In a recent article in The Journal of Roman Studies, "Provincial Monarchs as an Eastern Arcanum Imperii: 'Client Kingship', the Augustan Revolution and the Flavians" (2021), Tal Ish-Shalom re-examines the role of 'client kings' in the Roman east in the early Principate. Contrary to previous emphasis on continuity with the republican past, the article proposes that Octavian-Augustus enacted a set of measures that fundamentally changed the relations of certain eastern monarchs with the imperial centre. These 'provincial monarchs' became a new elite of Roman administrators, personally loyal to the domus Augusta and distinct from 'client kings' earlier and elsewhere. This Augustan systemization complemented the provincial division of 27 B.C.E., creating a 'divide and rule' dynamic between provincial monarchs and imperial legates expedient to the Julio-Claudians. This model is then used to challenge the view that the Flavians systematically 'provincialized' the east as part of a reorganization of the frontier. It raises the alternative possibility that provincial monarchy gradually died out following the Flavian realization that its continued maintenance was detrimental to their public image in Rome.