Blood and betrayal
Six leading characters in the Praetorians’ bizarre, and brutal, history
1 The giant usurper
A massive Thracian soldier called Maximinus demonstrated his wrestling to a highly impressed Severus, who instantly appointed him to the Praetorian Guard. In doing so, Severus unwittingly sowed the seeds of another regime change. In AD 235 Maximinus, now a veteran, led a coup against Severus Alexander, last of the Severan dynasty. Alexander’s troops abandoned him, and he was killed by Maximinus’s men. Maximinus ruled until AD 238 when his own Praetorians killed him.
2 The libidinous ruler
Under Emperor Commodus’s dissolute rule, the Praetorian Guard descended into the abyss. When Commodus was murdered in AD 192, the guard took exception to his disciplinarian successor, Pertinax. So they killed him. As they did so, one yelled: “The soldiers have sent you this sword!” Next they auctioned off the empire to the highest bidder, Didius Julianus. He failed to pay up so he had to go too.
3 The equaliser
In AD 193, when Septimius Severus cashiered the guard, outraged at their auctioning off of the empire, he ordered the Praetorians to stand in their parade ground. He harangued them with: “It is impossible to think of any penalty to impose that fits your crimes… you deserve to die 1,000 times.” He contented himself with ordering them to strip naked and remove themselves at least 100 miles from Rome.
4 The first Praetorian emperor
In AD 217 a prophecy circulated that the Praetorian prefect Macrinus was destineded to become emperor. Macrinus, “fearing hee should be killed” if the murderous Caraca alla heard about it, naturally organised a conspiracy of Praetorian officers and a dis saffected Praetorian veteran. When Cara acalla dismounted on campaign to re elieve himself, Macrinus’s stooges murdered him. Macrinus was the first Praetorian pre efect to rule, fulfilling the prophecy he feare d so much. He lasted 14 months, before being killed by soldiers .
5 The enemy of the people
Sejanus was a prefect of the Praetorians, whose attempt to position himself as Tiberius’s successor backfired spectacularly. Executed by the Senate, his body was abused by the mob for three days and his three children killed. Notoriously his daughter, a virgin, was raped by an official first so that she could be legally killed. His wife, Apicata, committed suicide. Across the empire local worthies commemorated the removal of “the most deadly enemy of the Roman people”.
6 The doomed fanatic
Being a promiscuous homosexual and fanatical follower of the Heliogabalus sun god cult, Emperor Elagabalus, greatnephew of Septimius Severus, did not sell himself well either to the Romans or the Praetorians when he arrived in Rome in AD 219. Appointing an ex- dancer called Comazon to be Praetorian prefect made things worse. No wonder the Praetorians preferred his staid cousin Severus Alexander whom Elagabalus tried to kill. The Praetorians murdered Elagabalus and made Alexander emperor in 222.