- In the Roman Republic , a was a Promagistrate (like a Propraetor ) who, after serving as Consul , spent a year as a Governor of a Province . Certain provinces were reserved for proconsuls; who received which one by senatorial appointment was determined by random choosing or negotiation between the two proconsuls.
- Under the Empire , the Emperor derived a good part of his powers (alongside the military Imperium and the tribunician power and presidency of the senate in Rome) from a constitutionally 'exceptional' (but permanent) mandate as the holder of proconsular authority over all hence so-called Imperial Provinces , generally with one or more legions garrisoned (often each under a specific legate); however, he would appoint legates and other promagistrates to govern each such province in his name. The former Consuls (constitutionally still eponymic chief magistrates of the ''res publica'', but politically powerless) would still receive a term as proconsul of one of the other, so-called Senatorial Provinces .
- The Notitia Dignitatum (a unique early 5th century imperial chancery document) still mentions three Proconsuls (Propraetors had completely disappeared), apparently above even the Vicars of the dioceses in protocol thougfh adminstratively their subordinates as all governors; the diocesan vicars in turn were under the four Praetorian Prefect s, since Diocletian's Tetrarchy :
- --- in the eastern empire ''Asia'' ( {Link without Title} , a western part of Anatolia) and Achaia (i.e. Greece)
- --- in the western empire only ''Africa'' (mainly modern Tunisia).
The many other, often new or split, provinces are under governors of various other -younger, usually less prestigious- styles : , Dux , and later Magister Militum .
Provinces that have been governed by a proconsul include: Achaea, Africa, Asia (see above for all three), Cilicia , Cyprus, Gallia Lugdunensis , Hispania Tarraconensis , Syria, and Palestina (the promotion from the Procurator ate of Christ's day, absurdly contrary to administrative logic and tradition, was meant as an extraordinary honour for the 'Holy Land' after Christianity became the new state religion).
In modern speech, a leader appointed by a foreign power during Military Occupation or colonization is sometimes anachronistically described as a proconsul. An example of the first was Gotara Ogawa during Japan's military occupation of British Burma (1942 - 1945), of the second US general Douglas MacArthur who was referred to as the Proconsul of Japan after World War II.
For example, the '' Wall Street Journal '' described the US Civilian Administrator Of Iraq as a "modern proconsul".
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