The erection of the Celtic land between the Alps and Apennines into a special province, different from that of the consuls and subject to a separate Standing chief magistrate, was the work of Sulla.

Of course no one will Urge as an objection to this view, that already in the sixth century Gallia or Ariminum is very often designated as the "official district" (-provincia-), usually of one of the consuls.

-Provincia-, as is well known, was in the older language not--what alone it denoted subsequently--a definite space assigned as a district to a standing chief magistrate, but the department of duty fixed for the individual consul, in the first instance by agreement with his colleague, under concurrence of the senate; and in this sense frequently individual regions in northern Italy, or even North Italy generally, were assigned to individual consuls as -provincia-.
11.

A standing Roman commandant of Corcyra is apparently mentioned in Polyb.xxii.15, 6 (erroneously translated by Liv.xxxviii.ii, comp.
xlii.

37), and a similar one in the case of Issa in Liv.xliii.