The Old Praetorian Guard Senses A Disturbance In The Force

I’m so old that I remember when we used to think journalists were the Praetorian Guard:

It turned out they were but one of the cohortes praetoriae. The demands of the early 21st century required the deployment of all 9 of the cohorts so the U.S. Intelligence community was pulled in.

The Praetorians were known to engage in espionage, intimidation, arrests and killings to protect the interests of the Roman emperor. For clandestine operations, they may have employed a special wing of troops known as “speculatores.” Formerly a reconnaissance corps under the Roman Republic, by the imperial era this unit had graduated to serving as couriers and intelligence operatives in the service of the Caesar. – H

And before anyone could even say Hail Caesar! we found ourselves deep-down this rabbit hole.

And that, good people of the Republic is precisely why we’ve got Trump.

While the Praetorians supposedly made a valiant last stand along the Tiber River, they were soundly defeated, and Maxentius was killed. Convinced the Praetorians could no longer be trusted, Constantine disbanded the unit once and for all, reassigned its members to the outskirts of the Empire, and oversaw the destruction of their barracks at the Castra Praetoria.

I sense a disturbance in the force.