Defend Or Destroy?

Guy de la Bédoyère charts the rise and fall of the formidable and privileged Praetorian Guard who were paid to serve as the elite bodyguard of Roman emperors but who might equally well turn on their masters if, and when, they chose to do so.

Members of Rome’s Praetorian Guard were all-powerful – emperor-makers and breakers. They were the highest paid soldiers in the whole Roman army. They also enjoyed shorter service terms and better discharge grants. When they retired they could re-enlist or return home to bask in the fame and glory of having once served in the most prestigious arm of the greatest military force in antiquity. They were also spoiled, greedy and self-serving popinjays who could, if the circumstances were right, change the course of history for the sake of a pay rise or the chance to rid themselves of an emperor who had the temerity to try to put them in their place.

The Guard’s origins mainly lay in the heady days of the late Republic in the 1st century BC though the idea had existed for some time before. This was the age of civil war, fought out by the imperators, Roman generals with armies bonded to them through personal loyalty rather than to the state, although some, like Caesar, considered the idea of a personal bodyguard as a sign of weakness.

After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC Mark Antony and Octavian, rivals then colleagues in the Triumvirate charged with taking charge of and settling the Roman state, saw the possession of an elite unit of troops dedicated to their security as a badge of prestige. Soon no self-respecting Roman general would be seen without a praetorian guard. The word originated in the term for a general’s tent, the praetorium.