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Praetorian Guard

Imperial Roman unit who guarded the emperors

25 dated entries naming Praetorian Guard, drawn from 24 separate years between 46 BCE and 312 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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1st century BC

  • 46 BCELucius Seius Strabo, Roman prefect of the Praetorian Guard (d. 16 AD)source
  • 40 BCESextus' fleet raids the ports of Puteoli and Ostia. The populace hold the Triumvirs responsible for prolonging the war, provoking a riot on the Forum. Octavian, with the Praetorian Guard, goes to intercept the riot, and only escapes with his life because Antony summons troops to rescue his junior colleague.source
  • 37 BCECaesar Augustus (Octavian) engineers the "Second Pact of Tarentum" which renews the Triumvirate for an additional five years. Mark Antony exchanges 120 ships, for service against Sextus Pompeius. Octavian Caesar donates 1,000 troops from the Praetorian Guard and 20,000 legionaries for the Parthian campaign in Syria.source
  • 27 BCECaesar Augustus starts a new military reform. He reduces the number of legions to 26 and creates the Praetorian Guard (1,000 men).source

1st century

  • 10Tigellinus, Roman Praetorian prefect (d. AD 69)source
  • 21Barracks are constructed for the Praetorian Guard, on the Quirinal (located on the Seven Hills of Rome).source
  • 26Emperor Tiberius retires to Capri, leaving the Praetorian Guard under Lucius Aelius Sejanus in charge of the Roman Empire and the city of Rome.source
  • 30Agrippina the Elder (the wife of Germanicus) and two of her sons, Nero Julius Caesar and Drusus Caesar, are arrested and exiled on orders of Lucius Aelius Sejanus (the prefect of the Praetorian Guard), and later starved to death in suspicious circumstances. In Sejanus's purge of Agrippina the Elder and her family, her son Caligula, and her three daughters, Agrippina the Younger, Julia Drusilla and Julia Livilla are the only survivors.source
  • 31Naevius Sutorius Macro becomes the leader of the Praetorian Guard after Sejanus is executed.source
  • 41January 24 – Caligula, known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards.source
  • 68June 9 – Emperor Nero commits suicide four miles outside Rome. He is deserted by the Praetorian Guard, and then stabs himself in the throat.source
  • 69January 15 – Galba and his adopted son Piso are murdered by the Praetorian Guard on the Roman Forum.source
  • 71Titus is made praetorian prefect of the Praetorian Guard and receives pro-consular command and also tribunician power, all of which indicates that Vespasian will follow the hereditary tradition of succession.source
  • 96September 18 – Emperor Domitian is stabbed to death by a freedman at the age 44 after a 15-year reign, in a palace conspiracy involving officers of the Praetorian Guard. The Flavian Dynasty ends.source
  • 97October 28 – Emperor Nerva recalls his general Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, age 44, from the German frontier and is forced by the Praetorian Guard to adopt him as his successor.source

2nd century

  • 193January 1 – Year of the Five Emperors: The Roman Senate chooses Publius Helvius Pertinax, against his will, to succeed the late Commodus as Emperor. Pertinax is forced to reorganize the handling of finances, which were wrecked under Commodus, to reestablish discipline in the Roman army, and to suspend the food programs established by Trajan, provoking the ire of the Praetorian Guard.source

3rd century

  • 211December 19 – Geta is lured to come without his bodyguards to meet Caracalla, to discuss a possible reconciliation. When he arrives the Praetorian Guard murders him, and he dies in the arms of his mother Julia Domna.source
  • 217April 8 – Caracalla is assassinated by his soldiers near Edessa. Marcus Opellius Macrinus, head of the Praetorian Guard, declares himself Roman emperor.source
  • 222March 13 – Emperor Elagabalus is assassinated, along with his mother, Julia Soaemias, by the Praetorian Guard during a revolt. Their mutilated bodies are dragged through the streets of Rome before being thrown into the Tiber.source
  • 228Domitius Ulpianus, a Roman jurist and prefect, is assassinated by the Praetorian Guard, in the presence of Emperor Severus Alexander. His curtailment of the privileges of the palace guard becomes Ulpianus' downfall, who in the course of a riot at Rome is murdered, between the soldiers and the mob.source
  • 238c. August – The Praetorian Guard storms the palace and captures Pupienus and Balbinus. They are dragged naked through the streets of Rome and executed. On the same day Gordian III, age 13, is proclaimed the new emperor. Timesitheus becomes his tutor and advisor.source
  • 268Gallienus is killed by his senior officers at Mediolanum (Milan) while besieging his rival Aureolus. Aureolus is murdered in turn by the Praetorian guard.source

4th century

  • 306Building on the efforts of Diocletian, Galerius introduces the poll tax to central and southern Italy and truncates the size of the Praetorian Guard, with plans to disband the Guard altogether.source
  • 306October 28 – Maxentius, son of former Western Emperor Maximian, leads a revolt by the Praetorian Guard and members of the Senate in Rome, and is proclaimed Emperor. Southern Italy supports Maxentius, as do Africa, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. Maxentius recalls Maximian from retirement, who joins his son in Rome.source
  • 312Constantine forges an alliance with co-emperor Licinius, and offers him his half-sister, Constantia, in marriage. The Praetorian Guard and Imperial Horse Guard (equites singulares Augusti) are disbanded.source

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