罗马帝国的地方政府——以不列颠为例

The Administration of the Roman Province: A Case Study of the Roman Britain

本文通过分析罗马政府在不列颠的运作以揭示元首制时期罗马行省体系的运作机制。对总督及代理官任命之考察表明，罗马官员具有非职业性，他们生活在相对固定的晋升体系中，一生需要出任诸多不同职位，并没有为出任某个职位接受专门训练，所以无法发展出专业行政知识。此外，元首制时期官僚机构尚未增生，行省中罗马官员的数量屈指可数。这些都为地方自治开辟了空间。在某些罗马势力不易渗透的地方，地方自治政府在征服初期以藩属国的形式出现。随着时机成熟，藩属国作为一种权宜之计逐渐被具有高度自治权的城市所代替。城市里的地方官员在刑事案件之审理和直接税之征收方面发挥了重要作用。尽可能把行政负担转嫁到地方政府身上是罗马帝国正常运转的奥秘所在。

In the hope of unveiling the mechanics of Roman provincial system, this paper explores the administration of Roman Britain. An investigation of the appointment of provincial governors and procurators shows that the holders of those positions were largely amateurish rather than professional administrators. Because of that, the job of provincial administration formed merely a part of these people’s wider social and political functions. In addition, the short tenure system precluded their development of administrative expertise. Moreover, the number of provincial administrators remained small throughout the period of the Principate, which contributed to the existence of local autonomy in certain degree. At the initial stage of the Roman occupation, the local autonomy usually existed in the form of vassal states. Eventually, however, these vassal states were replaced by self-governing urban communities. The local officials of the urban communities played important roles in the adjudication of criminal cases and the collection of direct taxes. One of the secrets of the effective operation of the Roman Empire was to impose the administrative burden to the local governments.