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15This is the system followed in the case of the provinces of the people. To the others, which are called the imperial provinces and have more than one citizen-legion, are sent officials who are to govern them as lieutenants; these are appointed by the emperor himself, generally from the ex-praetors, though also from the ex-quaestors, or men who have held an office between the praetorship and the quaestorship.
2These positions, then, appertain to the senators. Passing now to the knights, the emperor himself selects knights to be sent out as military tribunes (both those who are prospective senators and the others; concerning their difference in rank I have already spoken), despatching some of them to take command of the garrisons of purely citizen-legions, and others of the foreign legions as well. In this matter he follows the custom then instituted by Caesar. 3The procurators (for this is the name we give to the men who collect the public revenues and make disbursements according to the instructions given them) he sends out to all the provinces alike, to those of the people as well as to his own, and to this office knights are sometimes appointed and sometimes even freedmen; but the proconsuls may exact the tribute from the people they govern. 4The emperor gives instructions to the procurators, the proconsuls, and the propraetors, in order that they may be under definite orders when they go out to their provinces. For both this practice and the giving of salaries to them and to the other officials was established at this time. 5In former times, of course, certain persons had made a business of furnishing the officials with all they needed for the conduct of their office, drawing upon the treasury for the money; but under Caesar these officials now for the first time began to receive a fixed salary. This was not assigned to them all on the same basis, but approximately as their needs required; and the procurators, indeed, get the very title of their rank from the amount of the salaries assigned to them. 6The following regulations were laid down for them all alike: they were not to raise levies of soldiers or to exact money beyond the amount appointed, unless the senate should so vote or the emperor so order; and when their successors arrived, they were to leave the province at once, and not to delay on the return journey, but to get back within three months.
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