The Roman Army, 31 BC–AD 337: A Sourcebook

38 The Roman Army
heirs, set this up in accordance with the wishes expressed in his will; he
lived [twenty]-five years and died in the flower of his youth. They had
this erected.
The Urban Soldiers
During the Republic a guard was set at the commander’s headquarters
(praetorium), but during the civil wars this had become a personal
bodyguard in attendance upon the military leaders. Augustus transformed
this practice by establishing in 27 BC an élite unit with superior
emoluments, shorter service, and more elaborate uniform than the
legionaries, to act as his permanent bodyguard. The praetorian guard
consisted of nine cohorts with 1,000 or possibly 500 men in each, and
was stationed in Italian towns in the vicinity of Rome, although three
cohorts always attended upon the person of the emperor. These soldiers,
though armed, did not appear in dress uniform. This was a political ploy
designed to allay the fears of senators who were unaccustomed to the
presence of soldiers in Rome or indeed in Italy. The guard remained
largely Italian even when few Italians served in the legions.
When in 2 BC Augustus appointed two men of equestrian rank as
praetorian prefects, they served as deputy commanders, since the
emperor commanded the guard personally. By AD 23 Sejanus, the
powerful praetorian prefect, had persuaded Tiberius to concentrate all
the praetorians in a camp on the outskirts of Rome, and the guard
remained central to Roman political life until disbanded by Constantine
in AD 312. Sejanus may also have been responsible for increasing the
number of cohorts to twelve (see text no. 96); Vitellius added another
four, but Domitian settled the guard’s strength at ten cohorts, each
with 1,000 men. Septimius Severus further increased the complement
of troops in Italy by stationing a legion at Albanum, fifteen miles south
east of Rome. Part of the guard normally accompanied an emperor on
campaign and under the Flavians a special mounted bodyguard was
created (equites singulares Augusti).
Augustus also provided for a kind of police force—recruited from
Italians, serving for twenty years in three urban cohorts, each 500 strong,
commanded by a tribune, and under the overall direction of the prefect
of the city. By Flavian times the number of cohorts had been increased
to four, each of which contained 1,000 men. Additional cohorts were
stationed at Puteoli, Ostia, and Carthage (all important for the shipment
of corn to Rome), and at Lugdunum where there was a mint. Augustus
instituted a fire brigade (Vigiles) possibly 3,920 strong, rising to 7,840
by AD 205, recruited from freedmen who served for six years, and