How did Augustus control the roman provinces?

Answer 1

Augustus became the first Roman Emperor, that is the first absolute ruler. He gained power by winning the last civil wars of the Roman Republic, thus gaining control of the Roman armies, including those which had fought against him. He also accumulated a vast wealth through the spoils of these wars. By becoming an absolute ruler he created a strong central government which was capable of controlling the governors of the provinces.

Answer 2

The governors of the provincial provinces were not appointed on a professional basis. They were not professional administrators. The difference between the senatorial provinces and the imperial ones was that senatorial provinces (as the name indicates) were under the jurisdiction of the senate and the imperial ones were under the jurisdiction of the emperor. The governors of the former were chosen by the senate from among the senators, whereas the governors of the latter were appointees of the emperor.

Another administrative change was that Augustus abolished the quaestors in the imperial provinces. They had been the financial administrators of the provinces and the paymasters of the armies stationed in their province. They were replaced by the procurators who were appointees of the emperor. With the quaestors civil /judicial administration and financial administration were not separate. With the procurators financial administration was kept separate from the governors and the latter had no say in the these matters. The senatorial provinces retained the quaestors. There were procurators in the senatorial provinces as well. Their role here was restricted to overseeing the imperial estates in these provinces.

The smaller imperial provinces were governed by lower ranking officials, the prefects.

Egypt was a special province. It was considered the domain of the emperor. This was because when Augustus defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the latter two committed suicide, Egypt recognised Augustus as their new pharaoh. Even though it was a large province, it was governed by a prefect, the Praefectus Augustalis. The title indicated that he governed in the private name of the emperor, rather than on behalf of the public office of the emperoship.

Answer 3

The ancient Roman provinces fell into two groups, senatorial and imperial. These roughly corresponded with the unarmed provinces and those provinces where legions were posted. The senatorial ones were governed by proconsuls of consular or praetorian standing. The imperial ones were governed by ex-praetors or ex-consuls and had the title of legati Augusti propraetore.
Although the proconsuls normally held their provinces for only one year, they were, however, very different from their pre-empire predecessors because of the reorganization of the senatorial order on a professional basis by Augustus.
The senatorial and equestrian governors of the imperial provinces held office for longer periods of time.
The employment of Equites in this manner was a complete break with republican traditions., especially since that these governorships were not associated with the magistracy.
The bottomline, if one will, became a system of building up an efficient body of salaried professional administrators. Also, either directly or indirectly, the system reported to Augustus.