The Praetorian Guard!

[Spedius]

Ave!

This topic was created as a source to cross-check those items against which appear in "Roman Army Military Decorations".

"Ranks of the Praetorian Guard, in ascending order

Milites - Regular soldiers
Immunes - After five years these soldiers were allowed to serve in the Equites singulares (cavalry branch) or as Speculatores (special agents)
Principales - Legionary administrators
Evocati - After 16 years of service, retirement was possible but most soldiers chose to stay in this honorary unit.
Centuriones - Soldiers transferred to the Praetorian Guard after service in the legions, the Vigiles or the Urban cohort
Tribuni - These officers also from the legions and usually of the Equestrian class, commanded a cohort. Centurions could rarely be promoted to the Tribuneship
Procuratores - A rank of the Equestrians
Praefectus - Available to the Vigiles and urban cohorts; the highest rank in the Praetorian Guard, head of the Praetorian Guard"

I found this information here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praetorian_Guard

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

[Praefectusclassis]

Those broad categories are actually broadly valid for all units, although the specifics vary. The immunes are actually not truly a separate category, but merely those soldiers with a specific task/skill that gave them 'immunity' from basic chores.

[Spedius]

Those broad categories are actually broadly valid for all units, although the specifics vary. The immunes are actually not truly a separate category, but merely those soldiers with a specific task/skill that gave them 'immunity' from basic chores.

Ave Jasper,

Thank you for the explanation.

Didn't they get paid more too?

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

[Praefectusclassis]

No, probably not. Better pay was for sesquiplicarii & duplicarii who made up the principales (not all admin functions)

[Spedius]

No, probably not. Better pay was for sesquiplicarii & duplicarii who made up the principales (not all admin functions)

Ave Jasper,

Thank you once again.

I've found some more information.

"PRAETORIAN GUARD

While in Rome, the Praetorians carried no armor or shield. They rather wore a common tunic and carried a sword. On the battlefield they were outfitted in much the same way as the legions, though one would expect their eqipment to be more ornate than other units. Praetorians seen on Trajan's Column appear with the standard legionary rectangular scuta, but other sculptures depict them with the oval Republican era variety. Some historians believe the oval shield was relegated as parade eqipment, a symbol of Rome's glorious past. Yet, such shields were used for years by the legions. So, I don't see why this battle-tested piece of hardware wouldn't be suitable for actual fighting.

The Praetor was the title of the consul who was the supreme commander in the army. Originally, the Praetorian Guard was a casual term used to describe a collection of elite cohorts, whose function was to guard their commander. Units such as these appeared in the late Republic. After defeating Anthony, the new (and first) emperor, Augustus Caesar, formalized the Praetorian units. There were probably nine cohorts comprised of around 500 men each, just as with the regular legions. Before 2 BC each individual cohort was lead by a tribune of equestrian rank. Afterwards, Augustus created two posts for overall command of the guard. These 2 men in charge were called Praetorian Prefects. The Emperor Tiberius further consolidated the Praetorian Guard by constructing the great Praetorian Camp in Rome. This act so impressed the Guard, that the scorpion became a common symbol on Praetorian shields, armor, etc. (Tiberius' birthsign was scorpio). The primary role of the Praetorians was to act as a bodyguard to the emperor and serve as a police force in the city. However, they did take to the battlefield when the need arose."

I found this information here http://www.redrampant.com/roma/praetorian.html

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

[Praefectusclassis]

Did you see that Jenny wrote a long article on the guard some years ago. It's on Romanarmy.com: http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/content/view/67/75/

[Spedius]

Did you see that Jenny wrote a long article on the guard some years ago. It's on Romanarmy.com: http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/content/view/67/75/

Ave Jasper,

Thank you for reminding me.

Jenny has written a superb article, it's something for me to aspire towards.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

[L.Valerius Gaudentius]

I think that there is a book about the Praetorian Guard published by Osprey.

[Praefectusclassis]

[amazon]Boris Rankov, Guardians of the Roman Empire[/amazon]

[FAVENTIANVS]

http://www.cisalpina.net/

[Alexandr K]

The Praetorian Guard in the Political and Social Life of Julio-Claudian Rome (PhD thesis)

[JRSCline]

Thanks, Spedius. I should probably add some photos to the essay, and annotate it, which I didn't think to do at the time. If it was helpful to you, I'm glad.

Boris' book has some problems and suffers from a lack of footnotes (it is after all an Osprey volume) but it is one of the few accessible titles in print. The classic works by Passerini and Durry are hard to find (and not helpful if you don't read Italian/French).

If the mounted guard interests you, there is a recent work by Speidel, called Riding for Caesar. Very easy to find. Cf his sources very carefully though.

[Anonymous]

I know this topic is old, but I've been searching hard for some definitive information on a certain aspect of the Praetorian Guard, and I think this is the best thread to ask it in without creating a totally new one.

Anyway, my inquiry revolves around the numbers of men in each cohort and the number of cohorts themselves.

My initial research indicated there were originally nine cohorts (under Augustus) and there were 500 men in each, later increased to 1,000 each. However, the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed) has this to say on the topic:

"Augustus established a permanent force consisting of nine cohorts each containing 500 (or possibly 1000) men"

My hiccup is the "or possibly 1000" part, specifically the word "possibly". When does the increase in occur, or does it not?



Secondly:

"Also in Tiberius' reign, the guard was probably increased to twelve cohorts (AE 1978. 286)"

Again there is the word "probably", and the citation is for L'Annee Epigraphique, published in Revue Archeologique (1888) (sorry, there should be plenty of accent marks in there.)

I tend to want to trust the OCD, but I haven't read anything else confirming Tiberius' increase of the number of cohorts. Although, I haven't read anything denying this fact either. My theory is that perhaps they are referring to the 3 Urban Cohorts which were utilized in Rome, whose cohort number designations were 10-12, extending after the 9 Praetorian ones.


While I have your attention, I might as well ask a minor question as well.

When referring to Praetorians, do you capitalize the word? For example if I wrote, "and the two Praetorians fought each other to the death" do I capitalize the word, or no?
Is it like a title such as "centurion", where you only capitalize if it precedes a name, like, "look at that centurion over there, I think its Centurion Quintus" or some such?

[Alexandr K]

Hi

These are very difficult questions with no definitive answers...

Tacitus informs us that in AD 23 there were nine Praetorian cohorts in service (Tac. Ann. IV. 5). Cassius Dio (Cass. Dio LV. 24. 6), however, wrote that Augustus had 10000 praetorians organised into ten units (= cohorts). Moreover there's the inscription from Lecce dei Marsi that you already mentioned and that indicates the existence of at least an eleventh Praetorian cohort. Now these are the information we have. What to do with it...?

From other inscriptions from Tiberius' reign it appears that at that time the Urban cohorts were numbered X, XI and XII in a direct continuation of the nine Praetorian cohorts. Cassius Dio is in this case may be extrapolating the situation of his own times (the end of 2. and beginning of 3. century) on the Augustan period. But S. J. Bingham suggested that perhaps he isn't wrong and the tenth unit which he wrote about may be the speculatores, who were at that time organised into an independend unit and only later have been splitted into individual cohort. If this is the case, than it would make 9 Praetorian cohorts plus an unit of speculatores, which would seem to match with Tacitus. Now the inscription from Lecce dei Marsi is about a certain Aulus Virgius Marsus who served as a tribune in praetorio of Augustus and Tiberius:

...tr(ibuno) mil(itum) in praeto(rio) divi Aug(usti) et Ti(beri) Caesaris Aug(usti) cohort(ium) XI et IIII praetoriar(um)...

From this text we see that he was tribune of XIth and IIIIth Praetorian cohorts, which of course indicates that there were more than 9 cohorts at some time during Augustus' or Tiberius' reign. L. Keppie suggested a different amendment of this inscription, which would also allow for a different reading:

...tr(ibuno) mil(itum) in praeto(rio) divi Aug(usti) et Ti(beri) Caesaris Aug(usti) cohort(ium) XI et IIII praetori(ae)...

In this case we can read it so that Aulus Virgius Marsus was tribune in the XIth cohort (for that time perhaps without further name, but later to be called urbana) and in the IIIIth Praetorian cohort. Than it would be possible to stay with the nine cohorts of Tacitus. But these are just theories and it's certainly possible that there were more Praetorian cohorts in service before AD 23. It is possible that from the beginning there were 12 Praetorian cohorts, 3 of which later became the Urban cohorts (X, XI, XII), as some scholars believe. Or it is possible, that Tiberius increased the number of cohorts shortly after the year AD 23. We cannot be sure here.



The question about the strength of these cohorts is similarly difficult with different scholars prefering 500 or 1000 men. As mentioned above, Cassius Dio wrote 10000 men in 10 units, which would mean 1000 men in a cohort. Tacitus (Tac. Hist. 93) told us that when Vitellius came to power he disbanded the old Guard and created a new one with 16 cohorts, each 1000 men strong. Some scholars do not agree with these numbers and prefer 500 men for a cohort. According to them Cassius Dio is similarly wrong with the number of men in cohorts as with the number of cohorts, extrapolating from his own times. Tacitus allegedly writes about this affair, because he wants to emphasize the novelties of the new emperor. M. Durry made calculations from the laterculi praetorianum suggesting his 500 strong units, but his calculations have been quite forcibly questioned by D. L. Kennedy. The other argument of these scholars is the size of the Praetorian camp, which in comparison with camps on the limes would suggest a garrison of only some 4000-6000 men. But some minor archaeological excavation of castra praetoria showed that some of the buildings had more floors, that there were rooms inside the wall. This we cannot see in camps on limes. Moreover some of the buildings typical for permanent border camps were not needed in Rome (because of the near city facilities) – for example fabrica, valetudinarium, praetorium, principia, etc. and it is possible that some of them were missing in the castra praetoria. Therefore the Praetorian camp could have housed much more men than one would expect. B. Rankov suggests ca. 12000 men, S. J. Bingham up to 15000. Therefore I think there's no strong reason to deny the numbers given by Cassius Dio and Tacitus and I'm on the 1000 men/cohort side, although this can change if some other evidence appears.

Reference:

Durry, M., 1938. Les cohortes pretoriennes, Paris. (unfortunately I haven't read this one, I know only some excerpts)

Durry, M., 1954. Praetoriae Cohortes, RE XXII 2, 1607-1634.

Bingham, S.J., 1997. The Praetorian Guard in the Political and Social Life of Julio-Claudian Rome (PhD thesis), Ottawa.

Kennedy, D.L., 1978. Some Observations on the Praetorian Guard. Ancient Society, 9, 275-301.

Keppie, L.J.F., 1996. The Praetorian Guard before Sejanus. Athenaeum, 84, 101-124.

Rankov, B., 2001. The Praetorian Guard, Oxford.

Hope this helps a little bit

Greetings
Alexandr

[D B Campbell]

Thanks, Alexandr -- very ably and succinctly summarised! Definitely worth some "laudes".