Government
Before being separated, Hispania Balearica was the fourth district of the Tarraconensis with a native local government headed by a council. They served to provide for local needs and as a link directly to Rome. During the reign of Augustus the Balearicans requested help in stopping a plague of rabbits for which the Emperor dispatched troops.
Hispania Balearica became an independent province during the reign of Emperor Diocletian sometime after 284 AD. Previously, under Constantine I the empire was split into four prefects with Spain being controlled from Trier in Gaul. Under Diocletian, sweeping reforms of the provincial administration was enacted, designed to separate military and civic authority. Also, to reduce the power of other officials, the provinces were systematically reduced in size. All provinces were now under the direct control of the Emperor. All officials were chosen by him including the legati pro praetore, men of praetorian rank who ran civic affairs in the province, and curators who ran the municipalities within provinces. Balearica was separated because it was not reliant on the mainland for any staples and had special needs as a trading center that were more difficult to fulfil as a municipality than as a province. By the time of Diocletian, the islands population was over 30,000 and was granted its own Roman Bishop in 418 AD.
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Famous quotes containing the word government:
“Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from the birth as a paternal, or in other words a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read and say and eat and drink and wear.”
—Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)
“A certain secret jealousy of the British Minister is always lurking in the breast of every American Senator, if he is truly democratic; for democracy, rightly understood, is the government of the people, by the people, for the benefit of Senators, and there is always a danger that the British Minister may not understand this political principle as he should.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a Democrat like myself must admit this. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the “money touch,” but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)