Asia

Asia, ancient Roman province, the first and westernmost Roman province in Asia Minor, stretching at its greatest extent from the Aegean coast in the west to a point beyond Philomelium (modern Akşehır) in the east and from the Sea of Marmara in the north to the strait between Rhodes and the mainland in the south. The province was first constituted when Attalus III, king of Pergamum, bequeathed his dominions to the Romans in 133 bc. At that time the province contained many different communities at different stages of development.

The province was rich in natural resources, and its dyestuffs and woolen textiles were famous. Under the Roman Republic, however, its prosperity was ruined by commercial exploitation, taxation, and war, so that its advance toward Hellenization and urbanization, begun under the Seleucid and Pergamene kings, was impeded. Most communities welcomed Mithradates VI of Pontus as a liberator from Roman oppression.

Under the Roman Empire, recovery was rapid. Asia was a peaceful province, governed by a proconsul of consular rank. (Under the republic the governor had usually been a former praetor.) It was divided into assize districts, which the governor or his three assistants (legati) visited to dispense justice. The provincial assembly, called the koinon of Asia, to which the cities sent representatives, was already active during the late republic. It met annually in different cities, chose the officials known as Asiarchs, passed resolutions, made appeals, sent deputations on provincial matters, and organized the worship of the emperor.

The great cities of Asia were leading educational and cultural centres in the Eastern Roman Empire. Important Christian communities and bishoprics grew up within the province, as did important heresies, such as Montanism. During the 3rd and 4th centuries ad the province lost much of its economic importance as the development of the Balkan provinces, military needs, and the founding of Constantinople turned the empire’s main lines of communication away from the Aegean and toward the northwest. Yet the province’s reserves of products and manpower and its relative immunity from devastation made it an important factor in the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire. Under Diocletian (reigned ad 284–305) it was divided into seven smaller provinces.