to Trajan explained that he had given a permit to his wife, summoned home by the death of her grandfather, and the emperor replied giving his approval. Apart from transport there were also some official residences in major cities, as well as way stations or mansiones to accommodate official parties when they stopped for the night. Yet the infrastructure was incomplete, and governors might well stay at inns with civilian travellers, or camp out in the course of their annual tours. Pliny was around fifty when he arrived in his province, and not a robust man, making the demands of his post arduous. Some governors were even older, and it was rare for a man to receive a province before he reached middle age.18
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