Roman officers as praefecti civitatium in the Danube basin

In different provinces of the Roman Empire there are leaders of peregrine communities (gentes, nationes, civitates) attested as principes or praefecti. Principes were chieftains of their own local communities and received often the Roman citizenship before the ordinary members of that community. Praefecti were Roman citizens from the beginning and were appointed by the Roman authorities to administrate the local communities. By examining the evidence about praefecti civitatium or gentis one can draw the conclusion, that in the frontier provinces they were often Roman officers and have been appointed as leaders of less integrated peregrine communities, which had a still non-romanized aristocracy. Reprinted by permission of the "Babes-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania