Praetorian prefect

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Praetorian prefect (Latin: praefectus praetorio, Greek: ἔπαρχος/ὕπαρχος τῶν πραιτωρίων) was the title of a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders becoming the Emperor's chief aides. Under Constantine I, the office was much reduced in power and transformed into a purely civilian administrative post, while under his successors, territorially-defined praetorian prefectures emerged as the highest-level administrative division of the Empire. The prefects again functioned as the chief ministers of the state, with many laws addressed to them by name. In this role, praetorian prefects continued to be appointed until the reign of Heraclius, when wide-ranging reforms reduced its power and converted it to a mere overseer of provincial administration. The last traces of the prefect disappeared in the Byzantine Empire in the 840s.

The term praefectus praetorio was often abbreviated in inscriptions as 'PR PR'.^[1]

History

Commander of the Praetorian Guard

Under the empire the praetorians or imperial guards were commanded by one, two, or even three praefects (praefecti praetorio), who were chosen by the emperor from among the equites and held office at his pleasure. From the time of Alexander Severus the post was open to senators also, and if an equestrian was appointed he was at the same time raised to the senate. Down to the time of Constantine, who deprived the office of its military character, the prefecture of the guards was regularly held by tried soldiers, often by men who had fought their way up from the ranks. In course of time the command seems to have been enlarged so as to include all the troops in Italy except the corps commanded by the city praefect (cohortes urbanae).

The special position of the praetorians made them a power in their own right in the Roman state, and their prefect, praefectus praetorio, soon became one of the more powerful men in this society. The emperors tried to flatter and control the praetorians, but they staged many coups d'état and contributed to a rapid rate of turnover in the imperial succession. The praetorians thus came to destabilize the Roman state, contrary to their purpose. The praetorian prefect became a major administrative figure in the later empire, when the post combined in one individual the duties of an imperial chief of staff with direct command over the guard also. Diocletian greatly reduced the power of these prefects as part of his sweeping reform of the empire's administrative and military structures.

Transformation to administrator

The insignia of the praetorian prefect of Illyricum, as depicted in the Notitia Dignitatum.

In addition to his military functions, the praetorian prefect came to acquire jurisdiction over criminal affairs, which he exercised not as the delegate but as the representative of the emperor. It was decreed by Constantine 331 that from the sentence of the praetorian praefect there should be no appeal. A similar jurisdiction in civil cases was acquired by him not later than the time of Septimius Severus. Hence a knowledge of law became a qualification for the post, which under Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, but especially from the time of Severus, was held by the first jurists of the age, (e.g. Papinian, Ulpian, Paullus) and John the Cappadocian, while the military qualification fell more and more into the background.

The tetrarchy reform of Diocletian (c. 296) multiplied the office, as there was now one pretorian prefect as chief of staff (military and administrative)—rather than commander of the guard—for each of the two Augusti and two Caesares. Each one of the pretorian perfects oversaw one of the four quarters created by Diocletian, which would become praetorian prefectures under Constantine. Their masters were soon reduced to two imperial courts, at Rome (later Ravenna) and Constantinople, but the four prefectures remained as the highest level of administrative division, in charge of several so-called dioceses (groups of Roman provinces), each of which was headed by a Vicarius.

Under Constantine I, the institution of the magister militum deprived the praetorian prefecture altogether of its military character but left it the highest civil office of the empire.

Germanic era

The office was among the many maintained after the Western Roman Empire had succumbed to the Germanic invasion in Italy, notably at the royal court of the Ostrogothic king Theoderic the Great, who as a nominal subject of Constantinople retained the Roman-era administration intact.

List of known prefects of the Praetorian Guard

The following is a list of all known prefects of the Praetorian Guard, from the establishment of the post in 2 BC by Augustus until the abolishment of the Guard in 314. The list is presumed to be incomplete due to lack of sources documenting the exact number of persons who held the post, what their names were and what the length of their tenure was. Likewise, the Praetorians were sometimes commanded by a single prefect, as was the case with for example Sejanus or Burrus, but more often, the emperor appointed two commanders, who shared joint leadership. Overlapping terms on the list indicate dual command.

Julio-Claudian dynasty (2 BC – AD 68)

Year of the Four Emperors (AD 68 – 69)

Flavian dynasty (AD 69 – 96)

Five Good Emperors to Didius Julianus (AD 96 – 193)

Severan dynasty (AD 193 – 235)

Crisis of the Third Century (AD 235 – 285)

Tetrarchy to Constantine I (AD 285 – 324)

See also

For praetorian prefects after the reformation of the office by emperor Constantine I, see:

• Praetorian prefecture of Africa
• Praetorian prefecture of the East
• Praetorian prefecture of Gaul
• Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum
• Praetorian prefecture of Italy

Notes

References

• Syme, Ronald (1980). "Guard Prefects of Trajan and Hadrian". The Journal of Roman Studies (The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 70) 70: p64–80. doi:10.2307/299556. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0075-4358%281980%2970%3C64%3AGPOTAH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0. 
• Bingham, Sandra J. (1999) [1997] (PDF). The praetorian guard in the political and social life of Julio-Claudian Rome. Ottawa: National Library of Canada. ISBN 0-612-27106-4. http://amicus.collectionscanada.ca/s4-bin/Main/ItemDisplay?coll=19&itm=24141235&rsn=S_WWWymaKWJQUZ. Retrieved 2007-05-23. 
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Howe, Laurence Lee (1942). The Pretorian Prefect from Commodus to Diocletian (AD 180-305). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.