PROCURATORE (procurator). — A term designating certain officials of the Roman imperial period.
Their institution dates back to Augustus, who had appointed procuratores Augusti, of equestrian rank, to certain offices, and procuratores, chosen from among the freedmen, to the imperial financial administration.
Subsequently, however, all the p. became public officials, drawn almost exclusively, from the time of Hadrian onward, from the equestrian order. They are found in charge of the sections of the princeps’ chancery (ab epistulis, a rationibus, a libellis, etc.), of the financial administration of the imperial provinces, and of the direction of various services in the city of Rome (p. aquarum, civium, operum publicorum, etc.). The most important, however, were those placed at the head of the states annexed by Rome without their being constituted as provinces (the so-called procuratorial regions or provinces). They possessed the powers of provincial governors and sometimes also served in place of an official of higher rank, with the title of p. vice praesidis. They were appointed by the emperor with a codicillus. In the second century they were divided into four categories, according to their remuneration. In the various periods, they bore the titles vir perfectissimus, eminentissimus, egregius.
In Judaea (v.) in the first century A.D., which had become a Roman province, the government was entrusted to a p. (ἐπίτροπος, generically called ἡγεμῶν in the New Testament), who normally exercised his office autonomously but, in the more serious matters, Syria (v.). Thus certain apparently contradictory statements by Flavius Josephus can be reconciled (Holzmeister [V. BIBLICA.], p. 79).
The p. normally resided at Caesarea Maritima, in Herod’s Palace; they went to Jerusalem during the principal feasts, when there was a danger to public order. They commanded the army consisting of five cohorts (approximately 3,000 men), one of which was quartered in Jerusalem, in the Antonia Tower (v.); they collected the taxes through the publicans and exercised judicial power, with the right to impose the death penalty (ius gladii), a right denied to the Sanhedrin (v.). They appointed and deposed the high priests, kept custody of their sacred vestments, and required oaths of loyalty to the emperor.
The power of the p. was, however, limited by the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin and of the local authorities, as well as by the privileges granted by the Romans to the Jews, such as exemption from military service, from worship of the emperor, and from the introduction into Jerusalem of statues and imperial symbols.
From the texts of Flavius Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, the succession of the p. of Judaea can be reconstructed and their approximate chronology established. For the individual p., reference is made to the entries concerning them. Here we give the list and the dates established by the careful study of U. Holzmeister (pp. 91 and 117).
From 6 to 41 A.D., the following succeeded one another: Coponius (6–ca. 9); Marcus Ambivius, perhaps to be read as Ambibulus (ca. 9–ca. 12); Annius Rufus (ca. 12–15); Valerius Gratus (12–26); Pontius Pilate (26–36); Marcellus (36–7); Marullus (7–41).
After Herod Agrippa I (v.), from 44 to 66 A.D., the following succeeded one another: Cuspius Fadus (44–7); Tiberius Alexander (?-7 [48?]); Ventidius Cumanus (?-52/53); Antonius Felix (52/53–60); Porcius Festus (60/61–62); Luccius Albinus (62–64/65); Gessius Florus (64/65–66). The Jewish War followed, ending in 70 with the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus (v.).