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:
“Learn to shrink yourself to the size of the company you are in. Take their tone, whatever it may be, and excell in it if you can; but never pretend to give the tone. A free conversation will no more bear a dictator than a free government will.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“The government is not God. It does not have the right to take away that which it can’t return even if it wants to.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain success, can set up dictators.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)