Roman Imperial Administration

Abstract

The sources on Roman imperial administration in North Africa are heterogenous, making its reconstruction difficult. The literary sources provide an outline of the history of the North African provinces, and hundreds of preserved inscriptions provide names and the careers of not only different governors and their legates but also the permanent staff of the imperial officials, including slaves and freedmen. Africa Proconsularis, Numidia, and the two Mauretanias became Roman provinces at different times and under different circumstances. The boundaries between the North African provinces are often difficult to establish with certainty. The non-resident provincial administrators had a small permanent staff of imperial slaves and freedmen seldom mentioned in the literary sources, but epigraphical material gives a glimpse of them. Most of the occupational titles of both slaves and freedmen refer to the administration of the imperial estates and the North African customs, including manumitted imperial procurators.