Lex Pompeia and management of the Bithynia-Pontos province

VI From the second part of the 3rd century B.C. Rome began her conquests; politically by the annexation of the adjacent islands and her neighbors and, in the two hundred years her territory extended to a vast area from west to east and north to the south. This situation necessitated variations in the governmental management system and required new administrative arrangements. In spite of this, the Rome did not initially constitute, in the acquired region, which she converted into a province, administrative changes, and to rectify this situation took a little time. For this reason, Rome, at first, protected the administration systems and rules or laws which she found in place in the province and continued with the existing system and the administration of the provinces she ruled over through generals, a rule which was, as a result, of an unsystematic type. From the second half of the 2nd century B.C. the number of provinces are increased and, although she protects some of the pre-existing regulations, it is to be noted that more detailed arrangements were now being made for the provinces, either with the institution of a 1 0 men commission, called the decern legati, together with the general who had conquered the area; or without a commission, just through powerful commanders such as Pompey the Great. Through these methods, the politics and administrative rule was established, to enable the Republic to manage the numerous provinces. Rome, through these arrangements, determined the relationships between neighbors, kingships or states and at the provincial and city planning level, established the basic rules to be followed by Roman appointed magistrati, arrangements termed today lex provinciae. However, from the start, the rules which were established following the annexation of the province were insufficient to keep proper order, consequently the governors removed this deficiency through the authority invested in the imperium. Despite this, Rome hadn't managed to establish control over the Roman administrators who were in the provinces and couldn't or didn't effectively supervise them, including those who were corrupt and those who otherwise used their power badly. This situation caused some troubles in the provinces and gave birth to reactions against Rome. As a result, later new arrangements for the provinces were made and for the Romans who held office in the provinces. Rome, whenever she met a reaction against herself took precautions against this and to prevent any repetition of this situation, made further regulations, to administer the situation in the provinces. This thesis aims to establish, in the ancient times those districts that were made into a province, how the province has been administered and who has ruled it; what kind ofvıı authority Rome delegated to the the provinces, and what the administrators accomplished in the provinces and what kind of precautions were taken to protect to people in the provinces who were at the mercy of these provincial officials. The areas investigated in this research are informed by the information contained in the ancient sources: by the testimony provided by the correspondence between Plinius Minor and Imperator Traianus during his governorship of Bithynia et Pontus in which he mentioned Lex Pompeia and from modern sources and scholars.