Praetorian Guard

Generals with imperium (command authority of an army) also held public office, either as a magistrate or as a promagistrate; each was provided with lictors to protect the person of the office-holder.

First established by Augustus, members of the Guard accompanied him on active campaign, protecting the civic administrations and rule of law imposed by the Senate and the emperor.

They benefited from several advantages via their close proximity with the emperor: the Praetorians were the only ones admitted while bearing arms in the center of sacred Rome, the Pomerium.

This system was not radically changed with the appointment by Augustus in 2 BC of two Praetorian prefects, Quintus Ostorius Scapula and Publius Salvius Aper, although organization and command were enhanced.

According to Tacitus, in the year 23 BC, there were nine Praetorian cohorts (4,500 men, the equivalent of a legion) to maintain peace in Italy; three were stationed in Rome, and the others nearby.

According to Boris Rankov in 1994, an inscription recently discovered suggested that, towards the end of the reign of Augustus, the number of cohorts increased to 12 during a brief period.

On the death of Augustus in AD 14, his successor Tiberius was confronted by mutinies in the two armies of the Rhine and Pannonia, who were protesting about their conditions of service being worse than the Praetorians.

Accordingly, he poisoned Drusus with the help of the latter's wife, and immediately launched a ruthless elimination program against all competitors, persuading Tiberius to make him his heir apparent.

In year 41, disgust and hostility of a praetorian tribune, named Cassius Chaerea – whom Caligula teased without mercy due to his squeaky voice – led to the assassination of the emperor by officers of the guard.

In AD 68, the new colleague of Tigellinus, Nymphidius Sabinus, managed to have the Praetorian Guard abandon Nero in favor of the contender Galba.

Under Vespasian's second son, Domitian, the number of cohorts was increased to 10, and the Praetorian Guard participated in fighting in Germania and on the Danube against the Dacians.

However, the armies of the Danube chose instead the governor of Pannonia Superior, Septimius Severus, who besieged Rome and tricked the Praetorians when they came out unarmed.

The new Guard of Septimius Severus made their mark against his rival Clodius Albinus at the Battle of Lyon in 197, and accompanied the emperor to the Orient from 197 to 202, then to Britannia from 208 until his death at York in 211.

Caracalla, son of Septimius Severus, lost favour with his troops by assassinating his own brother and co-emperor, Geta, immediately after his succession.

After the elimination of the latter, the Praetorians opposed the new emperor Elagabalus, priest of the oriental cult of Elagabal, and replaced him by his 13-year-old cousin Severus Alexander in 222.

Defended by only a small residual garrison, the Praetorian camp was attacked by a civilian crowd acting in support of senators and Gordian emperors in revolt against Maximinus Thrax.

By 312, however, Constantine the Great marched on Rome with an army in order to eliminate Maxentius and gain control of the Western Roman Empire, leading to the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

The remaining soldiers were sent out to various corners of the empire, and the Castra Praetoria was dismantled in a grand gesture, inaugurating a new age in Roman history and ending that of the Praetorians.

The German mutiny was put down by Tiberius' nephew and adopted son Germanicus, his intended heir, who then led the legions and detachments of the Guard in an invasion of Germany over the next two years.

The Praetorian Guard influenced and intervened in the imperial succession to name the new Caesar, which was a political decision that the unarmed Senate accepted, ratified, and proclaimed to the people of Rome.

After the death of Sejanus, who was sacrificed for the donativum (imperial gift) promised by Tiberius, the Praetorians became exceptionally ambitious in their influence upon the politics of the Roman Empire.

In 271, Aurelian sailed east to destroy the power of Palmyra, Syria, with a force of legionary detachments, Praetorian cohorts, and other cavalry units, and easily defeated the Palmyrenes.

[8] In order not to alienate the population of Rome, while conserving Republican civilian traditions, the Praetorians did not wear their armor while in the heart of the city.

Initially each cohort included, as for a Roman legion, a cavalry detachment; this should not be confused with the equites singulares Augusti who appeared under the emperor Trajan.

According to Cassius Dio, during the first two centuries AD and before the reform of Septimius Severus, the Praetorians were exclusively limited to Italy, Spain (Roman province), Macedonia and Noricum (current Austria).

After two years, if he attracted the attention of his superiors by influence or merit, he could attain the post of Immunis (similar to corporal), perhaps as a commis (junior chief) at general headquarters or as a technician.

After another two years he could be promoted to Principalis, with a double salary, in charge of delivering messages (Tesserarius) or as an assistant centurion (Optio) or standard bearer (Signifer) at the corps of the century; or, if literate and numerate, he could join the administrative staff of the prefect.

[6][10] Other leading paths towards the tribunate were possible, including service entirely made in the legions, attaining the rank of Primus pilus before departing to Rome.

A few of them, ranking placement at the top of the hierarchy, could obtain a second term as Primus Pilus and advance towards the superior echelons of the equestrian career, possibly becoming the Praetorian prefect.

Praetorian Guard units could wear lion skin capes and their colours were so decorated with awards, that the men had difficulty in carrying them on long marches.