List of Roman Provinces

Roman provinces were created, divided and combined at different times. Conquest, appointment of a first governor and permanent provincial organisation need not coincide. The dates below indicate principal stages; the list is not a snapshot of all provinces at one date.

Republic:

• Sicily: a permanent provincial praetor from 227 BCE; Roman control followed the war ending in 241 BCE.
• Sardinia and Corsica: a provincial praetor from 227 BCE.
• Hispania Citerior and Ulterior: 197 BCE.
• Macedonia: provincial organisation after the war of 148 BCE.
• Africa: after Carthage’s destruction in 146 BCE.
• Asia: following Attalus III’s bequest in 133 BCE; administrative organisation took several years.
• Transalpine Gaul, later Narbonensis: late second century BCE.
• Cilicia: Roman commands from the late second century BCE; territory and organisation changed repeatedly.
• Cyrenaica: bequeathed in 96 BCE; provincial administration from 74. Crete was conquered in 69–67; the combined province formed later.
• Bithynia and Pontus: Bithynia acquired in 74 BCE, Pontic territories incorporated after Pompey’s wars in the 60s.
• Syria: 64–63 BCE. Judaea was not already a separate province in 63 BCE.

Augustus and the early Empire:

• Egypt: 30 BCE.
• Achaea: 27 BCE.
• Galatia: 25 BCE.
• Aquitania, Lugdunensis and Belgica: organised under Augustus after Caesar’s conquests, not three provinces created in 52 BCE.
• Baetica, Lusitania and Tarraconensis: Augustan reorganisation of Spain.
• Raetia and Noricum: conquest or incorporation in 15 BCE, followed by the development of provincial administration.
• Moesia: military and administrative formation around the turn of the era and in the early first century CE.
• Pannonia and Dalmatia: separated from the Illyrian complex in the early first century CE.
• Judaea: direct Roman administration after Archelaus’s removal in 6 CE.
• Cappadocia: 17 CE.
• Mauretania Tingitana and Caesariensis: following annexation and suppression of rebellion in the 40s.
• Britain: conquest and initial provincial administration in 43.
• Lycia: 43; combination with Pamphylia belonged to subsequent reorganisation.
• Thrace: 46.
• Germania Superior and Inferior: initially military districts; full provinces under Domitian in the late first century.

Trajan and later changes:

• Arabia: 106.
• Dacia: 106, after Trajan’s second Dacian war.
• Trajan’s Armenia and Mesopotamia: short-lived eastern acquisitions in 114–117.
• Mesopotamia under Septimius Severus: late second century.

Later division and combination continued; Diocletian and his successors substantially increased provincial numbers. Maps must be read with their dates in mind.

Related topics

• Roman Republic
• Roman Empire
• Ancient Rome

Literature and sources

Kuzishchina, V.I. (ed.). History of Ancient Rome. Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola, 2000. (In Russian) - 391 p.

Kovalev, S.I. History of Rome. Revised and expanded edition. Edited by Prof. E.D. Frolov. St. Petersburg: "Polygon" Publishing, 2002. (In Russian) - 864 p.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art of the Roman Provinces