Abstract
Cicero’s analysis of the Roman administrative problems in Asia Minor reveals that the crisis of the late Roman Republic was an imperial crisis no less than a constitutional one. To correct these difficulties Augustus, its first princeps, therefore experimented with new administrative structures. The flexibility in this field is clearly seen during the reign of the client king Herod. This Jewish king and Roman citizen tried to make himself indispensable as a Roman administrator by his ‘knowledge’ of the Jewish religion, which enabled him to gain influence outside his own realm. A close reading of Flavius Josephus on Agrippa’s visit to Jerusalem and the subsequent journey made by Herod and Agrippa through Asia Minor shows what new administrative possibilities were being tried out under the new princeps in order to professionalize Roman administration.