Roman Empire in 1333 AUC (Superpowers)

The Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Romanum) was the largest and wealthiest unified region in the year 580 CE. Under a ruler with nearly absolute political and military authority, Rome flourished when other empires were collapsing under internal and external strains.

Weathering a great migration of barbarian tribes, numerous waves of new plagues, and a brief civil war, this powerful empire has tested its mettle in the harshest fires yet emerged stronger than before. With their emperor's second military triumph happening barely a decade earlier, the citizens of Rome distinctly feel their nation's strength.

Indeed, this empire has emerged as one of the first modern states in human history. Battles are fought with a standing army of citizens that is equipped by the government - a political institution that works through nationwide apparati of polling, taxing, and adjudicating. Trade between its cities crosses thousands of kilometers of secure territory woven with public roads, aqueducts, and ports. Citizens are spread across this land, living in regulated urban environments. At its center, a massive city of over two million sits like a jewel or a brain pulsing with activity as it governs its empire.

Rome is unique among civilizations and in this, its 1,333th year, the city continues to grow in size, reach, and wealth.

Provinces
Governing over 9 million km², mostly acquired in the last eight or so centuries, Rome has gradually but sometimes violently shifted to an effective system for administering its territories. As a republic, Rome issued prorogationes (extensions) of the terms of its most powerful magistrates to send them to govern the provinces. These governors were dictators within their jurisdiction and could amass tremendous wealth by illicit means, precipitating many coups d'état, culminating in the termination of democratic self-government of Rome itself.

Under its present emperor, the Roman Empire is subdivided into three types of provinces (administrative regions): provinciae imperiales, provinciae praefectures, and provinciae proconsulares. Imperial and Praefecturial provinces are governed by citizens appointed directly by the emperor, although the legati augusti for the former are milites (soldiers) rather than private citizens as with the latter.

Proconsular provinces are governed through a prorogatio of either the consular or praetorian magistracies. In either case, the governor is a proconsul whose assigned province is determined by lot from among the senior magistrates wishing to take a province after finishing a term. In all cases, proconsulares serve for 12 months from the start till the end of the calendar year, before returning to their place in the Senate.

Italia
The territory of Italy has a special status. There is no governor whether of imperial or of promagisterial authority. Magistrati provinciales that extend Roman government over the other provinces are mere reflections of the original magistrati with power in Italy (magistrates who are now distinguished by the designation of magistrati imperiales). Similarly, governors of one sort of another are only required outside Italy.

Over the last two centuries, Italy has seen the transferral of the latifundia (landed estates) owned by the nobility to the hands of the common people and veterans. In particular, the regions Campania and Aemilia are swaddled in these peasant farms which are protected by law from appropriation once again by the nobility.

In the political sphere, Italians are unique for possessing the franchise to vote through the Centurial Assemblies in Rome. At the moment, the empire is transitioning to a wider electoral franchise. On its restoration in 535, the Centurial Assembly was created with distinct centuries for colonial cities of each province outside Italy and for distinct subregions of Greece. While Italy retained exactly 540 out of 608 centuriae in the assembly, this enfranchisement has, in principle, shifted some power from the territory. Extensions of public transportation on mainland Europe have expanded the franchise in practice as well.

List of Provinces
There are 48 provinciae, excluding Italia, that compose the Imperium Romanum. Out of these provinces, only two are known as provinciales praefectures, namely Aegyptus and Armenia. The praefectus aegyptus and praefectus armenicus are civil servants who administer each respective province in the name of the emperor as the entirety of both regions is ager privatus (private land) of whoever holds the political power of princeps civitatis.

The 32 provinciales proconsulares are Sicilia, Corsica et Sardinia, Alpes Maritimae, Alpes Ulterior, Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia Lugdunensis, Aquitania, Tarraconensis, Baetica, Lusitania, Melita, Africa, Cyrenaica, Creta, Achaia, Epirus, Macedonia, Thracia, Moesia Superior, Dalmatia, Noricum, Raetia, Pannonia Superior, Cyprus, Asia, Lycia, Galatia, Syria, Cilicia, Palestina, Britannia, and finally Caledonia. With an unprecedented number of such territories, prorogatio had to be extended in the Corpus Iuris Civilis to allow ex-consulares and ex-praetores as well as proconsulares and propraetores.

The 14 provinciales imperiales are Mauretania, Nubia, Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, Arabia, Dacia, Moesia Inferior, Pannonia Inferior, Gothica, Germania Superior, Germania Inferior, and Hibernia. As this shows, less of the Imperium Romanum falls under the authority of the emperor than of the Senate. However, Aegyptus and Ethiopia are easily the two richest provinces besides Italia, concentrating Roman wealth in imperial hands.