The governor and other representatives of Roman authority in the province: between collaboration and conflict

This study is devoted to the problem of the relationship between representatives of the Roman authorities in the provinces. The focus is on the figure of the governor as the main bearer of state power outside Italy. The proconsul, as well as the legate of Augustus, had to solve the tasks facing them on the implementation of the management of the entrusted to them part of the state, cooperating with other officials. A special role here was played by the interaction (for the governors of the senatorial provinces) with the quaestors - relatively independent representatives of the central government. The study examines the ideological and moral-psychological foundations on which the relationship between the proconsuls and quaestors was built. Based on specific material, it is shown that one of the most important mechanisms for ensuring an effective partnership here was the acceptance by the senatorial community as a whole of the idea of necessitudo, that is a mutual moral duty linking the quaestor and the proconsul with bonds of corporate solidarity. The relationship between the governor and his appointees, i.e. the legates, was maintained on somewhat different grounds. In this case, one can find signs of a vertical power structure, but with the patriarchal attitudes characteristic of the Romans, which made the atmosphere almost family-like in this case. The study also examines the relationships between different categories of governors and, on the other hand, procurators as formally private envoys of the princeps. The tendency towards a rivalry of procurators in relation to governors is argued, which may be a reflection of the competition between the equestrian and senatorial ordines. The study examines cases of violation of the normal order of partnership between the governor and other representatives of Rome in the province. As sources show, such conflicts mainly took the form of legal proceedings.