By the start of the period the administration of imperial territories had altered little from the overall pattern established under the Julio-Claudians. Italy retained its traditional autonomy outside the territorial administration, with the role of a few special agencies still defined by the twelve regions into which the peninsula had been divided by Augustus. Elsewhere the provincial system continued with only minor changes until the wholesale reorganization under Diocletian. A total of forty-four defined provincial territories were each administered by a single individual for terms of between one and three years. Governing a province involved uninterrupted residence within the bounds of the territory with responsibility for the conduct of civil and, where these existed, military affairs. Ten of these positions bore the traditional title of proconsul, nominated by the senate at Rome. Two (Asia and Africa) were chosen from among ex-consuls, and eight (Narbonensis, Baetica, Macedonia, Achaea, Creta et Cyrene, Lycia et Pamphylia, Cyprus and Sicilia) from among ex-praetors. Twenty-four senators at any one time served the emperor as provincial governor or legate (legatus Augusti pro praetore provinciae ...), of which eleven (Britannia, Germania Inferior, Germania Superior, Hispania (Citerior) Tarraconensis, Pannonia Superior, Dalmatia, Moesia Superior, Moesia Inferior, Tres Daciae, Cappadocia and Syria) were selected from among ex-consuls and thirteen (Belgica, Lugdunensis, Aquitania, Lusitania, Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia Inferior, Thracia, Bithynia et Pontus, Galatia, Cilicia, Arabia and Palaestina) from among ex-praetors.