In Hispania Citerior, during the Siege of Numantia (134–133 BC), general Scipio Aemilianus safeguarded himself with a troop of 500 soldiers against the sorties of siege warfare aimed at killing Roman field commanders.Īt the end of the year 40 BC, two of the three co-rulers who were the Second Triumvirate, Octavian and Mark Antony, had praetorian guards.
In absence of an assigned, permanent personal bodyguard, senior field officers safeguarded themselves with temporary bodyguard units of selected soldiers. In practice, the offices of Roman consul and of proconsul each had twelve lictors, whilst the offices of praetor and of propraetor each had six lictors. Generals with imperium (command authority of an army) also held public office, either as a magistrate or as a promagistrate, each was provided with lictors to protect the person of the office-holder.
The first historical record of the Praetorians is as bodyguards for the Scipio family, ca. In the period of the Roman Republic (509–27 BC) the Praetorian Guard originated as bodyguards for Roman generals.
