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Provinces of the Roman Empire

Rome began its outward expansion in the 200s BC. The first Roman colony was Sicily, conquered during the course of the First Punic war in 254 BC. Carthage was subsumed after three Punic wars, and Greece later likewise included in the ongoing expansion. 

By the time of the late Roman Empire, from 284 AD, the Empire was divided into 4 Praetorian prefectures, totalling 15 or so civil dioceses: 

Praetorian prefecture of the Gauls 
  • Gallia (including, in part or in whole, areas of what is now Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland) 
  • Vienennsis (southern, Romanised Gaul) 
  • Hispania
  • Britannia
Praetorian prefecture of Italy & Africa
  • Italia suburbicaria (around Rome)
  • Italia annonaria (northern Italy)
  • Africa (north Africa) 
Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum (Balkans)
  • Pannonia
  • Dacia (modern-day Romania) 
  • Macedonia (including modern-day Greece)
Praetorian prefecture of Oriens (from Bulgaria across modern Turkey and down to the Levant and Egypt)
  • Thracia 
  • Asiana
  • Pontus 
  • Oriens (including three provinces of "Palaestina") 
  • Egyptus 






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