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The Praetorians
(cohors praetoria) 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 praetorians were crack soldiers, chosen for
their fighting ability. There are however those who claim that the Praetorian
guard, rather than being a body of select men, were merely an army drawn from
Italy, rather than from the provinces.)
When the emperor went on campaign, the imperial guard went with him.
The institution of the cohors praetoria had originally 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 Praetorian guard consisted of nine cohorts of 500 men each. This
was increased by emperor Caligula to twelve cohorts. Vitellius again increased
their number to sixteen cohorts. Vespasian therafter reduced their number again
to nine cohorts and Domitian increased them to ten cohorts of 500 men. A cohort
was commmanded by a tribune, together with two equestrians.
The guard itself was commanded by the praetorian prefects, who were equestrians
rather than of senatorial rank. A sign of the exclusion of the mighty senate
from certain key positions by the emperor.
Soldiers of the praetorian guard served only for sixteen years, a term much
shorter 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 praetorians 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
praetorian guard itself or in the city cohorts and the vigiles. Though
some also took commands as centurions in the regular legion.
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