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Hi,
in my books and articles about the praetorian guard there is the information that Domitian increased the number of praetorian cohorts from nine to ten. However none of them mentions the primary sources. They just refer to Durry, M.: Les cohortes prétoriennes, Paris, 1938, p. 81. Unfortunately I haven't access to this book.
Could somebody, please, tell me the primary sources for this change.
Thank you
Alexandr
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Alexander, Durry deducted it from diplomas.
Here is "Les cohortes prétoriennes", pp 81 and pp 80, actually..
"At the end of the 1st Century AD a Xth cohort reappears. At which exact moment? A diploma of 79, which mentions only nine cohorts, gives us the
terminus ante quem. recent discovery of a fragment of another diploma gives us the terminus post quem in the years 88/100.
Nerva had no reason to be generous with these pretorians against whom he held a grudge, neither Trajan, who had to punish them.
So the creation of the Xth cohort may be attributed with vraisemblance to Domitian, whom the Viminal barrack's soldiers missed so much".
Pascal Sabas
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Salve Lucretie,
thank you very much for your answer. Is ther also any reference for those diplomas?
Greetings
Alexandr
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It seems Durry's reasoning needs to be revised. There is now a diploma of 22/2 85 AD (RMD 139), which again only names 9 Praetorian cohorts and numbers the Urban Cohorts from 10 on.
The diploma 16,81 which Durry refers to is dated to 18/11 122 AD in Roxan's revised chronology and is the earliest Praetorian diploma after RMD 139.
I haven't seen RMD IV, that might change things again.
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Thank you Jasper. Interesting. I was wondering if there is some new evidence for this, since Durrys work is already rather old.
Thanks again guys.
Greetings
Alexandr
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The Praetorian Guard indeed cries out for a new monography. Durry wrote his in 1938..
Unfortunately it is yet the only serious book I know dealing with the Praetorians. Despite its age however it is a very important book as far as the Praetorians ideology is concerned. It also puts things back in perspective regarding the awfully bad reputations the Praetorians had in more recent times. The SS were often described as Hitler's "praetorians", for instance.
Most unfortunately again, I fear it has not been translated into english.
Pascal Sabas
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Well Antonius, if you want to translate it for hosting on RA.com, I'm sure we have space ;-) )
Seriously though, you are right. There is another monography on this subject though: Passerini, A., Le coorti pretorie (Roma 1939) 362p. To be fair, it's almost as old.
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just a question:
Why does he write that Traian had to punish the Praetorians and for what? Was there a political reason or an incident during the Dacian campaigns?
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[Micha F.]
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Hi Cinna,
old Nerva had serious problems with praetorians. They even mutinied against him. One of the reasons for adopting Trajan was probably the fact that he was governor of Germania Superior (7 or so legions on Rhine is more than enough to intimidate 10 cohorts of the praetorian guard). After Nerva's death, Trajan came to Rome and punished leaders of the rebelion.
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Alexandr
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What happened is that the preatorians forced old Nerva at gun point --well at gladius point-- to execute Domitian's assassins..
Nerva was forced to do it but he held a grudge. When he adopted Trajan as his heir, he sent him a message picked from the Iliad: It's part of a prayer to Apollo: "May the Danaeans pay for my tears with your arrows"...
Trajan understood the message and began by inviting the main conspirators to Germany to "reward" them. And there, they were "rewarded", with extreme prejudice..
Pascal Sabas
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Thank you very much for the answers. didn't know Nerva had probs with them. at least they found a way to solve the conflict
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