curae
The Augustan administrative revolution consisted in the creation of boards of senior magistrates in departments responsible for the management of the aqueducts, the roads of the city, the banks of the Tiber, and so on; in the systematization of responsibility by means of artificial compartments, such as the fourteen regions of Rome or the eleven of Italy; and in the appointment of senior assistants responsible to the princeps who would control military or paramilitary bodies permanently stationed in Rome or very near by, for political and civil security. The creation of the curae did away with the ancient principle of annual tenure, and provided something of a permanent staff in place of sole reliance on contract labour. The formal systems of administrative units diminished competitiveness between patrons and helped ensure uniformity, stability, and comparison of results of administrative activity. (Boardman, 1986)