Legions of Rome (33 page)

BIRTH SIGN:

Capricorn.

FOUNDATION:

AD 103, for Trajan’s second Dacian campaign.

RECRUITMENT AREA:

Not known.

IMPERIAL POSTINGS:

Brigetio, Dacia, Noviomagus, Vetera, Amida.

BATTLE HONORS:

Second Dacian War, AD 105-106.

NEPTUNE’S OWN

Second of two legions raised by Trajan prior to the Dacian Wars, it would eventually fall victim to the Persians in Mesopotamia
.

The 30th Ulpia Legion was raised by Trajan for his second Dacian War. Stationed on the Danube at Brigetio in
AD
103, it marched into Dacia two years later. Taking Trajan’s family name, Ulpius, the unit also embraced his favorite deity, Neptune, using Neptune’s symbols of trident and dolphins in their emblem. It is likely that the legion also used the color associated with Neptune, dark blue, certainly on their shields, and perhaps in other ways such as neck scarves. Its number derived from the fact that it was Trajan’s thirtieth legion.

Following the Second Dacian War the legion was stationed at Noviomagus, today’s Nijmegen, on the Lower Rhine. In
AD
120, it was relocated to nearby Vetera. There it remained until the fourth century, when it was transferred across the Roman world to take part in campaigns in the East.

The 30th Ulpia was one of seven legions which defended the city of Amida in Mesopotamia from attack by a Persian army of 100,000 men in
AD
359. After a bloody siege lasting seventy-three days and which cost the attackers 30,000 casualties, the Persians took the city. Like men of the other six legions defending the city, those legionaries of the 30th Ulpia who survived the fighting became captives of the Syrians. [Amm.,
XVIII
, 9;
XIX
, 1–9]

There at Amida, in
AD
359, Trajan’s 30th Ulpia Legion ceased to be.

PRAETORIAN GUARD

COHORS PRAETORIA

EMBLEM:

Eagle and thunderbolt.

STANDARD:

Victoria, goddess of victory.

HEADQUARTERS:

Castra Praetoria, Rome.

FOUNDED:

Sixth century BC.

IMPERIAL BODYGUARD AND POLITICAL POLICE

Rome’s political police, together with the CITY GUARD and the VIGILES (Night Watch), responsible for policing and protecting Rome
.

The Praetorian Cohorts were created at the formation of the Roman Republic in 509
BC
, charged with protecting the praetor, the most senior elected Roman official before the post was superseded by that of consul, and the city of Rome. By early in the first century
BC
, the Praetorians were no longer being used. In 44
BC
, following the assassination of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony revived the unit as his personal bodyguard, with an initial strength of 6,000 former legion men. Following the 30
BC
defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian retained the Praetorians in the role of criminal and political police at Rome. The role of close imperial bodyguard was, until
AD
69, filled by the German Guard.

The elite Praetorian Guard enjoyed the most prestige and the highest pay of any unit in the Roman army. For hundreds of years they were the only regular army unit permitted by law to be stationed in Italy. Under Augustus, their recruiting grounds were Etruria, Umbria, Latium and the old legion colonies in Italy. By the time that Septimius Severus came to the throne at the end of the second century, Prateorian recruitment had expanded to take in Spain, Macedonia and Noricum.

Because they usually only served in military campaigns when the emperor was present, which was rare, Praetorians had less opportunities for booty than legionaries. In recompense, Augustus paid his Praetorians twice as much as legionaries;
Tiberius increased it to three times as much. Praetorians also received a larger retirement bonus—20,000 sesterces, as opposed to 12,000 for legionaries.

Augustus ordained that the power of overall Praetorian command be split between two prefects. Some later emperors used a single Praetorian prefect, whose powerful post became like that of a latter-day minister for war. The emperors presented each new Praetorian prefect with a sword to symbolize the Praetorians’ right to bear arms in the capital, for it was illegal for civilians to be armed in the city. When Trajan presented the sword to his new Praetorian prefect Saburanus in
AD
110, he unsheathed the weapon, held up the blade to Saburanus, and said: “Take this sword in order that, if I rule well, you may use it for me, but if badly, against me.” [Dio,
LXVIII
, 16]

Troops stationed at Rome normally did duty “half-armed,” with their shields and javelins kept at the Praetorian barracks. That massive fortified building, the
Castra Praetoria
, or Praetorian Camp, was erected in
AD
23 on the northeastern outskirts of Rome beyond the old city walls, by the notorious prefect Lucius Aelius Sejanus. Prior to that, the Praetorians had been quartered at several barracks around Rome.

In that same year, a former soldier of the Praetorian Guard, Titus Curtisius,
attempted to motivate a revolt of slaves at Brundisium in southern Italy. A contingent of marines quickly rounded up the chief troublemakers, including Curtisius, and Tiberius dispatched a party of Praetorians under their tribune Staius to Brundisium to take charge of the prisoner. Titus Curtisius, one-time soldier of the Praetorian Guard, was subsequently marched up to Rome in chains by his former comrades. His punishment was to be sold into slavery at the capital. [Tac.,
A
,
IV
, 27]

While former centurions sometimes rose to command the Praetorians, the post could also be held by former generals, such as Vespasian’s son and successor, Titus. One of the most famously industrious commanders of the Guard was Quintus Marcius Turbo, Praetorian prefect during Hadrian’s reign, who always worked into the early hours of the morning. When, in
AD
136, the emperor urged him to take life a little more easily, Turbo replied, paraphrasing Vespasian, that the prefect of the Guard should die on his feet. [Dio,
LXIX
, 18]

The Praetorian Guard provided a cohort to keep order at the circus on chariot-racing days and during public spectacles, at the amphitheater during spectacles, and at the theater during musical and dramatic performances. On one occasion during a riot at a theater in the capital in the first century, a Praetorian centurion and several guardsmen were killed and their tribune injured.

The Praetorian Guard operated the city prison, and carried out death sentences imposed by the emperor and Senate. A typical execution assignment took place in
AD
66 when Nero sent a centurion and Praetorian detachment to northwest Italy to execute Marius Ostorius Scapula, who had won the Civic Crown in Britain as a young cavalry prefect twenty years before. He had been found guilty of conspiring to murder the emperor. As was the case with all men, and women, executed by the Praetorians, Ostorius’ head was exhibited at Rome, either in the Forum or at the Gemonian Stairs.

In
AD
10, Augustus formed the
CITY GUARD
, or City Cohorts, to serve as Rome’s daytime policemen and city gate sentinels. City Guard troops, former slaves, were paid substantially less than Praetorians. Under Augustus there were nine Praetorian cohorts, each of 1,000 men commanded by a tribune, numbered 1 to 9, and three City Guard cohorts, numbered 10 to 12, also commanded by tribunes. Tiberius added a 13th City Guard cohort. The City Guard answered to the City Prefect, who was frequently a senator of high rank. Flavius Sabinus, brother of the later emperor Vespasian, was City Prefect for twelve years under Nero, and was so respected for
the way he discharged his responsibilities that two of Nero’s immediate successors recalled him to the post.

Caligula added three more Praetorian cohorts. By Nero’s reign, there were fourteen Praetorian cohorts and four City Guard cohorts, the latter with 1,500 men each. The cohorts were numbered 1 to 18, with the last four being City Guard cohorts. One City Guard cohort was stationed at Lugdunum in Gaul to guard the imperial mint there.

After coming to power in
AD
69, Vitellius disbanded the existing Praetorian and City Guard units and replaced them with 20,000 men from his Rhine legions. The sacked guardsmen joined the army of Vitellius’ rival Vespasian, and helped dethrone Vitellius. Vespasian’s new Praetorian and City Guard units consisted of 7,000 men in fourteen cohorts. By the reign of Alexander Severus, 150 years later, the Praetorian Guard numbered 10,000 men.

Centurions could be transferred to the Guard cohorts from the legions and promoted from within Guard ranks. The twelve-year enlistment period for members of the Praetorian Guard instituted by Mark Antony in 44
BC
was increased to sixteen years by Augustus.

The Praetorian Guard served in Augustus’ Cantabrian War, one of Germanicus Caesar’s German campaigns, in Trajan’s Dacian Wars. and in third-century eastern campaigns. By
AD
218, the segmented armor worn by the Praetorian Guard at the beginning of the second century, as seen on Trajan’s Column, had been replaced by scale-armor. Even this they cast off to fight for the short-lived emperor Macrinus, their former prefect, who thought they would be “lighter for battle” without their armor. In this battle, near Antioch in Syria, Macrinus’ unarmored Praetorians were defeated by the armored Syrian legions fighting for Elagabalus. [Dio,
LXXIX
, 37]

The
COHORTES VIGILIS
, literally “cohorts that stay awake”—called the Night Watch by latter-day authors—were formed by Augustus in
AD
6. Commonly known as the Vigiles, they served as both a nighttime police force and fire brigade. Augustus had intended them as a temporary measure, but they proved so useful he retained them. Augustus’ Vigiles were freedmen.
Later, they also came from other classes of society. They were paid from the public treasury. Augustus divided Rome into fourteen administrative
regios
or precincts, and each of the seven Vigile cohorts covered two
regios
and was quartered in barracks in one of their precincts. Like the City Guard, the Vigiles came under the command of the City Prefect.

Prior to the formation of the Vigiles, the wealthier inhabitants of Rome employed night watchmen to patrol their blocks, carrying bells to warn of fire. Rome’s Vigiles were also traffic police, for under a law of Julius Caesar most wheeled traffic could only use Rome’s streets at night. Hence imperial Rome’s reputation as the city which never slept. Vigiles never left the capital, and were inferior in quality and status to both Praetorian and City Guard troops. They nonetheless made the overthrow of Sejanus possible, and made a failed attempt to hold the Capitoline complex with Vespasian’s brother Sabinus in the last days of the reign of Vitellius.

Apart from the lionskin capes of their standard-bearers—as opposed to the bearskin capes of legionary standard-bearers—their different standards and shield emblem, and a slightly more rounded shield than the legionary shield, the Praetorians and City Guards could not be distinguished from legionaries.

The Praetorian Guard was reorganized by Septimius Severus at the start of his reign in
AD
193. Cassius Dio, a senator at the time, scoffed that prior to Severus’ reforms “the Praetorians did nothing worthy of their name and of their promise, for they had learned to live delicately.” [Dio,
LXXIV
, 16] Previously, Praetorian recruits had come straight from civilian life. But because the Praetorians had murdered his predecessor Pertinax, Severus “ordered that any [Praetorian] vacancies should be filled from all the legions.” Dio said that Severus’ motive was “the idea that he should thus have guards with a better knowledge of the soldier’s duties,” because they had already undergone military training and service. This new practice, said Dio, made transfer to the Praetorian Guard “a kind of prize for those who proved brave in war.” [Dio,
LXXV
, 2]