However, they were armed with the standard army issue gladius , as opposed to the fasces or bundled wooden rods of the lictors. Outside of Rome, and on the battlefield, a Praetorian would be equipped in much the same manner as any other Imperial Legionary.
At the onset, Augustus recruited 9 cohorts of about men each, essentially equal to the size of an imperial legion. Each cohort was eventually swelled to equal that of the double-strength first cohort of an Imperial Legion , so that each cohort, from this time on, was generally made up of 1, men.
Three of these initial 9 units were stationed in Rome while the other six were garrisoned throughout Italy. At first each cohort was under the command of an Equestrian rank Tribune, but by the turn of the millennium, Augustus had created the overall command position of the Praetorian Praefectus.
The Prefects eventually became incredibly powerful political players themselves, and in some cases wielded more direct control and power over the empire than the Emperor. Set up as an institution with supreme loyalty to the emperor, they eventually became a formidable political force, in many cases, both eliminating the current Emperor and dictating ascension to the throne.
The Praetorians were originally recruited from among the best available veteran Italian Legionaries. Service in the guard was an honored position, and was considered elite status for a soldier. Contrary to popular opinion, the Praetorians, especially beyond the Julio-Claudian era, often went on campaign with the Emperor.
Enemy incursions into Italy or nearby provinces were also often met by Praetorian defenders. As the deep interior of the Empire was bereft of troops in comparison to the frontier provinces, it could often fall upon the imperial guard to secure the interior empire. They also accompanied those emperors who functioned as generals while on campaign.
Of notable example are Trajan in Dacia and Marcus Aurelius while he conducted the war on the Danube, and the Praetorians certainly were involved in heavy action. Albeit, he did not stay in power for long.
In CE, the praetorian guard played a minor role in the installment of Maximinus Thrax, the first of the soldier emperors of the third century. This chaotic century saw a shift of power away from Rome to the frontier, with both the emperor and the capital moving away from Italy.
It was during this period that the army replaced praetorian guard as kingmakers. When Diocletian stabilized the empire in CE, he further reduced the role of the praetorians.
Once the center of power and influence, the Castra Praetoria in Rome now housed only a minor garrison. When civil war broke out again in CE between Maxentius and Constantine , the Praetorian Guard made a final gamble and lost.
The defeated emperor drowned in the Tiber along with many of his guardsmen; a scene gloatingly depicted on the Arch of Constantine, and in many later artworks. Constantine was determined to eradicate the power of the praetorian guard. In CE the unit was disbanded once and for all.
The internal walls of their Roman fortress was dismantled, and all the gates leading into the city were walled up. The surviving guardsmen were sent to the far reaches of the empire.
The office of the praetorian prefect survived, but he was never to lead the troops again. From now on, the prefect would be a senior civilian administrator of the empire. After three hundred years, the praetorian guard came to its ignominious end. When Augustus formed the praetorian guard, he was not aware that he had created a force his successors could not control. True, the praetorian guard served their primary purpose well, protecting the emperor, and keeping the Senate and people in check.
However, their proximity to power, and their exclusive access to the emperor made the guardsmen, and in particular, their commanders, incredibly powerful and influential. The guardsmen had the power to make or break a reign, which they often did.
Since the guard was created to protect the emperor in Rome, their political fate remained closely tied with that of the city.
Instead, the third-century crisis brought the army into imperial politics. They existed to protect Augustus, but he dispersed two-thirds of them round Italy to minimise the impression that he depended on them. Instead, the guard depended on Augustus. No emperor meant no jobs and no special status.
But this state of affairs was reliant upon the emperor having enough prestige and power to contain the guard. Augustus had created potentially the most dangerous institution the Roman world had ever seen. In the luxurious idleness of an opulent city, their pride was nourished by the sense of their irresistible weight; nor was it possible to conceal from them, that the person of the sovereign, the authority of the senate, the public treasure, and the seat of empire, were all in their hands.
So the seeds of the events of AD had been sown by Augustus more than two centuries earlier. It took a while for the Praetorians to realise how much power they had. There were not that many of them, though establishing exactly how many is remarkably challenging. All we know for certain is that by the early third century there were 10 cohorts with 1, men in each, roughly equivalent to two legions.
Does it matter? Not really. Sadly, over the three centuries of its existence, those expectations substantially increased. Spotting the potential the command of the Praetorians offered him, this ruthless opportunist brought the whole guard into Rome, ordering the construction of the Castra Praetoria. Fortunately for Tiberius the penny dropped in time. But the guard stayed in Rome. With the volatile young emperor dead, there were plans afoot to restore the Republic.
That would end the privileged jobs the Praetorians held. Dismissed by his family as an idiot, history had passed him by — until now. Claudius was declared emperor by the Praetorians and no one, including the senate, was in any position to argue. Claudius was a reluctant emperor and turned out to be a good deal more competent than his family thought him capable of. Gold and silver coins were issued showing the guard welcoming the new emperor, and he them.
The coins almost certainly formed part of the donative Claudius paid the Praetorians on his accession. Not surprisingly the amounts generally increased — and that is why the ghastly events of AD took place. Motivated by a desire to avenge the Roman defeat at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 bc and gain new glory for himself and his men, Antony launched a new campaign that proved to be a disaster.
His invading army included at least three praetorian cohorts, many of whom would die of starvation, exposure, or enemy arrows. Antony lost 22, men on the Armenian highlands during his subsequent retreat from Parthia, without bringing his enemy to a single conclusive battle.
Antony had at least two praetorian cohorts. There was also a cohors speculatorum, a praetorian-like unit that provided him with close protection and also functioned as spies and executioners. Commanding his fleet was Marcus Vispanius Agrippa. Unable to bring Octavian to battle on land in northern Greece as he wished, Antony accepted battle on the water. The result was his defeat in the Battle of Actium September 2, 31 bc.
Eleven months later, Octavian landed at Alexandria, Egypt, to find that Antony had committed suicide and his army was ready and willing to transfer their loyalties to him. For the next three centuries the fortunes of the Praetorian Guard rose and fell with those of their masters. They assassinated several demonstrably evil emperors, including Caligula, Commodus, and Elagabalus, but they generally preferred to stay out of the limelight.
At length, during the reign of the co-emperors Diocletian and Maximian ad the praetorian cohorts were dispersed around the empire and their manpower was drastically reduced. In response, the remaining guardsmen proclaimed their own candidate, Maxentius, emperor in ad and fought to the death with him at the Battle of Milvian Bridge six years later.
He also demolished the Castra Praetoria, thus forcefully underlining the end of the Praetorian Guard as a formal military entity. Click here to cancel reply. There are moments in military history that forever alter the flow of human events.
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