International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia
PROCURATOR
PROCURATOR
(prok'-u-ra-ter) (epitropos): This word signified in a general sense a steward
or bailiff of a private estate, or a financial agent with power of attorney,
and the development of the special usage of the word to denote an imperial
functionary or official is characteristic of the origin of many departments of
administration under the Roman Empire which sprang from the emperor's household. At
the time of Augustus, when the domestic quality of these offices had not been
entirely lost, the procurators were mostly imperial freedmen. But after the
systematic organization of the administration in the 2 nd century, the title of
procurator was reserved for functionaries of the equestrian class. In fact, the
term is so intimately connected with the sphere of official activity of the Roman
knights that the expressions "procuratorial career" and "equestrian career"
are used synonymously (compare Hirschfeld, Die kaiserlichen Verwaltungsbeamten
bib auf Diocletian, 410-65).
During the last century of the Republic, the class of knights (equites)
embraced in general all citizens of wealth who were not magistrates or members of the
senate. The Roscian Law (67 BC) established 400,000 sesterces (about $18,000
(in 1915), or 3,600 British pounds (in 1915)) as the minimum census rating for
membership in this class. The gold ring, tunic with narrow purple border, and
privilege of sitting in the first 14 rows at the theater were the tokens of
knighthood. Augustus added to these the public horse which was conferred henceforth
by the emperor and recalled the original military significance of the order.
From the time of Augustus the first three decuriae of jurors (judices), each
containing 1,000 persons, were filled with knights.
Under the Republic the influence of the equestrian class was chiefly exerted
in the financial transactions of the companies which farmed the variable
revenues. The importance of the publicani was greatly reduced under the Empire, but
the emperors recompensed the knights for this loss of opportunity by intrusting
them with a great variety of administrative functions. Military service as
prefect or tribune was the preliminary step in the official equestrian career. The
highest positions held by members of the equestrian class were called
prefectures, and included the prefecture of the guard, of Egypt, of the grain-supply, of
the watchmen in Rome, and of the fleet. But between these extremes the title
procurator was applied generally to the functionaries whose positions were of
imperial origin.
The administration of the fiscus or imperial treasury at Rome and of the
finances in the imperial provinces, as well as the collection of fiscal revenues in
the senatorial provinces, was in the hands of procurators. They occupied many
positions which, on account of their intimate relationship with the person of
the monarch, could be safely intrusted only to those whose limited prestige
precluded inordinate ambition (Friedlaender, Sittengeschichte Roms 7 th edition,
Part I, 132-43). Finally, several provinces, where the conditions were unfavorable
to the introduction of the ordinary administrative system and Roman public
law, were governed as imperial domains by officials of the equestrian class as the
emperor's representatives. In Egypt the title prefect (praefectus) was
employed permanently as the appellation of the viceroy, and while the same term may
have been used originally to denote the governors of this class generally, when
their military outweighed their civil functions, yet the designation procurator
became at an early date the term of common usage to designate them (Hirschfeld,
382).
Mauretania, Rhaetia, Noricum, Thrace, Cappadocia, Judaea and some smaller
districts were all, for a time at least, governed by procurators (Tacitus, History
i.11; Dio Cassius lvii.17).
The question concerning the original title of the Roman governors of Judaea
has arisen because the New Testament employs the word hegemon (Matt
27:2,11,14-15,21,27; 28:14; Luke 3:1; 20:20; Acts 23:24; 24:1; 26:30), which corresponds
with the Latin term, praeses, which might be considered synonymous with either
procurator or praefectus (Hirschfeld, 384). There is no inscriptional evidence to
establish the nomenclature of the rulers of Palestine before the time of
Vespasian, and Hirschfeld is of the opinion that a certain passage in Tacitus (Ann.
xv.44) where Pilate is called procurator is not sufficient proof in view of this
writer's carelessness in details of this sort. Josephus (Ant, XX, i, 2),
however, employs epitropos (procurator) for the time of Claudius, and it is
convenient to follow common usage and assume that this title was current from the first.
It was evidently the intention of Augustus that membership in the equestrian
class should be a necessary qualification for the procurators who were appointed
to govern provinces. But Claudius appointed a freedman, Antonius Felix,
brother of the famous minister of finance, Pallas, as procurator of Judaea
(Suetonius, Claudius xxviii; Tacitus, History v.9). This remained, however, an isolated
instance in the annals of Palestine (Hirschfeld, 380), and it is probable,
moreover, that Felix was raised to equestrian rank before the governorship was
conferred upon him.
The following list of the procurators of Judaea is based on Marquardt
(Romische Staatsverwaltung, I, 409, 412) and Schurer (Geschichte des judischen Volkes
(4), I, 485-585):
Coponius (6 AD to circa 10 AD)
M. Ambibulus (circa 10-13)
Annius Rufus (circa 13-15)
Valerius Gratus (circa 15-26)
Pontius Pilatus (26-35)
Marcellus (probably 35-38)
Maryllus (38-44)
C. Cuspins Fadus (44-46)
Tiberius Alexander (46-48)
Ventidius Cumanus (48-52)
M. Antonius Felix (52-60 or 61)
NOTE.-Marquardt gives his name as Claudius Felix, supposing that he was a
freedman of Claudius and therefore took his nomen (Suetonius, Claudius xxviii;
Victor, epitome iv, 8); but there is stronger evidence in support of the belief
that Felix was a freedman of Antonia, Claudius' mother, like his brother Pallas
(Tacitus, Annals xii.54; Josephus, Ant, XVI11, vi, 4; XX, vii, 1, 2; XX, viii, 9;
BJ, II, xii, 8), and accordingly had received the praenomen and nomen of
Antonia's father (Josephus, Ant, XVIII, vi, 6).
Portius Festus (61)
Albinus (62-64)
Gessius Florus (65-66)
See, further, GOVERNOR.
GEORGE H. ALLEN
from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia
Pontius
Pilate
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