08-15-2012, 07:53 PM
You might want to check the chapter on Speculatores in Austin's Exploratio:
Spies: Speculatores
Despite what the Wikipedia entry implies, all the uses of speculatores mentioned by Austin appear to be military - they were army espionage men and messengers. Their 'plain clothes' work would be in enemy terrain, disguised as deserters or travelling merchants, gaining access to the enemy camps and forts. This sort of work made them highly independent, but most of them functioned within normal military infrastructure - Austin suggests there were ten speculatores attached to every legion. As such, they would take orders via the usual chain of command, reporting to their own centurions and tribunes, the legion legate and/or the provincial governor (who would have kept a number of them on his staff). The speculators of the praetorian guard, being based in Rome, had more of an internal security function and were used as executioners on occasion, but were still regular members of the guard, reporting to their own tribunes and to the emperor directly.
Civilian espionage during the early principiate seems to have been rather ad hoc, with a network of unofficial informers (delatores) and investigators (curiosii) supplying information to the various imperial offices and provincial governors. Under Hadrian, the soldiers detached from the legions to oversee military supply were formed into a corps of their own, the frumentarii, based in Rome under the princeps peregrinorum and reporting directly to the emperor himself, bypassing the provincial offices. This, and their work with civilian supply networks, made them useful internal security investigators - but their bad reputation was probably as much to do with the potential of their job for corruption and extortion as with any nefarious undercover activities!
Spies: Speculatores
Despite what the Wikipedia entry implies, all the uses of speculatores mentioned by Austin appear to be military - they were army espionage men and messengers. Their 'plain clothes' work would be in enemy terrain, disguised as deserters or travelling merchants, gaining access to the enemy camps and forts. This sort of work made them highly independent, but most of them functioned within normal military infrastructure - Austin suggests there were ten speculatores attached to every legion. As such, they would take orders via the usual chain of command, reporting to their own centurions and tribunes, the legion legate and/or the provincial governor (who would have kept a number of them on his staff). The speculators of the praetorian guard, being based in Rome, had more of an internal security function and were used as executioners on occasion, but were still regular members of the guard, reporting to their own tribunes and to the emperor directly.
Civilian espionage during the early principiate seems to have been rather ad hoc, with a network of unofficial informers (delatores) and investigators (curiosii) supplying information to the various imperial offices and provincial governors. Under Hadrian, the soldiers detached from the legions to oversee military supply were formed into a corps of their own, the frumentarii, based in Rome under the princeps peregrinorum and reporting directly to the emperor himself, bypassing the provincial offices. This, and their work with civilian supply networks, made them useful internal security investigators - but their bad reputation was probably as much to do with the potential of their job for corruption and extortion as with any nefarious undercover activities!
Nathan Ross
