Although the provincial governor had absolute power to intervene in "civitas" affairs, in practice "civitates" were largely autonomous, in part because the governor operated with a minimal bureaucracy and simply did not have the resources for detailed micro-management of the "civitates". Provided that the "civitates" collected and delivered their assessed annual "tributum" (poll and land taxes) and carried out required services such as maintaining trunk Roman roads that crossed their territory, they were largely left to run their own affairs by the central provincial administration.