While former centurions sometimes rose to command the Praetorians, the post could also be held by former generals, such as Vespasian’s son and successor, Titus. One of the most famously industrious commanders of the Guard was Quintus Marcius Turbo, Praetorian prefect during Hadrian’s reign, who always worked into the early hours of the morning. When, in AD 136, the emperor urged him to take life a little more easily, Turbo replied, paraphrasing Vespasian, that the prefect of the Guard should die on his feet. [Dio, LXIX, 18]
The Praetorian Guard provided a cohort to keep order at the circus on chariot-racing days and during public spectacles, at the amphitheater during spectacles, and at the theater during musical and dramatic performances. On one occasion during a riot at a theater in the capital in the first century, a Praetorian centurion and several guardsmen were killed and their tribune injured.
The Praetorian Guard operated the city prison, and carried out death sentences imposed by the emperor and Senate. A typical execution assignment took place in AD 66 when Nero sent a centurion and Praetorian detachment to northwest Italy to execute Marius Ostorius Scapula, who had won the Civic Crown in Britain as a young cavalry prefect twenty years before. He had been found guilty of conspiring to murder the emperor. As was the case with all men, and women, executed by the Praetorians, Ostorius’ head was exhibited at Rome, either in the Forum or at the Gemonian Stairs.
In AD 10, Augustus formed the CITY GUARD, or City Cohorts, to serve as Rome’s daytime policemen and city gate sentinels. City Guard troops, former slaves, were paid substantially less than Praetorians. Under Augustus there were nine Praetorian cohorts, each of 1,000 men commanded by a tribune, numbered 1 to 9, and three City Guard cohorts, numbered 10 to 12, also commanded by tribunes. Tiberius added a 13th City Guard cohort. The City Guard answered to the City Prefect, who was frequently a senator of high rank. Flavius Sabinus, brother of the later emperor Vespasian, was City Prefect for twelve years under Nero, and was so respected for the way he discharged his responsibilities that two of Nero’s immediate successors recalled him to the post.
Caligula added three more Praetorian cohorts. By Nero’s reign, there were fourteen Praetorian cohorts and four City Guard cohorts, the latter with 1,500 men each. The cohorts were numbered 1 to 18, with the last four being City Guard cohorts. One City Guard cohort was stationed at Lugdunum in Gaul to guard the imperial mint there.
After coming to power in AD 69, Vitellius disbanded the existing Praetorian and City Guard units and replaced them with 20,000 men from his Rhine legions. The sacked guardsmen joined the army of Vitellius’ rival Vespasian, and helped dethrone Vitellius. Vespasian’s new Praetorian and City Guard units consisted of 7,000 men in fourteen cohorts. By the reign of Alexander Severus, 150 years later, the Praetorian Guard numbered 10,000 men.
Centurions could be transferred to the Guard cohorts from the legions and promoted from within Guard ranks. The twelve-year enlistment period for members of the Praetorian Guard instituted by Mark Antony in 44 BC was increased to sixteen years by Augustus.
The Praetorian Guard served in Augustus’ Cantabrian War, one of Germanicus Caesar’s German campaigns, in Trajan’s Dacian Wars. and in third-century eastern campaigns. By AD 218, the segmented armor worn by the Praetorian Guard at the beginning of the second century, as seen on Trajan’s Column, had been replaced by scale-armor. Even this they cast off to fight for the short-lived emperor Macrinus, their former prefect, who thought they would be “lighter for battle” without their armor. In this battle, near Antioch in Syria, Macrinus’ unarmored Praetorians were defeated by the armored Syrian legions fighting for Elagabalus. [Dio, LXXIX, 37]
The COHORTES VIGILIS, literally “cohorts that stay awake”—called the Night Watch by latter-day authors—were formed by Augustus in AD 6. Commonly known as the Vigiles, they served as both a nighttime police force and fire brigade. Augustus had intended them as a temporary measure, but they proved so useful he retained them. Augustus’ Vigiles were freedmen. Later, they also came from other classes of society. They were paid from the public treasury. Augustus divided Rome into fourteen administrative regios or precincts, and each of the seven Vigile cohorts covered two regios and was quartered in barracks in one of their precincts. Like the City Guard, the Vigiles came under the command of the City Prefect.
Prior to the formation of the Vigiles, the wealthier inhabitants of Rome employed night watchmen to patrol their blocks, carrying bells to warn of fire. Rome’s Vigiles were also traffic police, for under a law of Julius Caesar most wheeled traffic could only use Rome’s streets at night. Hence imperial Rome’s reputation as the city which never slept. Vigiles never left the capital, and were inferior in quality and status to both Praetorian and City Guard troops. They nonetheless made the overthrow of Sejanus possible, and made a failed attempt to hold the Capitoline complex with Vespasian’s brother Sabinus in the last days of the reign of Vitellius.
Apart from the lionskin capes of their standard-bearers—as opposed to the bearskin capes of legionary standard-bearers—their different standards and shield emblem, and a slightly more rounded shield than the legionary shield, the Praetorians and City Guards could not be distinguished from legionaries.
The Praetorian Guard was reorganized by Septimius Severus at the start of his reign in AD 193. Cassius Dio, a senator at the time, scoffed that prior to Severus’ reforms “the Praetorians did nothing worthy of their name and of their promise, for they had learned to live delicately.” [Dio, LXXIV, 16] Previously, Praetorian recruits had come straight from civilian life. But because the Praetorians had murdered his predecessor Pertinax, Severus “ordered that any [Praetorian] vacancies should be filled from all the legions.” Dio said that Severus’ motive was “the idea that he should thus have guards with a better knowledge of the soldier’s duties,” because they had already undergone military training and service. This new practice, said Dio, made transfer to the Praetorian Guard “a kind of prize for those who proved brave in war.” [Dio, LXXV, 2]
When Diocletian became coemperor in AD 285, he disbanded the Praetorian and City Guards, replacing them as Rome’s guardians with two legions from the Balkans, with a total strength of 10,000 men who earned the same pay as other legionaries. Diocletian had taken the title Jove, and his coemperor Maximianus the title Hercules, and their two new city legions became the Jovia and the Herculiana. Both units took the eagle as their emblem, one with wings raised, the other with wings lowered.
Maxentius, emperor from AD 306, reformed the Praetorian Guard, sending the Jovia and Herculiana legions to the frontiers. Maxentius’ Praetorian Guard fought for him against his brother-in-law Constantine the Great at the AD 312 Battle of the Milvian Bridge just outside Rome. After winning the battle, Constantine abolished the Praetorian Guard; its surviving members were not permitted within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of Rome. Constantine left Rome without a dedicated military force; the Praetorian Guard was never reformed. Praetorian prefects, who in the past had wielded enormous power, continued to be appointed, but merely as financial administrators.
THE IMPERIAL SINGULARIAN HORSE
EQUITUM SINGULARIUM AUGUSTI
EMBLEM:
Scorpion.
HEADQUARTERS:
Castra Equitum Singularium, Rome.
FOUNDED:
AD 69 by Vitellius. First saw action for Vespasian, AD 70.
GRANTED AUGUSTI TITLE:
By Trajan.
XV. THE EMPERORS’ HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY
The imperial household cavalry, the mounted equivalent of the Praetorian Guard.
This elite unit served as the mounted equivalent of the Praetorian Guard from the first century to the fourth century. The original Equitum singularium, or Singularian Horse, was an elite auxiliary cavalry unit created in the summer of AD 69 by the emperor Vitellius to replace the Praetorian Horse when he disbanded Otho’s Praetorian Guard.
Hand-picked German cavalrymen, these inaugural Singularians surrendered to Vespasian’s forces i
n central Italy in December AD 69. The unit’s first service for Vespasian was in early AD 70, against Civilis’ rebels on the Rhine. Tacitus wrote that after Vespasian’s general Cerialis and his spearhead arrived on the Rhine, “they were joined by the Singularian Horse, which had been raised some time before by Vitellius and had afterward gone over to the side of Vespasian.” [Tac., H, IV, 70]
The first commander of the Singularian Horse was Briganticus, a Batavian and nephew of Civilis. Briganticus died while fighting his uncle’s forces on the Lower Rhine in the late summer of AD 70. Thirty years later, under Trajan, the unit gained the honorific Augusti, signifying that it served the emperor. The unit was thought to use a hexagonal, German-style shield bearing the motif of four scorpions. [Warry, WCW] The scorpion emblem possibly related to the Greek legend where a scorpion caused the horses of the Sun to bolt when the Sun’s chariot was being driven for a day by the inexperienced youth Phaeton.
In AD 70 the unit consisted of two wings, each of 500 men. Trajan increased the Singularians to 1,000 men. Septimius Severus doubled the unit again in AD 193 to 2,000 troopers. The Singularian Horse barracks and stables complex, the Castra equitum singularium, stood on the capital’s eastern outskirts, beyond the old city walls and below the Esquiline Hill. In republican times Roman horsemen had exercised in the Esquiline Fields. The Singularians’ AD 193 expansion saw them with two adjacent barracks, “old fort” and “new fort.”
The unit was disbanded in AD 312 by Constantine the Great, for siding with Maxentius and opposing him. Constantine also had the Singularian barracks leveled and the unit’s graveyard demolished.
XVI. THE IMPERIAL BODYGUARD
The German Guard and its successors
Confused with the separate Praetorian Guard by some modern authors, the Germani Corporis Custodes, literally the German Body Guard, served as the personal bodyguard of Rome’s first seven emperors. Variously called “the Bodyguard,” “the German Cohorts,” “the Imperial Guard” and “the German Guard” in classical and later historical texts, this was an elite infantry unit made up of hand-picked German auxiliaries. According to Josephus, it was a unit of legion strength. [Jos., JA, 19, 1, 15]
On their gravestones, several men of the German Guard referred to themselves as Caesaris Augusti corporis custos, to let the world know they had served as the emperor’s bodyguard, but the Augusti title, carried by the Singularian Horse from the second century, was never officially applied to the German Guard. [Speid., 1]
That the German guardsmen were primarily foot soldiers was made clear by Tacitus and Suetonius, speaking of their “cohorts,” a designation that only applied to infantry or equitata units. [Tac., H, III, 69; Suet., II, 49] Josephus wrote, “These Germans were Gaius’ [Caligula’s] guard, and carried the name of the country whence they were chosen, and composed the Celtic legion.” [Jos., JA, 19, 1, 15] Arrian also described Germans serving in the Roman army as “Celts,” in his case referring to men of the 1st Germanorum miliariae equitata cohort. [Arr., EAA, 2] Being the equivalent of a legion, like all legions the German Guard probably included a mounted squadron, explaining why the tombstone of a member of the unit accorded him the rank of decurion.
Suetonius says that Augustus only allowed three cohorts of the German Guard to be on duty at Rome at any one time; the other cohorts, he said, were quartered on rotation in towns near Rome. [Suet., II, 49] In AD 69, the German Guard was using the Hall of Liberty as their quarters at Rome. [Tac., H, I, 31] Previously, they had used a fort west of the Tiber, just inside the Servian Wall, which may have been demolished by Galba in AD 68. [Speid., 6, 7] German Guard troops were not Roman citizens. They wore breeches, were tall, muscular, and bearded, and their armaments were the long German spear, a dagger, and a long sword with a blunt, rounded end. Their shield was large, flat and oval. They were commanded by an officer of prefect rank; Caligula’s German Guard prefect was a former gladiator.
In AD 41, men of the German Guard hailed Claudius emperor after the assassination of Caligula, and this led to Claudius taking the throne. During the war of succession, the German Guard was dissolved by Galba but reformed by Otho, and was with Otho at Brixium when he committed suicide. Serving Vitellius, three cohorts of the German Guard stormed and burned the Capitol in December AD 69, executing Vespasian’s brother Sabinus, before fighting to the death in the December 20 Battle for Rome. Vespasian abolished the German Guard, making the Praetorians his bodyguard.
Later emperors created a variety of bodyguard units. In c. AD 350, the personal bodyguard of Constantius II was provided by the Protectores Domestici, or Household Protectors. The future historian Ammianus Marcellinus served as a junior officer with this unit, which was based at Mediolanum (Milan) in Italy, Constantius’ imperial capital.
A silver plate of AD 388 found at Badojoz in Spain depicts the Spanish-born emperor Theodosius I with his heirs Valentian II and Ariadius, plus a bodyguard from two different units. The tall, clean-shaven spearmen of the bodyguard are shown carrying very large oval shields and lances, and wearing boots and neck torques. One of the two shield designs of the soldiers of the bodyguard appears on the Notitia Dignitatum thirty years later, and is of the Lanciarii Galliciani Honoriani, or the Honorary Gallaecian Lancers, a Spanish unit which was attached to the central command of the Master of Foot.
According to the Notitia Dignitatum, by early in the fifth century the imperial bodyguards of both the emperors of the east and west were the Domestici Pedites and Domestici Equites, the Household Foot and Household Cavalry.
XVII. LEGIONS OF THE LATE EMPIRE
Numerous new legions were raised by various emperors from the third century. Some of these were split off from existing legions, others were new creations and took the names of the emperors who founded them. Little is known about any of these Late Empire units.
The emperor Diocletian, during his reign (AD 285–305), significantly reorganized the Roman military and increased the pay of the troops in an attempt to keep pace with the galloping inflation of the era. Successor Constantine the Great took Diocletian’s reforms even further, and by the end of the fourth century the Roman army was made up, on paper at least, of 132 legions and hundreds of auxiliary and allied numeri units. [Gibb., XVII]
ROMAN LEGIONARY AD 75
The legions listed in the Notitia Dignitatum at the end of the fourth century were Palatine and Comitatense legions. The former, just two dozen of them, were the elite legions, whose men were paid more than other legionaries and enjoyed other privileges. In the early years of Constantine’s reign these legions, slimmed down from the size they had enjoyed even during Diocletian’s reign, were no longer housed in their own permanent camps throughout the empire. Withdrawn from the frontiers, they were billeted in the major cities of the provinces, at those cities’ expense, and on unfriendly terms with the local populations, becoming idle and undisciplined. This “innovation,” according to Gibbon, “prepared the ruin of the empire.” [Ibid.]
Another innovation during the reign of Constantine was also, in the opinion of Gibbon, to spell the doom of the Roman military. “The introduction of barbarians into the Roman armies became every day more universal,” he wrote. Constantine, late in his reign, allowed 300,000 Sarmatians to settle in Pannonia, Thrace, Macedonia, and even in Italy. These new settlers furnished recruits for the Roman army who would join Goths, Scythians, and Germans who not long before had been at war with Rome. These men “were enrolled not only in the auxiliaries of their respective nations, but in the legions themselves, and among the most distinguished of the Palatine troops.” [Gibb., XVII]
The majority of the thirty legions of Trajan’s day still existed in around AD 400, but as Comitatense legions and border guard units, sometimes having been broken up into several smaller units. In this way, the 6th Victrix was, until Stilicho withdrew it for service in Italy in AD 401–402, still stationed in northern Britain; the 2nd Traina and 13th Gemina were stationed in Egypt; and the 3rd Gallica in Phoenicia. All would be e
ither swallowed up in barbarian invasions or find their way into the Byzantine army.
XVIII. CAVALRY
Each legion had its own cavalry squadron of 128 mounted legionaries, used for scouting and courier work. All other cavalry units in the Roman army were composed of auxiliaries.
The smallest cavalry unit was the decuria, originally of ten, later of eight troopers. The largest cavalry unit was the ala, or wing, so named because the cavalry was allocated to the wings of a battle line. The ala quingenaria, of 512 men, consisted of sixteen turmae, or troops, of 32 men, with each turma made up of four decuriae. The turmae were divided over four squadrons of 128 men. [Vege., DRM, II] Larger alae miliaria consisted of twenty-four turmae, with a total of 768 officers and men. Early imperial legions always had two cavalry alae associated with them: “He picked up the other two legions and the four wings of horse attached to them and marched to Ptolemais,” wrote Josephus, of the governor of Syria in 4 BC. [Jos., JW, II, 5.1]
Roman cavalry horses were not shod, and their riders did not use stirrups. The Roman cavalry saddle, with two horns front and back, made for a remarkably stable riding and throwing platform. Cavalrymen wore a helmet, mail vest, and breeches.
The principal cavalry weapon was a light spear, the lancea, which could be thrown or thrust. Roman cavalry also used smaller javelins, or darts, which were thrown overarm and were kept in a quiver attached to the saddle, with as many as twenty-four per quiver. The cavalryman’s sword, the spatha, was longer than that of the infantryman. His shield was flat, and oval.
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