My brother (not Draco, the other one) has recently finished writing an article on the wikipedia about the influential prefect Seianus.
The part about the praetorian guard sparked the following discussion in the talk page of another article:
This article, and several others (see Sejanus), state that the Praetorian Guards were the only troops allowed south of the Rubicon. What is the source of this statement?
It is common conception that Roman laws forbade legions from operating within Italia. While this is generally true of armed legions existing within the "sacred border" of Rome (the pomerium) unless they were part of a Roman triumph, I question whether or not there was any actual law that prevented legions south of the Rubicon. The common (mis?)conception is based on Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon - however the argument as I understand it runs that by crossing ''out'' of Cisalpine Gual, Caesar had left the region in which he held imperium, and thus no longer had the legal authority to command his legions, and was also in direct violation of the edict of the Senate against him. In short, the legal breach law was ''Caesar'' operating outside his legal domain, and not the ''legions'' existing outside of their legal domain.
However, it should be noted that under Augustus and Tiberius, the Praetorian were not even the only corp of soldiers allowed within in Rome it'self: the Vigiles operated within Rome, and 3 cohorts, placed under the senatorial prefect of the city also operated within the city as a police force. In fact one of the acts of Sejanus used to gain personal power was to gather the Praetorian Guard with the urban cohorts and the Vigiles into one camp where he could influence them all.
Perhaps this claim about the illegality of legions within Italia can either be referenced and confirmed, or corrected/struck out entirely? It seems to be a prevalant belief written into ''many'' articles, so this should be addressed. --User:Vedexent - 05:33, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
The question is simple: was Caesar himself, or his legions off limits for crossing the Rubicon (or perhaps both)?
Valete bene,