Yet even the showy concessions here made to the senate were defeated by
another political institution, settled at the same time. It had been
agreed that the governors of provinces should be appointed by the emperor
and the senate jointly. But within the senatorian jurisdiction, these
governors, with the title of _Proconsuls,_ were to have no military
power whatsoever; and the appointments were good only for a single year.
Whereas, in the imperatorial provinces, where the governor bore the title
of _Propraetor,_ there was provision made for a military establishment; and
as to duration, the office was regulated entirely by the emperor's
pleasure. One other ordinance, on the same head, riveted the vassalage of
the senate. Hitherto, a great source of the senate's power had been found
in the uncontrolled management of the provincial revenues; but at this
time, Augustus so arranged that branch of the administration, that,
throughout the senatorian or proconsular provinces, all taxes were
immediately paid into the _ararium_, or treasury of the state; whilst the
whole revenues of the propraetorian (or imperatorial) provinces, from this
time forward, flowed into the _fiscus_, or private treasure of the
individual emperor.
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