Swords around the throne: bodyguards of kings and emperors

Ancient Warfare Podcast

The History Network

Society & Culture, Greece, Warfare, Ancient, Rome, History, Military

4.4 • 631 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2011

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jasper, Lindsay, Murray and Mike discuss the use of bodyguards from Alexanders men having to prevent him from getting into harm through to being a symbol of power in Rome, and of course a long look at the Pretorian guard.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Ancient Warfare Magazine podcast produced by the History Network. If you have any
0:06.4	comments or ideas, email editor at ancient-warfare.com. And for other discussions, check out the
0:15.4	ancient warfare forum, which you can find a link to at www.w. ancient-warfare.com. You can also find all the History Network
0:26.5	podcasts by going to www.thehistorynetwork.org. Good evening, everyone. It's a high time after a long
0:36.3	summer for another ancient warfare
0:37.8	podcast. This time we're discussing ancient warfare. Issue 5-2, swords around the throne,
0:44.1	bodyguards of kings and emperors, in which we range pretty much all over the ancient world
0:49.0	with articles about King David's bodyguard, Spartan hippies, Alexander de Great's bodyguard,
0:56.2	Hellenistic bodyguards, and of course ending with the Roman Praetorian Guard.
1:00.6	With me tonight are Lindsay Powell, Michael Taylor, and Murray Donne.
1:06.1	Hi, guys.
1:07.3	Hello.
1:07.8	Good evening.
1:08.7	Hello.
1:09.6	Lindsay, would you like to set off this time?
1:11.6	My only contribution to this would be the fact that these big general and commander
1:18.6	felt they needed to have bodyguards at all in some regards as surprising.
1:24.6	Were they that much under a threat, you know? In Greek tyranny terms, it's always the first sign of a tyrant trying to take control and take power as the granting of a bodyguard.
1:35.3	It's always a telltale sign that, oh, tyranny's on the way.
1:39.3	I think the magazine title hit the mark when it was bodyguards of kings and impers for,
1:47.0	even though we do have, say, for Roman Republican magistrates, they might, you know, that's where the initial sort of
1:53.0	Praetorian Guard comes from as a small group of soldiers, the act to protect a particular general or particular magistrate.
	...

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