Praetorian guard

In the Roman Antiquity, the Praetorian guard was a unit of the Roman Armée made up soldiers of elite initially recruited in Italy. These units draw their origin from the small group of men whose the known republican magistrates under the name of praetors and their name were surrounded of the camp of the Roman legions where the tent of the commander of the legion was drawn up, the Prétoire (Latin: prætorium ), when they left to shift. It is one of the military units most famous of the Roman history.

Under the Roman Republic

During the Roman République there does not exist permanent guard in charge of the protection of the general officers. But certain officers chose to surround themselves by a guard of soldiers to ensure their safety, giving rise to the first Praetorian guards . In the event of battle, they intervene like an ultimate reserve. The Consul S were usually protected by the Licteur S, which also settled close to their tents to the army.

With the seat of Numance, Scipion Émilien had thus constituted a troop of five hundred men for his personal protection, the exits of besieged being sometimes very dangerous. This use was spread then, the Roman generals occupying this function for increasingly long periods. This guard was then called cohors prætoria .

Under the Empire

The Praetorian ones constitute the close guard of the emperor, and part of the garrison of Rome. They are directed, according to the times, by one, two, or four Préfet of the court and obviously by the Empereur itself. Until Vespasien, the prefect of the Court is always a knight, and this function is highest of the equestrian Ordre.

They draw several advantages from their proximity with the emperor: the Praetorian ones are the only ones with being allowed out of weapons in the crowned enclosure of Rome - the Pomœrium -; their time of obligatory service is shorter (16 years instead of 25), and their balance is higher than that of a legionary. Under Néron, balances it of Praetorian was three times and half that of a legionary, increased premiums of Donativum , granted by the new emperors. It was a premium equivalent to several years of balance, renewed at the time of the significant events of the empire, or concerning the imperial family: birthdays, births, marriages. Large distributions of money and food renewed and rewarded fidelity for Praetorian after the failure for each particularly serious plot (such that of Messaline against Claude in 48 or of Pison against Néron in 65). Feared and dreaded of the population and the Senate, the Praetorian ones did not enjoy in Rome any sympathy. Worms famous of Juvénal evokes the nail which in the foot the sandal of Praetorian in a hurry would have left him… The name of " prétorien" preserve in French a pejorative direction, heritage of the often turbid role of the ancient Court.

Prefect of the court

Organization

Troops of infantry

Gradually, with the crisis of the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire, the abstract detachment became permanent and its manpower increased to constitute the Praetorian guard such as one knows it. Auguste created 9 troop S (that is to say 4500 men, the equivalent of a legion) to maintain peace in Italy, three were stationed with Rome, the others in the vicinity. Auguste conceives them like units of infantry of 500 men each one. (troop quingénaire)

Of 2 after J. - C. until 27, there were two prefects of the court, then only one under Tibère, the guard having entirely installed its districts inside the City. The troop of service to the palate takes her word of the emperor and not of the prefect of the court. Their camp was located on the mount Quirinal since Tibère, out of Rome. It is with Séjan, prefect of the court and favorite of the Tibère emperor, who the meeting of the urban Cohortes and the nine Praetorian ones is due hitherto dispersed in Italy in only one and vast camp located beyond the wall servienne, on the plate of Esquilies, the Castra Praetoria , with the doors of Rome from 26. Séjan found that housing Downtown, which had been theirs hitherto, softened them; it was not to be completely wrong because in the various wars between applicants with the Empire, they are rather regularly beaten by the legions of the borders, certainly more aguerries; they almost always take party for the emperor installed in Rome against the arriving applicant of province. Until Tibère, to enter the Praetorian troops, it is necessary to be born in the Latium, in Ombrie or Étrurie, with the rigor in some old colony.

Under Caligula, between 37 and 41, the Praetorian troops pass from 9 to 12. By fear and demagogy towards the Praetorian troops, Vitellius recruits and the troops pass 16, that is to say 16 000 men and those they become milliary. Vespasien, always wise, and careful, brings back manpower of each unit to five hundred men and preserves only nine troops. Domitien creates of it a tenth and these figures do not change any more.

At the beginning of the 2nd century, one still finds 89 there; % of Italians. Under Septime Sévère recruitment evolves/moves to authorize the inclusion of legionaries of the Roman armies, like those of the army of the Danube, very aguerris. Septime Sévère puts at it its partisans made with him to Rome, the Praetorian ones having remained faithful to its competitors.

Cavalry

As of its creation, the guard includes/understands, like a legion, a detachment of cavalry, the equities singulares Augusti , charged to escort the emperor during his displacements or during the military campaigns. These riders are mainly the provincial selected ones to be particularly reliable, carrying the costume of their people of origin and equipped with their own weapons. Trajan increases its manpower, opens recruitment with the Roman citizens and in fact a permanent unit of the Praetorian guard. Its manpower vary between that of a Ala quingenaria, that is to say 512 riders divided into 16 Turme S. They are ordered by a powerful orator. Severe double its manpower for giving him same manpower as the other troops.

It is confined in Lateran.

Disappearance

At the time of the battle of the Bridge Milvius (October 28th, 312), the Praetorian guard, which belongs to the army of Maxence, is almost destroyed: it drowns with Maxence and much others while falling into the Tiber. Rather than to reconstitute it with its own soldiers, Constantin I {{er}} prefers to thus dissolve the Praetorian Guard after its accession with the capacity, putting fine at what passed for one of the independent sources of instability of the mode; perhaps excessive reputation because, out of the crises of 68-69 and 192, it remained faithful most of the time to the emperor in place against the car-proclaimed usurpers. It was able to him also to remove Rome from unbearable emperors like Héliogabale, or simply not to defend them at the decisive moment.

Military role

Political role

The troops intervened on several occasions in the fights for the imperial succession. In 41, led to the prætoria castrated since the Palatine one, Claude is there the first emperor proclaimed by the Praetorian ones, and the first to be promised to them in exchange a Donativum (that in January 41).

With died of Néron, into 68-69, they support Galba, an austere character and traditionalist, because their prefect their promised a money large sum. But when Bent refuses to pay them the sum due because, he, “he say was accustomed to recruiting soldiers and not buying them”, the Praetorian ones give up it. they proclaimed emperor Othon, on the forum and cut the throat of at the same place the old emperor Galba and his designated successor, the young person Pison (January 15th, 69). After the defeat and the suicide of Othon, they follow the winner, another néronien, Vitellius, which they however fought before.

At the time of the assassination of Domitien in 96, they required new emperor Nerva the punishment of the culprits; in front of their threat to resort to violence, this last had to yield to them in spite of him, and the tyrannicides were put at death. In year 193, after the assassinations of Convenient and Pertinax, the Praetorian ones reflect the empire with the biddings literally: it was the largest payer, the senator Didius Julianus, who carried the batch and was proclaimed emperor, for a short reign besides.

Deprived of clean troops, the Senate did not have each time not other solution only to be inclined in front of the choice of Praetorian, like that of the legions. The new emperor was always acclaimed by the Praetorian ones before being ratified by the Senate and the legions of the provinces. That which refused or neglected to pour the consistent donativum was extremely likely to pay it its life, as Galba or Pertinax. The founder of the dynasty antonine, Nerva, calmed the reserves of Praetorian only at the price of a particularly important Donativum.

See too

Internal bonds

Cohors amicorum
Armed Roman

External bonds

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