Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/148

CHAP. V.
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The pretorian guards: their institution;The pretorian bands, whose Hcentious fury was the first symptom and cause of the decUne of the Roman empire, scarcely amounted to the last mentioned number^[1]. They derived their institution from Augustus. That crafty tyrant, sensible that laws might colour, but that arms alone could maintain, his usurped dominion, had gradually formed this powerful body of guards in constant readiness to protect his person, to awe the senate, and either to prevent or to crush the first motions of rebellion. He distinguished these favoured troops by a double pay, and superior privileges ; but, as their formidable aspect would at once have alarmed and irritated the Roman people, three cohorts only were stationed in the capital ; whilst the remainder was their camp;dispersed in the adjacent towns of Italy^[2]. But after fifty years of peace and servitude, Tiberius ventured on a decisive measure, which for ever rivetted the fetters of his country. Under the fair pretences of relieving Italy from the heavy burden of military quarters, and of introducing a stricter discipline among the guards, he assembled them at Rome, in a permanent camp^[3], which was fortified with skilful care^[4], and placed on a commanding situation^[5].

their strength and confidence;Such formidable servants are always necessary, but often fatal, to the throne of despotism. By thus introducing the pretorian guards, as it were, into the palace and the senate, the emperors taught them to perceive their own strength, and the weakness of the civil government ; to view the vices of their masters with familiar contempt, and to lay aside that reverential awe, which distance only, and mystery, can preserve, towards

1. They were originally nine or ten thousand men, (for Tacitus and Dion are not agreed upon the subject,) divided into as many cohorts. Vitellius increased them to sixteen thousand ; and as far as we can learn from inscriptions, they never afterwards sunk much below that number. See Lipsius de Magnitudine Romana, i. 4.
2. Sueton. in August, c. 49.
3. Tacit. Annal. iv. 2 ; Sueton. in Tiber, c. 37 ; Dion Cassius, 1. Ivii. p. 867.
4. In the civil war between Vitellius and Vespasian, the pretorian camp was attacked and defended with all the machines used in the siege of the best fortified cities. Tacit. Hist. iii. 84.
5. Close to the walls of the city, on the broad summit of the Quirinal and Viminal hills. See Nardini, Roma Antica, p. 174 j Donatus de Roma Antiqua, p. 46.