es were models of Rome in little; their courts and magistrates
were the same; and though they were at liberty to retain their old laws,
and to make new at their pleasure, they commonly conformed to those of
Rome. The _municipia_ were not subject to tribute.

When a whole people had resisted the Roman power with great obstinacy,
had displayed a readiness to revolt upon every occasion, and had
frequently broken their faith, they were reduced into what the Romans
called the form of a province: that is, they lost their laws, their
liberties, their magistrates; they forfeited the greatest part of their
lands; and they paid a heavy tribute for what they were permitted to
retain.

In these provinces the supreme government was in the praetor sent by the
senate, who commanded the army, and in his own person exercised the
judicial power. Where the sphere of his government was large, he deputed
his legates to that employment, who judged according to the standing
laws of the republic, aided by those occasional declarations of law
called the praetorial edicts. The care of the revenue was in the quaestor.
He was appointed to that office in Rome; but when he acted in a judicial
capacity, it was always by commission from the praetor of the
province.[19] Between these magistrates and all others who had any share
in the provincial government the Roman manners had established a kind of
sacred relation, as inviolable as that of blood.[20] All the officers
were taught to look up to the praetor as their father, and to regard each
other as brethren: a firm and useful bond of concord in a virtuous
administration; a dangerous and oppressive combination in a bad one.
But, like all the Roman institutions, it operated strongly towards its
principal purpose, the security of dominion, which is by nothing so much
exposed as the factions and competitions of the officers, when the
governing party itself gives the first example of disobedience.

On the overthrow of the Commonwealth, a remarkable revolution ensued in
the power and the subordination of these magistrates. For, as the prince
came alone to possess all that was by a proper title either imperial or
praetorial authority, the ancient praetors dwindled into his legates, by
which the splendor and importance of that dignity were much diminished.
The business of the quaestor at this time seems to have been transferred
to the emperor's procurator. The whole of the public revenue became part
of the