The life and work of St. Paul

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722 APPENDIX,
we find that the title of Proconsul was given to the Governor of a senatorial province,
whatever may have been his previous rank. 1 But another and more serious difficulty
was once urged. There were two kinds of provinces, the imperial and the senatorial,
both of which were called Eparchies (ropx""). The imperial were those to which the
governors were sent by the Emperor, because their circumstances involved the necessity
of military command. Augustus, under pretence of relieving the Senate from the burden
of the more disturbed provinces, had astutely reserved for his personal administration
those regions of the empire where the presence of an army was required. As the title
Praetor (in Greek, SrpaTiryb?, or general) still retained some shadow of its old military
significance, the Governors of these provinces were called Propraetors, or 'AjTiorpanj-yoi.
for which, in the New Testament, the more general term 'Hye^wi- is often used. This
Greek word for " Governor " serves as an equivalent both for " Procurator " and also for
Praeses or Lfgatus, which was, for instance, the ordinary designation of the Governor of
Syria. These Praesides, Legati, or Propraetors held their commands at the Emperor's
pleasure, and, especially in the reign of Tiberius, were often left for years undisturbed
in their tenure of office. The Proconsuls, or 'AvflviroToi, on the other hand, who were
appointed by the Senate, only held their posts for a single year. Now it appears from
Strabo that when, in B.C. 27, Augustus divided the provinces between himself and the
Senate, Cyprus was reserved as one of the imperial districts (oTpanjyio/ en-apxta), and with
this Dion Cassius agrees. 2
Consequently even eminent writers like Grotius thought that
St. Luke had here fallen into an error ; and Baronius supposes that Cyprus must at this
time have been an honorary adjunct to the Proconsulship of Cilicia, while Grotius suggests
that Greek flattery might have often given to a Propraetor the more distinguished title
of Proconsul, and that St. Luke might have used it in accordance with the common
parlance. But a little more research has resulted in the discovery that though Cyprus
originally was an imperial province, and ultimately reverted to the same condition, yet
Augustus restored both it and Gallia Narbonensis to the Senate in exchange for Dalmatia,
because he found that they did not need the presence of many soldiers. 3 And to set the
matter finally at rest, copper coins and inscriptions of this very epoch have been found
at Curium and Citium in which the title of Proconsul is given to Cominius Proclus >
Julius CorJus, and L. Aunus Bassus, who must have been immediate predecessors or
successors of Sergius Paulus. 4
The name Sergius Paulus is itself interesting. Of this particular Proconsul, indeed,
we know nothing beyond the eulogy of the sacred historian that he was a man of sense, 5
and that he was deeply impressed by the teaching of St. PauL But Pliny the Elder, in
his Natural History, three times refers to a Sergius Paulus as a person interested in
intelligent researches. ; and it is not impossible that this Sergius Paulus may be none
other than our Cyprian Proconsul.' If so, the character given him in one passing word
by St. Luke will be confirmed, and we feel additional pleasure in tracing similar
characteristics in others of the same name who may well have been his descendants ; for
instance, in the Sergius Paulus who, more than a hundred years afterwards, receives
the encomium of the physician Galen for his eminence both as a theoretic and a practical
philosopher. 7
1 Dion Cass. liil. 13, xal ivdwarovt (coAtiff&u M on. TOUS Suo TOVS inraTCVKorac (ex-Consuls) oAAa
KOI Toii aAAovc TUV (orpanjyriKOTUn' (ex- Praetors), K. T. A.
* Dion Cass. liii. 12 ; Strabo, xiv. 685 ; Suet Aug. 47.
* Dion Cass. liii, 13, nji' Hun-pop ... rep SI//JKU aneSiaictv : liv. 4, al ovru avOuiraroi leal t
bcctpa ra iOvn veunta6