PROCURATOR (procurator). — A term designating certain officials of the Roman imperial period.
Their institution dates back to Augustus, who appointed procuratores Augusti, of equestrian rank, to certain offices, and procuratores, chosen from among freedmen, to the administration of imperial finances.
Subsequently, however, all procurators became public officials, drawn almost exclusively, from the time of Hadrian onward, from the equestrian order. Some were placed in charge of sections of the princeps’ chancery (ab epistulis, a rationibus, a libellis, etc.), others over the financial administration of the imperial provinces, and still others directed various services in the city of Rome (procuratores aquarum, viarum, operum publicorum, etc.). The most important, however, were those placed at the head of states annexed by Rome without being constituted as provinces (the so-called procuratorial regions or provinces). They exercised the powers of provincial governors, which they sometimes also performed in substitution for a higher-ranking official, under the title of procurator vice praetoris. They were appointed by the emperor through a codicil. In the 2nd century, they were divided into four categories according to their economic remuneration. In different periods, they held the titles of vir perfectissimus, eminentissimus, or egregius.