The Praetorian Proconsuls of the Roman Republic (211–52 BCE). A Constitutional Survey

Abstract

The origins of the Republican administrative procedure of sending out praetors with consular imperium can be traced back to the crises of the Second Punic War. On the model of a Metilian Law from 217 that had converted the consular imperium of a magister equitum into dictatorium imperium, the Senate probably for the first time decided to upgrade the imperium of two propraetors sent to the critical Spanish theatre of war in 211 and 210. This procedure then quickly became institutionalized when the Senate decided to maintain the Roman presence in Spain in 198, the administration of the bellicose Spanish provinciae being assigned routinely to two praetors. Although the rationale for sending out praetorian proconsuls to certain provinces appears to have been military at first, the Senate gradually extended the procedure of sending out such officials to a diverse range of often mostly peaceful territories. By the time of Cicero, all but a few minor provinces (Sicily, Corsica-Sardinia) were consequently administered by praetorian proconsuls. After a temporary attempt to abolish the praetura pro consule in 52 BC by virtue of a lex Pompeia, the practice was reintroduced by Caesar the dictator and subsequently generalized by Augustus in January 27 BC.