Provinces (Provinciae) in 218 B.C.

Provinces (Provinciae) — Roman Republic.

Rome’s first overseas provinces, the spoils of the long struggle with Carthage and the seed of an empire beyond the sea. Sicily was organised in 241 BC after the First Punic War; Sardinia and Corsica were seized in 237 BC amid Carthage’s mercenary revolt and made a province in 227. To govern them Rome created two new praetors in 227, raising their number to four — the first permanent provincial commands. Each province kept its own communities but owed Rome a grain tithe and tribute, the prototype of the system that would one day ring the Mediterranean.