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Short description

Praetorian cavalry are an elite within the elite: dedicated bodyguards who serve as heavy cavalry.

Description

The Praetorian cavalry are depicted here as they appeared from the reign of Tiberius onwards. Tiberius was considered the second founder of the Praetorian Guard; thus, many Praetorian shields were decorated, like this unit's, with the Scorpio - the star-sign under which Tiberius was born. The hexagonal shield appears to have been common among elite cavalry units, though initially it seems that it was used by Cavalry Alae of Germanic origin after their native fashion. The helmet is of the Koblenz-Bubenheim type and is suitably decorated with bronze. The armour is bronze scale-mail (lorica squamata), and the scales are alternately polished and tinned, so that they alternate in colour. This flashiness was seen as appropriate for the elite Praetorian cavalry. Like most Roman cavalrymen of the period, the Praetorian cavalry were armed with spathae - longer versions of the gladius designed for use from horseback. The soldier also carries a long ash spear with an iron head and butt, used when charging. It is likely that Trajan's Equites Singulares Augusti (described below) were also similarly equipped. It is also likely that everywhere the Praetorian Guard were involved in fighting, be it in Germania under Germanicus Caesar, in Dacia under Trajan, in the East against the Parthians, or in Marcus Aurelius' Marcomannic Wars, the cavalry were there too.

Well trained and equipped, disciplined and steadfast, these heavy cavalrymen make excellent bodyguards and are effective heavy cavalry to boot, whether they are providing support to their fellow Praetorians or at the forefront of a Roman cavalry attack.

Very little is known about the Praetorian Cavalry's organisation or history. That they existed is clear enough, but their origins remain unclear. It is known that Marc Antony counted a Cohors Speculatorum (a mounted unit of Praetorians) among his troops in the East in 32 BC. From the use of the word Cohort, it is safe to assume that the unit was approximately five hundred strong (i.e. the strength of a later-formed cavalry ala). It is known that these Speculatores became part of the Praetorian Cavalry, and that according to one inscription there were roughly one turma of 30 cavalrymen for every two centuries in the guard, which would imply three turmae per cohort in the Augustan period, and five per cohort (one per double-strength century) from Domitian's reign onwards. In addition to providing protection to the Imperial family, these units were used by the Palatium as messengers and as support for the infantry in the Praetorian Cohorts when the Guard took to the field.

Under the Julio-Claudian dynasty (27 BC - 68 AD), the Praetorian Cavalry had company in the form of the Germani Corporis Custodes (German Bodyguard). A unit of roughly 500 men, they were recruited primarily from Batavians, and were a direct emulation of the Germanic Bodyguard of Julius Caesar. It was felt that provincial non-citizens would be good bodyguards in that they utterly depended upon the Emperor for their position, and so would not, unlike Roman citizens, find their loyalties divided in the event of a civil war. The German Bodyguard were stationed in Rome and acted as infantry while on duty in the city, but fought as cavalrymen in battle. They were sent by Tiberius with his son Drusus and the Praetorian Cavalry to assist in quelling mutinous troops on the Danube in 14 AD.

The German Guards served their Emperors most devotedly. It was they who decided to hunt down Caligula's killers after he was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard in 41 AD, and they were also employed by Nero to hunt down members of the Pisonian Conspiracy against him in 65 AD. However, their long history of loyalty came to an end in 68 AD, when they sided with the Praetorians in abandoning Nero in the face of Galba's claim to the throne. When Galba arrived at Rome, however, he was suspicious of the German Guard, and fearing that they might turn on him as they had done to Nero, he dismissed them. It is thought that they returned to their homeland, and defected to join Julius Civilis' Batavian Revolt, after which they disappear from history.

There was another unit initially raised in Germania, which was attached to the Praetorian Cavalry, which was formed when Trajan became Emperor in 98 AD - the Equites Singulares Augusti. Equites Singulares were the individually picked cavalry bodyguards of provincial governors. As Trajan was previoulsy in Germania Superior, his Equites Singulares tended to be picked from the Germanic and Celtic units stationed there under his command, and when he became Emperor, he took the unit with him so that he had a bodyguard on which he could depend in the event that the Praetorians made a move against him.

In their provincial roles, these bodyguards were still a part of their respective units, to which they returned after 3 years, and so they kept their individual shield markings and the like. It is thought that Trajan's unit would have, at least initially, included a variety of shield designs, though over time the unit became more formalised (though, in order to avoid offending the proud Praetorians, it was always referred to as a "numerus", as in an ad-hoc collection of provincial troops, instead of an ala, which it was in all but name). This unit then formed part of the Praetorian Cavalry, and served well into the 3rd century AD, with its members being hand picked from the best Germanic cavalry alae in the Empire.