Focus on Elite Forces: “Guardsmen and Emperor-makers: Rome’s Praetorians”
Rome’s first emperor Caesar Augustus (r.31 BCE-14 CE) created a personal bodyguard called the cohors praetoria or Praetorian Guard in 27 BCE consisting of nine double-strength cohorts to protect himself and ensure domestic tranquility after a century of Roman civil wars. The guardsmen were organized, trained, and armed like the regular legionaries, but were hand-picked veterans initially of Italian origin who were paid much more than normal Roman soldiers and received benefits after only…
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