Province

A province is an administrative division of land in Imperator: Rome, formed by groupings of territories and themselves grouped into regions. Ingame, many important mechanics such as food, trade, and territorial loyalty are handled at the provincial level, as well as certain diplomatic actions such as fabricating claims and peace term demands.

Provincial loyalty

Every province has a province loyalty value, representing the local level of support for the central government and the willingness of the province to follow its orders. Disloyal provinces will refuse to follow orders from the capital and may eventually revolt in a rebellion or join a civil war - managing the loyalty of provinces is one of the most important aspects of running an empire.

Province loyalty changes monthly depending on the sum of all province loyalty modifiers. Territory Provincial Loyalty modifiers affect individual territories and are scaled to the territory's relative population in the province before being applied to the territory's province's loyalty, Local Provincial Loyalty modifiers are applied to provinces and affecting its loyalty directly, and Provincial Loyalty modifiers affect all owned provinces in the country.

Unrest - itself driven largely by the happiness of the population - is the main factor that decreases province loyalty, giving -0.08 territory provincial loyalty for every point of unrest. As territory provincial loyalty is scaled to the share of the province's population in the territory, large cities will therefore have a much greater effect on province loyalty than lightly populated settlements. Governor corruption (-0.25 at 100 corruption) as well as lacking a governor to administer the region altogether (-0.35) will also give a significant malus to province loyalty. The main way to reduce province loyalty loss is by tackling the source, such as building forts or increasing pop happiness to reduce unrest or by replacing corrupt governors.

If dealing with the source of loyalty loss is not enough, monthly province loyalty can also be increased by:

• +0.004 for each point of governor loyalty above 50 (to a maximum of +0.20 at 100 loyalty)
• +0.03 per governor finesse, plus +0.03 base when using the Harsh Treatment governor policy
• +0.01 for each level of the Provincial Procurators province investment
• +0.10 (maximum) from territories with 0 unrest, scaled according to the share of the province's population in the territory
• +0.05 (maximum) for each Great Temple and Grand Theater in a city, scaled according to the share of the province's population in the territory
• +0.01 (maximum) for each Court of Law in a city, scaled according to the share of the province's population in the territory
• +0.25 for 2 years after using the Anabasis unit ability
• +0.03 from passive modifiers of various deities (+0.0375 if their holy site is owned)
• +0.04 per 100% omen power for various omens (+0.05 per 100% omen power if their holy site is owned)
• +0.05 with the Central Urban Spaces national idea
• +0.02 with the Petition of Minorities Civic invention
• +0.02 with the Reduced Governorship Religious invention
• +0.02/+0.04/+0.07/+0.10 for a great wonder with the Government Traditions effect, based on the effect's tier
• +0.05 with a ruler with the Blood of Seleukos trait

In addition to its monthly loyalty change effect, the Anabasis unit ability will also immediately increase the province's loyalty by 5.

Once a province's loyalty drops below 33, the province is considered disloyal and will refuse follow orders from the central government. Territories in disloyal provinces cannot be interacted with, blocking building construction and pop movement. Changing governor policy, however, is still allowed (as long as the governor is still loyal).

If a province's loyalty drops all the way down to 0, it will immediately rebel. A new state will be formed from the province (or possibly a previously existing one that has been annexed), and it will either declare a independence war or join an ongoing one if there is a nearby province that has already rebelled. While the rebellion of a single province is unlikely to be successful, widespread discontent and unhappiness can be dangerous for even the strongest empires.

Province capital

Main article: Province capital

Every province has a province capital for each country that controls part of it, representing the center of the local administration. The province capital gets significant bonuses and is generally the largest and most important territory in the province, determining who controls the province during a war and being one of the main recipients of enslaved pops. If desired, the province capital can be moved during peacetime to a better location at the cost of province loyalty.

Capital province

The province with the country's capital is considered its capital province.

Every pop in the capital province has a +10% output modifier (stacking with the capital city and capital region modifiers). In addition, the capital province is fixed at 100 loyalty regardless of any province loyalty modifiers and so will never rebel.

The capital province is also where the special countrywide capital trade good surplus bonuses are gained. As the target of the capital trade routes modifier, which usually has contributions from the default commerce policy and country ranks as well as usually being the most populous province with a high population of nobles and citizens, this together means the capital province is usually the center of trade in a country with a large variety of imported trade goods.

Provincial investments

Provinces can be improved repeatedly with province investments to improve the administration and infrastructure of the province. Province investments have a base cost of 80 political influence each, modified by the specific province investment cost modifiers ( military provincial investment cost, civic provincial investment cost, oratory provincial investment cost, and religious provincial investment cost) that can be reduced by heritages and various inventions. There is also an additional cost of 20 gold for every currently existing investment in the province, including others of a different type, which is not affected by the provincial investment cost modifiers. Each investment takes 6 months to prepare and reduces the output of the province by 1% during the process. The resulting effects are permanent as long as the province remains colonized and the owner does not change. Province investments cannot be cancelled once started, and only one investment can be made in a province at a time. Once a province investment is finished, a notification event will appear in the event queue.

It is also possible to get free province investments from forming nations, adopting certain inventions and military traditions, and as a reward for certain mission tasks, which allows a country to make a provincial investment without spending any political influence or gold. Note that the 6-month duration to implement the investment still applies.

All 4 types of investments can be applied to the same province an unlimited amount of times.

• Install Provincial Procurators (Military): +0.01 Local Provincial Loyalty and +1 Fort Infrastructure Capacity
• Promote Infrastructure Spending (Civic): +2.50% Population Capacity
• Entice Business Investments (Oratory): +1 Local Import Routes
• Make Religious Endowments (Religious): +1 Local City Building Slots

With the Magna Graecia DLC, Sparta gets two unique province investments for the military and religious slots, replacing the standard province investments:

• Free Helots (Civic): +1.50% Population Capacity, +2% Integrated Culture Happiness, and +4% Local Freemen Output
• Commission Heroic Frieze (Religious): +4% Supply Limit and +3% Local Citizen Output

Governor policies

Every province can have a governor policy set which determines the priority of the province's administration. Governor policies allow a country to extract more from a province's population, deal with unrest by increasing population happiness or cracking down on the population, build up the civilization value of the province's territories, and more.

When a governor is assigned, they chose a random policy based on the factors listed in the Chance column (with a base chance of 0). This includes directly reassigning a governor without having a vacancy first. As long as the region has a governor, the policy can be changed at a base cost of 10 political influence, modified by the change governor policy cost modifier. Changing governor policy manually, except for in the capital region/governorship, also gives tyranny based on the current ruler's popularity, scaling between 1.25 at 0 ruler popularity to 0.25 at 100.

All policy effects are modified by the governor's Finesse, with the values below are given for the baseline level of 9 finesse. Each point of the governor's finesse above 9 increases the modifier by 10%, while each point below decreases it 10% to a minimum value of 10% of the base. This is described by the equation below:

${\text{Effective Policy Modifier}}={\frac {{\text{Governor Finesse}}+1}{10}}\cdot {\text{Base Policy Modifier}}$

	Policy	Effect	Description	Chance modifier
	Acquisition of Wealth	Local tax: +10% Province commerce: +10% Governor wage: +20%	This policy will increase the entire province's tax and commerce income, at the cost of enriching the presiding Governor. Some nefarious characters are only interested in lining their own pockets.	+6 if the governor has the gluttonous trait +15 if the governor has less than or equal to 40 loyalty +0.5 times the governor's corruption
	Religious Conversion	Conversion speed +3	This policy will increase the speed at which Pops in the province's territories are converted to our country's Religion. Spreading our faith makes it easier to assimilate Pops into the country's dominant Culture.	+0.25 times the governor's zeal +5 if the governor has the pious trait +4 if the governor has the zealous trait -0 if all territories in the province have the same dominant religion as the governor
	Cultural Assimilation	Assimilation speed +1	This policy will increase the speed at which Pops in the province's territories are assimilated into the country's dominant Culture. Converted Pops will be happier and thus more productive and less disloyal.	+0.5 times the governor's finesse +4 if the province has at least 60 loyalty and there is at least one territory whose dominant culture is not the same as the governor and not a primary or integrated culture ×0 if the governor is not a primary or integrated culture ×0 if the dominant culture of all provinces are either the primary culture or an integrated culture of the country
	Bleed Them Dry	Local tax: +30% Local provincial loyalty: -0.25 Province commerce: +20% Local Monthly Food Modifer: -25%	This policy will greatly increase the income of a province, at the cost of generating unrest and lowering its food output. There is a limit to how much the people can tolerate and get by on, after all.	+5 if the governor has the miserly trait +5 if the governor has the shrewd trait +10 if the governor has at least 30 corruption ×0 if the governor is the ruler ×0 if the country is AI-controlled ×0 if the province has at most 800 food
	Borderlands	Local manpower: +25% Local fort defense: +20%	This policy will increase the manpower contributions of a province's Pops as well as harden its defensiveness. Ensuring a steady supply of recruits and strong fortifications are key to victory.	+10 if there is a territory in the province with at least 15 freemen +6 if the governor has the suspicious trait +6 if the governor has the stubborn trait
	Encourage Trade	Province commerce: +25% Local Monthly Food Modifier: +10%	This policy will increase a province's commerce income and food output by encouraging foreign traders to do business in the area. There is always money to be made if one can spot the opportunity.	+1 for each trade route in the province +6 if the governor has the silver tongued trait +6 if the governor has the crafty trait +10 if the governor belongs to the Boni or Traditionalists party +20 if the province's food is less than or equal to 0.3 times its food capacity
	Social Mobility	Pop promotion speed: +150% Pop demotion speed: +150%	This policy will increase the speed at which Pops in a province are promoted to a higher Class, in the order of Slaves to Citizens. Encouraging a healthy distribution of trades will ensure a well rounded economy.	(Never)
	Harsh Treatment	Local provincial loyalty: +0.3 Population output: -40% Pop demotion speed: +100% Migration attraction: -6 Pop migration speed: +1	This policy will increase a province's Loyalty at the cost of reducing its output and encouraging Pops to emigrate away. Though it may have its costs, sometimes the best way to deal with dissent is a show of force.	+1 for every territory with at least 1 unrest +2 for every territory with at least 3 unrest +0.5 for every point of unrest in every territory with at least 5 unrest +11 if the province has less than 40 loyalty +9 if the province has less than 40 loyalty and the country is AI-controlled ×0 if the province has at least 40 loyalty
	Local Autonomy	Population output: -40% Local citizen happiness: +15% Local freeman happiness: +15% Local noble happiness: +10% Local slave happiness: +15% Local tribesman happiness: +15%	This policy will increase the happiness of a province's Pops at the cost of greatly reducing their output in all areas. By relieving the people of their burdens, we are sure to boost their contentment.	+1 for every territory with at least 1 unrest +2 for every territory with at least 3 unrest +0.5 for every point of unrest in every territory with at least 5 unrest +5 if the governor has the submissive trait +3 if the governor has the generous trait +3 if the governor has the kindly trait -30 for the capital province
	Civilization Effort	Local monthly civilization: +0.05% Additional chance each month, based on governor finesse, to: Increase the civilization level of neighbouring barbarian strongholds by 2, if any territory in the province has at least 30 civilization value Downgrade or remove an adjacent barbarian stronghold, if it and any territory in the province have at least 35 civilization value	This policy will increase the speed at which a province is civilized and slowly pacify any neighboring barbarian strongholds. Only infrastructure, cultural dissemination, and learning can bring enlightenment.	+11 if the governor has the intelligent trait +11 if the governor has the polymath trait +20 if any adjacent territory is a barbarian stronghold -30 if the country is tribal and has less than or equal to 40 centralization
	Centralize Population	Pop migration speed: +2 For the province capital: Migration attraction: +1 For all other territories: Migration attraction: -5	This policy will encourage migration into a province's Provincial Capital and speed up the migration of local Pops, concentrating the population. A bustling metropolis is a sure sign of a prosperous province.	(Never)
	Decentralize Population	Pop migration speed: +2 For the province capital: Migration attraction: -5 For all other territories: Migration attraction: +1	This policy will encourage migration away from a province's Provincial Capital and speed up the migration of local Pops, dispersing the population. Sometimes, overpopulation cannot be solved by grain alone.	(Never)

Mechanics