The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

Troops in Rome: The Urban Cohorts and the Vigiles
The Roman A rmy 119
The need for a city police force was glaringly apparent at the end of the Republic,
but the establishment of such an organization was not really possible under
the old sys tem , wh en there was no trad i ti on of standing army units and the
s c ra m ble for pers onal power escalated to the point of c ivil war. Si gn i f i c a n t ly,
Augustus waited until probably 13 bc before creating the Urban Cohorts (Cohortes
Urbanae), commanded by the city prefect (Praefectus Urbi). The date is
nowhere attested beyond doubt, but it is thought that when the senator Lucius
Ca l p u rn ius Piso was appoi n ted as the first perm a n ent city prefect , the troop s
were most likely established at the same time.
Each of the Urban Cohorts was 500 strong and commanded by a tribune assisted
by six centurions. There were three cohorts in Italy, and at a later date two
more Urban Cohorts were established—one at Lyons, where there was an important
mint, and another at Carthage. Augustus placed some of the Urban Coh
orts in other Italian cities so that not all of t h em were bri gaded toget h er in
Rome, but when the Praetorian camp was built in the reign of Tiberius the Urban
Cohorts were housed there, even though they were answerable to the senatorial
prefect of the city and not to the equestrian Praetorian Prefects. Some of
the men may have occ u p i ed small er watch-houses within the city, and som e
may have been outstationed. For instance, there is evidence that single Urban
Cohorts were stationed at the ports of Puteoli and Ostia.
Later emperors increased the number of Urban Cohorts to six at some time
before ad 47 and to a maximum of seven under Claudius. When Vitellius seized
power in ad 69, he reduced the number to four cohorts, and Antoninus Pius retu
rn ed to three co h ort s . Severus ret a i n ed the three co h orts but incre a s ed the
nu m bers of m en . Au relian moved the Urban Co h orts in ad 270 to a new
purpose-built camp, called the castra urbana, which was situated on the Campus
Martius. Constantine spared them the fate of the Praetorians, but they became
less and less of a military force.
The vigiles, or city fire brigades, were created by Augustus in ad 6. Republican
Rome was a cl o s ely packed city with many ti m bered bu i l d i n gs and was
t h erefore alw ays at risk from fire s . Du ring the late Rep u bl i c , Ma rcus Liciniu s
Crassus had notoriously kept a force of trained slaves to fight fires, not for the
good of the city but so that he could buy up burning properties at ridiculously
cheap prices, put the fire out, and develop the site. If the owner would not sell,
then the property burned and Crassus remained as rich as he was before. Under
Au g u s tu s , the aedile Egn a tius Rufus ga t h ered another slave fire bri gade wi t h
which he successfully controlled several fires, but political ambition led to his
down f a ll . He was acc u s ed of con s p i racy by the Sen a te and exec uted . In 21 bc
Au g u s tus took over the remnants of Ru f u s’s ga n gs , and placed a force of 6 0 0