UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
The emperor could intervene in the affairs of the senatorial province
either directly or, as was most often the case, through a resident equestrian
procurator, who was an imperial official responsible for the management
of the vast imperial domains and for the collection of certain indirect taxes,
such as the vicésima kereditatium, which supplied the military treasury
controlled by the emperor. The procurator also had a measure of judicial
power, limited in principle to the settlement of tax disputes. From the
year 135 he was assisted by a procurator Patrimonii, for the administration
of the domains, and a procurator IIII Publicorum Africae, for the administration
of the fiscal revenues. These officials of the imperial administration
often came into conflict with the proconsul, although there is no evidence
that they had instructions to keep him under supervision.
Meanwhile, proconsular Africa, unlike the majority of senatorial
provinces, could not be deprived of troops. While the north-eastern part,
which corresponded to the old province of Africa Vetus, was very quiet,
this was not the case in the southern regions, where the Roman authorities
needed a military garrison to guard and gradually to extend the supposedly
pacified zone. These troops, consisting mainly of the Legio III Augusta,
were commanded by an imperial legate subordinate to the proconsul, who
was therefore in the position of being able to assert the military authority
of the republican governors responsible to the senate. However, this
situation could not last indefinitely without arousing the emperor's distrust.
It was not long before Caligula decided, in pursuance of a general policy
of restricting the powers of the civil governors and reducing the authority
and autonomy of the senate, to make an important politico-military change
in the organization of proconsular Africa: the military command was taken
out of the hands of the civil government, and this resulted in the creation,
de facto if not de jure, of a military territory of Numidia under the
authority of the legate in command of the Legio III Augusta. As early
as +39, the status of the official entrusted with this special command
must have stood halfway between that of the legates who were governors
of provinces and that of the legates who were deputies of the general of
the legions. 4
The situation was not very clear, however, and inevitably gave rise
to disputes between the proconsul and the legate of the legion concerning
their respective fields of competence and authority. Septimius Severus
eventually regularized the position by raising the military territory to the
dignity of a province: this was the province of Numidia, probably created
in +198 to +199. 5 It was administered by the legate of the legion, who
was also called the praeses and was directly nominated and transferred by
the emperor, and its western frontier still followed the left bank of the
Ampsaga (Oued-el-Kébir), passed to the west of Cuicul and Zarai, cut
across the Hodna plain and dipped southwards in the direction of Laghouat.
4. M. Bénabou, 1972, pp. 61-75.
5. H. G. Pflaum, pp. 61-75.
470