[Footnote: In no point of his policy was the
cunning or the sagacity of Augustus so much displayed, as in his treaty of
partition with the senate, which settled the distribution of the
provinces, and their future administration. Seeming to take upon himself
all the trouble and hazard, he did in effect appropriate all the power,
and left to the senate little more than trophies of show and ornament. As
a first step, all the greater provinces, as Spain and Gaul, were
subdivided into many smaller ones. This done, Augustus proposed that the
senate should preside over the administration of those amongst them which
were peaceably settled, and which paid a regular tribute; whilst all those
which were the seats of danger,--either as being exposed to hostile
inroads, or to internal commotions,--all, therefore, in fact, _which
could justify the keeping up of a military force,_ he assigned to
himself. In virtue of this arrangement, the senate possessed in Africa
those provinces which had been formed out of Carthage, Cyrene, and the
kingdom of Numidia; in Europe, the richest and most quiet part of Spain
_(Hispania Baetica),_ with the large islands of Sicily, Sardinia,
Corsica, and Crete, and some districts of Greece; in Asia, the kingdoms of
Pontus and Bithynia, with that part of Asia Minor technically called Asia;
whilst, for his own share, Augustus retained Gaul, Syria, the chief part
of Spain, and Egypt, the granary of Rome; finally, all the military posts
on the Euphrates, on the Danube, or the Rhine.
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