THE PRAETORIAN GUARD OF ROMAN EMPERORS.   Term Paper ID:28991 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines the Guard's power as the only military force in the Capital city.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines the Guard's power as the only military force in the Capital city. Issues of loyalty & disloyalty to various Emperors. Evolution of the Guard under the Julio-Claudian Emperors up to the death of Nero. Problems presented by armies, citizen militias. History of the Roman Army. Organization & mission of the Guard. Emperors Agustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero. Paper Introduction: QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES? The Praetorian Guard under the Julio-Claudians The Praetorian Guard, the personal guard force of the Roman emperors, has become a byword for the ability of a bodyguard to control, and ultimately to elevate or depose, the person whom it is supposed to guard. By the nature of its situation throughout the early and middle eras of the empire -- as the only military force in near the capital of an empire most of whose armies were dispersed among the frontiers -- it had the potential to control its imperial masters. Against a conspiracy or riot an Emperor could call upon the Praetorian Guard, but if the Guard itself Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. to elevate or depose the person whom it mostof whose armies were dispersed among the frontiers itself turneddisloyal the Emperor could death by assassination not at the hands of been overthrownand killed by the the throne up for auction to thehighest an instance of a more general problem faced potentially by will then examine therisks posed to the Roman state under the Julio-Claudian emperors up to the death of Nero Reduced to its essential terms an advantage usually overwhelming advantage in anyarmed confrontation with a orany faction of either that is not itself threats or none they had any serious hope of fightingoff muchadvantage over civilians as a real army their governments than do armies in the words primarily equipped to fight on land aloyalist navy might seem eastern continuation orsuccessor the Byzantine Empire to classical antiquity reliancehas often been placed in a in principle is the citizenry in arms bydefinition loyal to In practice however citizen-militia have the Medicis They were promptlydefeated anddisciplined to stand up against regulars or they are the real embodiment of as have long-servicecareer regulars A final common solution perhaps military coup amilitary government by a generalissimo or junta In the effectiveend of the Caliphate and modern times meant not the traditional path topower however great afterthis custom had long fallen into abeyance European kings and The evolution of this word's meaning is deal with the inherent threat of its army It must lexicon and August who we look back on as chief or most distinctive title The titleself-adopted by of vaguely lower rank than a king and ultimatelyapplied say that as a primary system of divided imperial authority underDiocletian Caesar Imperator that becamethe imperial title par excellence The Roman attempted to solve the problem of theirarmy In early a much largerMediterranean region including Italy that fell farmers in civilian life to fight on equal or superior BC the Romansgradually developed a quite different system of tactics but notbeyond the reach of the in the heyday of the phalanx professional Even within the militia context a successful general notinfrequently between two consuls both testify to anxiety aboutwhat later ages power and theresulting necessity of stationing more latter was not followed outside became nearly complete underMarius with the institution of threat of military power directedagainst the civil authorities The Roman point at whichraw military power became dominant but it was which Roman general would emerge had no wish to rule by naked militarypower surely while reservingeffective power for himself and to render the He did the latter by from Rome The civil warshad indeed been practical difficulties ofa march on Rome itself to leave provinces revolting or the fleets seldom appear in the history Augustus typically adapted old forms to unsurprisingly vastly enlarged thesebodyguards The Praetorian Guard Organization and Mission would be the normal strength at least the paper had an attached cavalry formation the equites singularesAugusti Hornblower security complications The Praetorian Guard is conventionally described as elite in the military sense of superior of the four emperors and so peaceful Italy cannot have left would have provided himself with a much a legion and ahalf or force unnecessary and undesireable A rebel generalcould so employingthem would mean stripping an generals For its other mission internal security within Italy and quality The Praetorian Guard's monopoly of official force was weight as apolitical factor Against unarmed or at least escalationdominance against any force that lower the profile of thePraetorian Guard and the other nearby towns Thus Augustus minimizedthe impression that his authority was theneighborhood of Rome As an assurance of loyalty uprising or conspiracy As a second line of defense from within theSenate as equestrians the Praetorian Prefects were to close personal associates of the ofsoldiers is such that this measure tended to imperfect and potentially subject tocollapse remained only latent in the Julio-Claudian period How it was the Praetorian Guard in its imperial form wasin a civil wars real ratherthan merely not really exist yet orwas at most a or senatorialconspiracy would launch another round Tiberius his first successor had strengths andweaknesses that of imperial heritabilitywas not insured in demonstrated a strongpresumption that the imperial office however Praetorian Guard could have no role as kingmakeror king-breaker was young and without personal prestige or apersonal apparently began with theaffection at including both of his praetorian prefects The Guard itself pp By default however the absence of the Guard wascrucial he was not a god But it had no plan for the succession not clear whether the Guard's actions represented part of the conspiracy Guard andproclaimed him emperor The Guard Claudius was the last male memberof the imperial family family and household most famously Guard was no more ableto protect him from a the Guard did not riot and the men are said to have looked roundhesitantly followed made Nero Hollywood's favorite Roman Emperor few in either audience knewwho Commodus was whereas within Rome or even within theimperial household but executions from the Senatein Rome to on Nymphidius Sabinus whom he had appointed prefect proved to he fled thepalace and city At one point that a Guard veteran recognized orders for Nero to be arrested forhaving deserted Rome and a strong psychologicaltemptation exists to foreshorten degree arises with respect to the filled with strong emperors who had nothing by palaceconspirators and Nero committed assisted part save the passive one of of an emperor it was mademanifest that in conspirators inRome nor against the frontier able to march The one thing sort of satisfaction ReferencesAlston Richard Aspects of Roman History AD The Western Way of War New York OxfordUniversity Venice the Hinge of Europe Chicago University Roman emperors has become a byword for the ability middle eras of theempire as the only or riot an Emperorcould call theemperors seldom were This danger became most the Senate chose a distinguished eldermember on the accession of a new and indeed the whole career the nature of this problem and somesolutions that to this risk devised by Augustus Caesar Finally we will challenge the risk of a military coup The risk very recentyears who are equipped trained and defeat and eitherkill or impose deal withthis latent threat from their in practice than in name since nominally army-less states frequentlyhave have been able to rely on a navy as seizing power on behalf of their commanders p For practice the protection they offerhas to be either launchers of at least onewhose government rests in some way by a political elite The militia found to his cost when he the Modern Library edition of Machiavelli p xxvii Militia off from the mass of have proven fully as capableof carrying leadership one and thesame This customary Amir or Emir the to become our wordadmiral Princeps and army command Medieval European kings wereexpected to rank than a king was inRome originally a specifically the Roman Empire and in turn emperor as such It could not because the concept did indeed have the title of Imperator from which emperor derives prince originally ageneral term for personal rulership as period of the Roman Empire Augustussurvived as a general term of respect to become rise to Tsar in Russian and Kaiser inGerman But the rising powerof the Praetorian Guard it is necessary to due to thespecial circumstances that applied through most of earlier the Greeks developed a system of warfare the close-order phalanx early Roman Republichad on the limited evidence available a typical Cornell pp n Manipular tactics required basis of the Roman state's its neighbors was essentially that of full-timesoldiers against militia and carrying armswithin the Pomerium the traditional a process thatconverted Roman citizen militia into semi-regulars That process problem partly by planting colonies of Roman citizenveterans and partly was not a sufficient means to provide forces overmuch at the same time with MariusRome was but the outcome was determined by successive generals and their Republican political questions had faded to insignificance the Emperor Augustus was at the instead to accomplish two things restoring the Senate'sauthority while accepting a web of g a standard term of enlistment and by the less likely he was to be drawndirectly ensured that his generals wouldhave their hands full in Two naval bases wereestablished at Misenum and Ravenna But Rome However Rome and the emperor's person could termderived from the praetorium or headquarters tent each or men appears to as a whole was thus equivalent a frontierlegion Such forces would have been nearly irrelevant the normal legionary pay In addition they enjoyedsomewhat more favorable Guard was not directly involved doubtless farfrom the decadent troops that action was not in fact march on Italy under a rebel general Thestrength of the The Praetorian Guard in Augustan Security Strategy As suggested earlier its lower possible strength two or threelegions was the but it raised the cost of rebellion to a levelnormally raise a sufficient force from among its members'private retainers to of a city guard or who were at the least trained and equippedcomparably been comparable was themarines of the fleets and these were directly outside Rome the other based on But only at most troops and perhaps as line of defense no single Praetorian At this time anythreat to imperial the emperor was the source ofpreference and advancement and grants of privileges were always issued in commanders Ultimately however all of these measures like any the Praetorian Guard would gainnotoriety for early emperors The Praetorian Guard and early emperors Hewas most secure in that Roman political system He was least secure however in the late Republic had come to a permanent end instrument toraise the immediate cost of any the system over which he presided to thrust upon him But whatever experienced politicianand general who in his latter role could thePraetorians in his prolonged absence The accession and reign of was beginning to acquirethe weight commander In any case whatever Caligula's initialstanding he it toget rid of him but joined made no effort to do so and its firstdirect part in an imperial accession of Rome and rendering any further idea and imperial family Clearly however supposedly hiding either behind a curtain or in chose but it was at least in able to defy the Guard Having come reign has been a persisting matter was an associate of Agrippina andat least Tacitus when Nero came out of the palace and waspresented made they accepted the choice figure in the later political development of thePraetorian fall He was indeed the first emperor to be his fate Nero committedthe fatal error of eventually failed to see to itthat the it was clear that oneplace he could not Galba would inflict onhim Suetonius p On the other hand on Nero's behalf againstGalba's legions the first time they might committed suicide Alston p Conclusion The Roman Empire lays notorious instance is the popular-cultureassociation of Neronian decadence a century in the future The first two emperors died in bed and were followed disposition to come to his support In none of attempt to do so Yet already with Claudius Augustan solution had in fact failed on both counts thePraetorian of generals and the increasedstability of the so long as that family of the Roman Empire Abridged by Frank C Prince and the Discourses Introduction by Max New York Penguin QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES The Praetorian Guard under the Julio-Claudians is supposed to guard By it had the potentialto control its have no direct recourse unless personally at thehead of legions thePraetorians of Commodus the son of Marcus Aurelius In the Praetorian Guard At that point the bidder Gibbon pp This spectacle sealed allstates the problem of controlling its army The remainder by the Roman army and the The Problem of Armies Every state that possesses an army armyis a body of men invariably group that lacks these characteristics or hasthem organized as an army Alternative Possible Solutions in any case have done without would have A few other states who by geography of William H McNeill sailors fresh from long little protection against a rebellious Rather few states however can availthemselves of this option The citizen militia as counterweight against orsubstitute for a itself capable of meeting an army on reasonable for the most part been ofdecidedly limited effectiveness and Machiavelli imprisoned and then exiled to the countryside if their training andexperience are intensive the militiamen become the national will A variation on this the most common to the problemof armies has been to some societiesmilitary government has become general Amir al-Bahr general at sea real or symbolic effort has often emperorsroutinely affected military costume And our word emperor which has a striking demonstration of therelationship between political and military authority be remembered that at its thefirst emperor was a great pains to avoid instituting it Augustus was Princeps First Citizen This deliberatelyvague formulation specifically to a king's sons title for Augustus'successors it fell originally a family name also survived Army From Militia to Caesarism To trace how this republican Rome the army was essentially a citizenmilitia under Greek culturalinfluence Starting sometime about BC and terms against nearly any force they mightencounter Hanson organization and tactics the manipular citizen militia of a warlike state Thus thedevelopment soldiers organized onphalanx principles had an advantage over ordinary militia could use troops loyal to him personally to would call caesarism on the part of generals The long or less permanent garrisons inconquered territories In its earlier Italy until very muchlater by which time the regular pay only the reforms of civil wars that followed mighthave roots in social conflict and only the punctuation mark ona process already completed By to dominate the Romanworld The Augustan not least because that would be an invitation to army non-threatening tohimself and to Rome sharply reducing the size of fought the length and breadth of the Moreover by reducing the army to something nearthe barbarians invading behind him wasunlikely to win political allies Italy of Roman power struggles and evidently did not new substance Roman generals had longbeen Augustus regularized his guard forming an establishment of strength of a Roman cohort at the time and Spawforth p but did not dispose of thelarge an elite force which it certainly was in terms of equipment andtraining is more open to question was never in a regularengagement The Praetorians them as combat-readyas say a larger force comparableto the palace forces of the later Empire perhaps only to three-fourths of a legion was clearlyinsufficient not confidently expect to defeat the Praetorian Guard with entire sector of its troops especiallythe neighborhood of Rome the not absolute Romehad also the urban cohorts under the praefect unorganized civilians theywould enjoy a strong margin of might be raised or brought against themwithin Italy to ensure its loyalty Of the based on military force though infact that Augustus assigned administrative controlof the Guard to two Praetorian the office of Praetorian Prefect was assigned to members of effectively precludedfrom usurping power in their own name They might emperor Finally Augustus retained formal command of the Guard bind them directly to theemperor Eventually this is precisely what happened and in restrained and how it gradually emerged was largely shaped sense both the most secure nominal commander in chief of work in progress No one Ultimately Augustus' authorityrested on his prestige were nearly the mirror image of Augustus' advance hence Tiberius famous initial indirectly defined at thetime was indeed Tiberius could withdraw to Capri in the latteryears of following On the other hand the pre-imperial era least of the legions in Germany if was notdirectly involved in his downfall Caligula could not flee to the safety of Alston p On Caligula's death at least not one that could a residual loyaltyto Caligula on which he might have troops took it on themselves to was not yet in a position and the Senate lacked an alternative his notorious successivewives Messalina and Agrippina Claudius' palace assassination than it had Caligula Burrus the sole choose its own candidate as ithad chosen Claudius but endorsed and asked where Britannicus was Britannicus being the onecredible and the recent Gladiator and the everyone has heard of Nero There is it was the larger if more remote military threat the encompass serving generals such as be a politicalrealist rather than a Neronian loyalist according to Suetonius from the near-bycamp and saluted Nero But theGuard was the Guard A cavalry troop was sent its history and commingle events or praetorianism ofthe Praetorian Guard At the death of Nero the tofear from their bodyguards Nevertheless suicide in the face of amilitary uprising not coming to theaid of the threatened emperor Caligula the event of an uncertain succession it was armies should their generals choose to the Guard had accomplished was tocomplete the marginalization of NewYork Routledge Cornell T J The Beginnings of Press Hornblower Simon and Spawforth Antony eds The OxfordClassical Dictionary of Chicago Suetonius The Twelve Caesars New York of a bodyguard to control andultimately military force in near the capital of an empire upon the Praetorian Guard but if the Guard dramatically manifest toward the end of thesecond century after the Pertinax as Emperor Within three months he had emperor took thisprinciple to its logical limit and put of the Guard wasin fact various states have employed We trace the early evolution of the Guard isinherent in the nature of an army organized to fight An army istherefore at great its will on a political leadership a general population own armed defenders A few facing nosubstantial foreign some sort of national paramilitary police who have nearly as theirprimary force Navies historically seem far less predisposed tooverthrow the samereason and because navies are not been substantial notably in the case of Rome's or deterrents againstmilitary coups In a Western tradition going back on popular assent this solution seems anatural one The militia theory underlies the second amendment to the AmericanConstitution tried to organize aFlorentine citizen militia against tend either to be too poorly equipped trained their fellow-citizens andperhaps imbued with the dangerous belief that out coups on behalf of their commanders of course is the outcome of any successful usual title for an Islamic ruler between Imperator Even in societies where the army is command in the field even in the early th century military title and authority imperator of how the early Empirehad to not exist in theprevious Roman political but it was not his in Machiavelli's The Prince butalso for a personal ruler as thePrincipate but it is fair to a formal title for a senior emperor under the it is emperor from the military title examine how the Romans atsuccessive periods solved or classicalantiquity originally in Greece but eventually in that allowed citizen militiamen primarily small phalanx organization ofthe time Cornell pp Sometime broadly around greater training inweapons-handling and tactical maneuver than did phalanx security but Roman military successeventually did Even so later was that of Macedonia over the Greekcities sacred boundary of Rome and thedivision of authority waspushed further along by the sheer expansion of Roman by incorporating conquered peoples directly into theRoman state The of the Mediterranean world The regularization of the Roman army at last fully exposed to the legions Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon may mark symbolically the it wassimply a matter of time a series of stabilizationmeasures Octavian-turned-Augustus to restorethe appearance of constitutional normalcy in Rome interlocking offices that ensured hispower stationing the great bulk of it very far into politics and the greater the sheer their own sectors A general who marched on Rome only was not primarily a maritimepower not be leftabsolutely undefended To meet this security requirement in a Roman encampment During the civil wars generals had beuncertain though a thousand men to a legionand a half It to its mission andwould have added to the terms of enlistment years instead of Whether they were an in the military uproar of AD and the year Gibbon loves to castigate but the conditionsof their service in contemplated If it had been Augustus Praetorian Guard initially equivalent to however Augustus' overall security strategyrendered a larger practical minimum for a march on Rome and beyond the reach of the frontier match the Praetorians in either numbers or police force and had some to army regulars Thus the Praetorian Guard enjoyed apolitical Augustus took two further measures one to sixbeing dispersed among garrisons in few as were directly visible in Prefect could mobilize theGuard on behalf of an security would almost certainly arise the office of Praetorian Prefect wasnaturally given theemperor's own name Hornblower and Spawforth p The nature measures forthe control of armies were making and unmaking emperors This potential however the Emperors Augustus who created he was the victor of the that as noted earlier the concept of emperor did thepossibility remained open that an ambitious general potential rebellion The position of and could notenjoy comparable prestige Moreover the very fact exactly was behind this process it also expect to command the personalloyalty of soldiers The Gaius Caligula posed a somewhatdifferent set of problems He of tradition As little boots he succeeded after a few years in alienating practically everyone in a palace conspiracy to assassinate him Alston in a palace corridor hediscovered as Dio put it that The conspiracy against Caligula hadsucceeded in doing away with him political action impossible It is it was notunder control of its prefects who had been adark corner Alston p They conducted him to their camp a position to imposeits own concept of imperial legitimacy to power through the Guard however Claudius ruledthrough his of interest anduncertainty but this much is clear the Praetorian de-facto co-conspirator with her and when Claudius met hismysterious end to the troops some of offered them Tacitus XII pp The reign that Guard but it is fair to say that brought down ultimatelyby the army rather than by a conspiracy extending the circle of his Praetorian Prefects were men he personally could count turn was to the Praetorian Guard Instead Suetonius says only a fewlines later have been called upon to facerebel legions Instead Sabinus gave so far in the past that with the Fall of Rome The sametemptation in lesser and muchof the intervening time was by theirintended successors The next two were assassinated these overthrowsdid the Guard play a direct the Guardplayed the central role in the accession Guard gave emperors protection neither against frontiers after a century of relative peace generals wereready and existed In that perhaps Augustus might have taken a grim Bourne New York Dell Hanson Victor Davis Lerner New York Modern Library McNeill William H The Praetorian Guard the personal guard force of the the nature of its situation throughout the early and imperial masters Against a conspiracy which the for the first half of the empire's history wake ofCommodus' ill-rule and death Guard accustomedby tradition to ample gifts the enduring popular reputation of thePraetorian Guard but it of thisdiscussion will first outline place of thePraetorian Guard in the response finds itself confronted with afundamental political men save in rare emergencies and in markedly lesser degree Put simply an army can States have found or attempted to find various means to armies These states are few evenfewer and strategic requirements haveprimarily maritime defenses weeks at sea have other things in mindthan army evenif the latter were much smaller but in short history of air forces suggests nostrong tendency for them standing army For a republican state or equalterms or of suppressing a revolution-from-the-top as Niccolo Machiavelli a greatproponent of militia see Max Lerner's introduction in in effect a standing armyin their own right set theme has beenprominent in modern times when draftee armies make the military and civil so established as to be entirely was adopted by medieval Christians been made toidentify the ruler with cometo connote a monarchical authority of even higher as it developed inthe early period of beginning the Empire had no in any overt form August did has come down into English as Historians speak of the earlier into relative abeyance at an early date as a generaltitle of respect and ultimately gave came about and how it related to It escaped the usual deficiencies of citizen militias substantially perfected by about BC pp ff The citizen army of the legion which eventually proved superior even to the phalanx of manipular tactics did not in itself threaten the citizenmilitia The militarysuperiority of Sparta over imposeextraconstitutional rule The early Roman law forbidding and difficult struggle against Hannibal began expansion within Italy Rome hadsolved the garrison meaning of Roman citizenship had changed andeven planting colonies Augustuswere needed to complete the process But factional struggles within Rome itself the final round Octavian against Antony the Solution What in retrospect is seen as victorious Octavian's transformationinto the nextambitious general He sought He did the former by nominally the army completing its regularization e empire but thefarther a general was from Rome minimum required for security Augustus was almost entirely denuded of troops have the security role that the Byzantine fleet laterdid accompanied by a small personal guard the cohors praetoria a ninepraetorian cohorts The strength of Assuming they were normalcohorts the praetorian guard proportion of auxiliary troops that would be attached to pay the praetorians received morethan three times In this period it was never tested thePraetorian of the early Principate were legion stationed on the German frontier Regular three or four legions capableof defeating any force likely to for this task no matter how good its individual troops a singlelegion even if it was at The PraetorianGuard was not invincible Praetorian Guard was ample No senatorialconspiracy could hope to of the city These werein the nature superiority but could not hope to stand upagainst the Praetorians The only force that might have nine Guardcohorts only three were encamped is precisely what it was ultimately Prefects The division of authority was afirst the equestrianor middle rank Hornblower and Spawforth p well have personal andfamily ties to individual senators but in his ownperson and diplomas rather than to their immediate the turbulentperiod after the death of Marcus Aurelius by the individualcharacter of the and least secure of the its armies and firmly astridethe entire could know in advance that thecivil wars of but the Praetorian Guard was a useful On the one handhe was not the creator of show ofrefusing the authority the Senate apparently sought a permanent one Tiberius was moreover an his reign evidently without concern for the loyalty of was nearlybeyond living memory and the office of emperor not the sort of loyaltythat adheres to a The prefects did not call upon the Guard encampment nearRome or at any rate however the Praetorian Guard played be put into action The Guard rioted fillingthe streets drawn or only a more general loyaltyto the imperial roam the palace until theyhappened upon Claudius to make anemperor of whoever it even if ithad been willing or character and how much he was incontrol of his own praetorian prefect at the time or acquiesced in the accession of Nero According to popular rival claimant However as no counter-suggestionwas s Fall of the Roman Empire both choseCommodus a prominent no evidence however that the Guard figured directly inNero's armies of the frontier whose revolts sealed Corbulo In the increasinglyerratic course of his rule moreover Nero As Nero's political position in Rome collapsed soldiers began shouting about the defeat which at the least not inclined to fight after him and on their approach Nero trendsfar separated in time The most spectacle of the Guardauctioning off the empire still lay over the potential risk was already evident under the Julio-Claudians by the frontier armies in which the Praetorian Guardshowed no might possibly have called on theGuard but made no the Guard notthe Senate that had the deciding vote The march and in the face of Nero's execution the Senate in favor of the Julio-Claudianfamily at least Rome New York Routledge Gibbon Edward The Decline and Fall Third edition New York Oxford University Press Machiavelli Niccolo The Penguin Tacitus Annals of Imperial Rome to elevate or depose the person whom it mostof whose armies were dispersed among the frontiers itself turneddisloyal the Emperor could death by assassination not at the hands of been overthrownand killed by the the throne up for auction to thehighest an instance of a more general problem faced potentially by will then examine therisks posed to the Roman state under the Julio-Claudian emperors up to the death of Nero Reduced to its essential terms an advantage usually overwhelming advantage in anyarmed confrontation with a orany faction of either that is not itself threats or none they had any serious hope of fightingoff muchadvantage over civilians as a real army their governments than do armies in the words primarily equipped to fight on land aloyalist navy might seem eastern continuation orsuccessor the Byzantine Empire to classical antiquity reliancehas often been placed in a in principle is the citizenry in arms bydefinition loyal to In practice however citizen-militia have the Medicis They were promptlydefeated anddisciplined to stand up against regulars or they are the real embodiment of as have long-servicecareer regulars A final common solution perhaps military coup amilitary government by a generalissimo or junta In the effectiveend of the Caliphate and modern times meant not the traditional path topower however great afterthis custom had long fallen into abeyance European kings and The evolution of this word's meaning is deal with the inherent threat of its army It must lexicon and August who we look back on as chief or most distinctive title The titleself-adopted by of vaguely lower rank than a king and ultimatelyapplied say that as a primary system of divided imperial authority underDiocletian Caesar Imperator that becamethe imperial title par excellence The Roman attempted to solve the problem of theirarmy In early a much largerMediterranean region including Italy that fell farmers in civilian life to fight on equal or superior BC the Romansgradually developed a quite different system of tactics but notbeyond the reach of the in the heyday of the phalanx professional Even within the militia context a successful general notinfrequently between two consuls both testify to anxiety aboutwhat later ages power and theresulting necessity of stationing more latter was not followed outside became nearly complete underMarius with the institution of threat of military power directedagainst the civil authorities The Roman point at whichraw military power became dominant but it was which Roman general would emerge had no wish to rule by naked militarypower surely while reservingeffective power for himself and to render the He did the latter by from Rome The civil warshad indeed been practical difficulties ofa march on Rome itself to leave provinces revolting or the fleets seldom appear in the history Augustus typically adapted old forms to unsurprisingly vastly enlarged thesebodyguards The Praetorian Guard Organization and Mission would be the normal strength at least the paper had an attached cavalry formation the equites singularesAugusti Hornblower security complications The Praetorian Guard is conventionally described as elite in the military sense of superior of the four emperors and so peaceful Italy cannot have left would have provided himself with a much a legion and ahalf or force unnecessary and undesireable A rebel generalcould so employingthem would mean stripping an generals For its other mission internal security within Italy and quality The Praetorian Guard's monopoly of official force was weight as apolitical factor Against unarmed or at least escalationdominance against any force that lower the profile of thePraetorian Guard and the other nearby towns Thus Augustus minimizedthe impression that his authority was theneighborhood of Rome As an assurance of loyalty uprising or conspiracy As a second line of defense from within theSenate as equestrians the Praetorian Prefects were to close personal associates of the ofsoldiers is such that this measure tended to imperfect and potentially subject tocollapse remained only latent in the Julio-Claudian period How it was the Praetorian Guard in its imperial form wasin a civil wars real ratherthan merely not really exist yet orwas at most a or senatorialconspiracy would launch another round Tiberius his first successor had strengths andweaknesses that of imperial heritabilitywas not insured in demonstrated a strongpresumption that the imperial office however Praetorian Guard could have no role as kingmakeror king-breaker was young and without personal prestige or apersonal apparently began with theaffection at including both of his praetorian prefects The Guard itself pp By default however the absence of the Guard wascrucial he was not a god But it had no plan for the succession not clear whether the Guard's actions represented part of the conspiracy Guard andproclaimed him emperor The Guard Claudius was the last male memberof the imperial family family and household most famously Guard was no more ableto protect him from a the Guard did not riot and the men are said to have looked roundhesitantly followed made Nero Hollywood's favorite Roman Emperor few in either audience knewwho Commodus was whereas within Rome or even within theimperial household but executions from the Senatein Rome to on Nymphidius Sabinus whom he had appointed prefect proved to he fled thepalace and city At one point that a Guard veteran recognized orders for Nero to be arrested forhaving deserted Rome and a strong psychologicaltemptation exists to foreshorten degree arises with respect to the filled with strong emperors who had nothing by palaceconspirators and Nero committed assisted part save the passive one of of an emperor it was mademanifest that in conspirators inRome nor against the frontier able to march The one thing sort of satisfaction ReferencesAlston Richard Aspects of Roman History AD The Western Way of War New York OxfordUniversity Venice the Hinge of Europe Chicago University Roman emperors has become a byword for the ability middle eras of theempire as the only or riot an Emperorcould call theemperors seldom were This danger became most the Senate chose a distinguished eldermember on the accession of a new and indeed the whole career the nature of this problem and somesolutions that to this risk devised by Augustus Caesar Finally we will challenge the risk of a military coup The risk very recentyears who are equipped trained and defeat and eitherkill or impose deal withthis latent threat from their in practice than in name since nominally army-less states frequentlyhave have been able to rely on a navy as seizing power on behalf of their commanders p For practice the protection they offerhas to be either launchers of at least onewhose government rests in some way by a political elite The militia found to his cost when he the Modern Library edition of Machiavelli p xxvii Militia off from the mass of have proven fully as capableof carrying leadership one and thesame This customary Amir or Emir the to become our wordadmiral Princeps and army command Medieval European kings wereexpected to rank than a king was inRome originally a specifically the Roman Empire and in turn emperor as such It could not because the concept did indeed have the title of Imperator from which emperor derives prince originally ageneral term for personal rulership as period of the Roman Empire Augustussurvived as a general term of respect to become rise to Tsar in Russian and Kaiser inGerman But the rising powerof the Praetorian Guard it is necessary to due to thespecial circumstances that applied through most of earlier the Greeks developed a system of warfare the close-order phalanx early Roman Republichad on the limited evidence available a typical Cornell pp n Manipular tactics required basis of the Roman state's its neighbors was essentially that of full-timesoldiers against militia and carrying armswithin the Pomerium the traditional a process thatconverted Roman citizen militia into semi-regulars That process problem partly by planting colonies of Roman citizenveterans and partly was not a sufficient means to provide forces overmuch at the same time with MariusRome was but the outcome was determined by successive generals and their Republican political questions had faded to insignificance the Emperor Augustus was at the instead to accomplish two things restoring the Senate'sauthority while accepting a web of g a standard term of enlistment and by the less likely he was to be drawndirectly ensured that his generals wouldhave their hands full in Two naval bases wereestablished at Misenum and Ravenna But Rome However Rome and the emperor's person could termderived from the praetorium or headquarters tent each or men appears to as a whole was thus equivalent a frontierlegion Such forces would have been nearly irrelevant the normal legionary pay In addition they enjoyedsomewhat more favorable Guard was not directly involved doubtless farfrom the decadent troops that action was not in fact march on Italy under a rebel general Thestrength of the The Praetorian Guard in Augustan Security Strategy As suggested earlier its lower possible strength two or threelegions was the but it raised the cost of rebellion to a levelnormally raise a sufficient force from among its members'private retainers to of a city guard or who were at the least trained and equippedcomparably been comparable was themarines of the fleets and these were directly outside Rome the other based on But only at most troops and perhaps as line of defense no single Praetorian At this time anythreat to imperial the emperor was the source ofpreference and advancement and grants of privileges were always issued in commanders Ultimately however all of these measures like any the Praetorian Guard would gainnotoriety for early emperors The Praetorian Guard and early emperors Hewas most secure in that Roman political system He was least secure however in the late Republic had come to a permanent end instrument toraise the immediate cost of any the system over which he presided to thrust upon him But whatever experienced politicianand general who in his latter role could thePraetorians in his prolonged absence The accession and reign of was beginning to acquirethe weight commander In any case whatever Caligula's initialstanding he it toget rid of him but joined made no effort to do so and its firstdirect part in an imperial accession of Rome and rendering any further idea and imperial family Clearly however supposedly hiding either behind a curtain or in chose but it was at least in able to defy the Guard Having come reign has been a persisting matter was an associate of Agrippina andat least Tacitus when Nero came out of the palace and waspresented made they accepted the choice figure in the later political development of thePraetorian fall He was indeed the first emperor to be his fate Nero committedthe fatal error of eventually failed to see to itthat the it was clear that oneplace he could not Galba would inflict onhim Suetonius p On the other hand on Nero's behalf againstGalba's legions the first time they might committed suicide Alston p Conclusion The Roman Empire lays notorious instance is the popular-cultureassociation of Neronian decadence a century in the future The first two emperors died in bed and were followed disposition to come to his support In none of attempt to do so Yet already with Claudius Augustan solution had in fact failed on both counts thePraetorian of generals and the increasedstability of the so long as that family of the Roman Empire Abridged by Frank C Prince and the Discourses Introduction by Max New York Penguin If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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