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Could someone explain the Republican no armor custom that existed? Were any exempt from the law and did it exist throughout the Empire or just within Rome herself?
Frank Sultana
"I love treason but hate a traitor."
- Julius Caesar (100 BC - 44 BC)
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The city of Rome had a prohibition against the bearing of weapons within the pomerium, the sacred boundary marked out by Romulus with his plow. It followed roughly the line of the ancient city wall. By the 1st c. BC, it was honored more in the breach than in the observance.
Pecunia non olet
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Yes, this is the law I'm talking about.
I was wondering if this was actually honored and prevented the bearing of arms within the city or not, and how far this custom extended, ie were soldiers, guards or even the Praetorian Cohort expected to follow it?
Frank Sultana
"I love treason but hate a traitor."
- Julius Caesar (100 BC - 44 BC)
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Sort of. Traditionally men under arms were never under the official authority of a commander within the city except for a triumph. For this reason they met in the Campus Martius outside the pomerium. The King Servius probably had something to do with this with the centuriate reform. Likewise, the Praetorian camp was built by Tiberius outside the city wallls. But this doesn't necessarily mean that on occassion (normally times of great unrest) men under arms weren't deployed in the city.