P
patrick457
Guest
I think you’re confusing terms here.
The term praetorium originally referred to an army commander’s (praetor, the highest-ranking civil servant in the Roman Republic) tent within a military encampment. By extension, it was later applied to large residential buildings or palaces like the residence of a governor or the emperor’s palace.
Re. the term ‘Praetorian Guard’ (cohors praetoria): it’s originally a term used for the bodyguards of any military general (Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian (Augustus) each had their own), but it’s usually now used to refer to the emperor’s personal bodyguards in Rome. As mentioned, during the first half of Pilate’s tenure, the prefect of the Praetorian Guard was Sejanus.
And about Pilate:
We know that for most of the year, the Roman governor stayed in the gentile city of Caesarea Maritima, the official capital of Roman Judaea. He only went to Jerusalem during certain times of the year to keep close watch on the populace; otherwise, local Jewish leaders (such as the high priest and his council) ran daily government for Rome. The picture you see in movies of Roman soldiers patrolling the streets 24/7 is actually not that accurate: Rome preferred an indirect form of government - leave the leading natives to do the work for them while they watch behind the scenes. The Romans would only step in usually when there was some trouble that the local authorities couldn’t contain.
In the case of Jerusalem, for most times of the year therefore, the men in charge were the high priest, his council and the aristocracy, with the Temple guards being the police force. They answered to the governor. When the prefect was in the city, he would take over most government duties, but otherwise, he delegated much of his tasks - keeping order, collecting tribute - to these people.
Because Judaea was just a second-rank province, Pilate was a prefect, a knight of the equestrian order (ordo equester). Because he was only an equestrian, legally he did not have the authority to command legions; his immediate superior, the legate of Syria (who was of senatorial rank), had that power. Rather, the prefect only commanded control of auxiliaries, soldiers recruited from native subjects who did not hold Roman citizenship (although Roman citizens could also serve as auxiliaries). In the case of Pilate, he might have drawn manpower mainly from non-Jewish locals like Greek Syrians or Samaritans. (The Jews were usually granted exemption from military service, probably in light of their traditional customs like the Sabbath rest or kosher laws, which explains why there were almost no Jewish Roman soldiers.)
The prefect at the most commanded a force of only 3,000 men: just enough to quash small skirmishes, but not enough to contain serious large-scale trouble. When there was some trouble that the governor couldn’t stop on his own, he’ll have to contact the legate of Syria to send the legions he commanded down to Judaea. As far as we know, the legions didn’t have to come down during Pilate’s tenure, which shows that his sometimes heavy-handed methods of dealing with potential unrest were usually effective.
Most of these 3,000 soldiers were stationed across various garrisons and outposts in the province - the rest stayed with the prefect in Caesarea Maritima and went with him to Jerusalem. A cohort (500-1,000 strong), headed by a tribune, was permanently stationed in the Antonia, to keep an eye on the Temple. (They didn’t prominently exhibit themselves unless it was necessary - again, indirect rule and all that.) It was the tribune and the cohort he commanded that would have been staying in the Antonia; his superior, the prefect and the ‘extra’ troops he brought would have stayed somewhere else since the Antonia was already occupied.
