The preatorians were the imperial guard to protect Rome and the emperor. They were a crack unit whose members wore a special uniform and received double pay, in addition to the bribes which they came to be offered in the guise of bonuses for their allegiance.
Traditional teaching is that the preatorians were crack soldiers, chosen for their fighting ability. There are however those who claims that the Preatorian guard, rather than being a body of select men, were merely an army drawn from Italy, rather than from the provinces.
When the emperor wen on campaign, the imperial guard went with him
The institution of the cohors preatoria had originaly been that of a group of men acting as bodyguards to a general, but Augustus - most likely drawing on the experience of Julius Caesar's murder - created a large personal army.
Initially, the Preatorian guard consisted of nine cohorts of 500 men each. This was increases by emperor Caligula to twelve cohorts. Vitelliius again increased their number to sixteen cohorts. Bespasian therafter reduced their number again to nine cohorts and Domition increses them to ten cohorts of 500 men. A cohort was commanded by a tribune, together with two equestrains.
The guard inself was commanded by the preatorian prefects, who were equestrains rather than of senatorial rank. A sign of the exclusion of the mighty senate from certain key positions by the emperor.
Soldiers of the preatorain guard served only for sixteen years, a term much shorted that the service of an ordinary legionary. But after their sixteen year term they became so called evocati, which ment that they were held back from discharge. Their service in the preatorains meant they either went on to perform specialist military duties or it simply qualified them either for service as centurions. These centurionates would usually be taken up in preatorian guard itself or in the city cohorts and the vigiles. Though some also took commands as centurions in the regular legion. |
