The ponderous volumes of the Codes and Pandects would furnish ample materials for a minute inquiry into the system of provincial government, as in the space of six centuries it was approved by the wisdom of the Roman statesmen and lawyers.

It may be sufficient for the historian to select two singular and salutary provisions, intended to restrain the abuse of authority.1.For the preservation of peace and order, the governors of the provinces were armed with the sword of justice.

They inflicted corporal punishments, and they exercised, in capital offences, the power of life and death.

But they were not authorized to indulge the condemned criminal with the choice of his own execution, or to pronounce a sentence of the mildest and most honorable kind of exile.

These prerogatives were reserved to the praefects, who alone could impose the heavy fine of fifty pounds of gold: their vicegerents were confined to the trifling weight of a few ounces.
This distinction, which seems to grant the larger, while it denies the smaller degree of authority, was founded on a very rational motive.