Firefighters, intelligence & police in Rome

When studying ancient civilizations, we tend to focus on the things that get the most attention – famous generals and famous battles, while writings on events that changed history are fairly easy to find. This article is about a much less talked about subject – the domestic and civil units that were the firefighters, intelligence and police in Rome – the Vigiles (cohortes vigilum), Cohortes Urbanae (Urban Cohorts), Frumentarii and to some extent, the Praetorian Guard (cohortes praetoriae).

The Vigiles Urbani were basically the firefighters of ancient Rome. The people who originally took up this role, the trumviri nocturni and other groups, proved to be haphazard and ineffective at times, as there was little organization, and the groups were privately run.

It was not until Augustus streamlined things and formed the first band of Vigiles Urbani, that firefighting became more effective. The Vigiles also went by the nickname Spartoli or “little bucket fellows”. This was due to the Vigiles walking around the city with water buckets, ready for the next fire outbreak.

It must be remembered that in ancient times, many buildings were constructed out of wood, so fires were a regular occurrence. The urban density of cities like Rome meant that buildings were built so close together, that they often shared a common wall. Roman apartment blocks, or insulae, have been recorded to be up to seven stories high. According to early sources, there were approximately 45,000 of these insulae in the city, each containing dozens of inhabitants.

It was not until the great fire of Rome in AD 64 and the reforms by Emperor Nero, that buildings such as insulae were forbidden from sharing a common wall.

The Vigiles Urbani were originally made up of slaves, then eventually freedmen, then citizens by the second century AD.

They were not only equipped with buckets for water but had a whole array of equipment with which to call upon. They were armed with buckets, pumps, hooks (to tear down burnt-out buildings and other structures), axes, picks and other tools of a similar nature. This was all designed to help the Vigiles contain the fire and to stop it from getting further out of control. In extreme cases, they also used ballistae to destroy burning buildings or those buildings in the immediate vicinity of the fire to create a firebreak. The also had a “fire engine” or sipho that was pulled by horses that contained heavier equipment with which to fight fires.

The Vigiles Urbani topped 7,000 in number and were eventually given their own stations in second century AD. They were split up in to seven cohorts numbering approximately 1,000 men each. This enabled each one to patrol two of the fourteen regions of Rome itself.

When Augustus became emperor in 27 BC, he added a law enforcement function to the Vigiles. Though they were not given investigative powers of normal police, they were given the powers to patrol the streets, break up fights, intervene in criminal activity taking place and making arrests. They were basically police on the beat. Much more complicated crimes where investigations needed to take place, were handled by the Cohortes Urbanae (Urban Cohorts).

It must be noted that at the time of Augustus’ ascension, there was a lot of instability around as the Republic had just come to an end and Rome was now an Empire. Giving the Vigiles Urbani some law enforcement capabilities made sense as they were already out on the streets, patrolling and eager to put out the next fire.

The Cohortes Urbanae the main arm of law enforcement in Rome, while in later periods there was a cohort stationed in Carthage and Lugdunum (both provincial capitals).

The Cohortes Urbanae was founded during the reign of Augustus, however as Mark Cartwright notes “Augustus created the first three urban cohorts, likely recruiting them from the existing Praetorian Guard (cohortes praetoriae) which was also stationed in Rome. The precise date of their foundation is not known.” They also shared the same quarters for most of their existence (castra praetoria) until AD 270, when Emperor Aurelian assigned them to the newly created castra urbana.

As Cartwright further noted “As there were nine cohorts of the Praetorian Guard, the urban cohorts were given the numbers X, XI, and XII, which were maintained even when the Guard was later expanded by another three cohorts.”

While exact details are unclear, it appears that the Cohortes Urbanae’s main roles were law enforcement, riot police, crowd control and general security. The role of law enforcement allowed them to investigate criminal activity, seek out suspects and make arrests. It is likely that they would have been deployed to contain riots and violent mobs – a regular occurrence when food was scarce at times due to grain shipment issues.

Over time, cohorts were added and taken away, while the number of soldiers in each cohort started at around 500 and expanded to 1,500 a few decades before they were all but disbanded under Constantine. They were disbanded sometime after AD 312 when Constantine defeated rival Maxentius in the Battle of Milvian Bridge (Pons Milvius). The Cohortes Urbanae and Praetorian Guard both supported Maxentius, so Constantine needed to protect himself by ridding himself of people who were openly opposed to him.

The most famous of these units is the Praetorian Guard (cohortes praetoriae). While it may seem a stretch to put them in the same category as the Vigiles and Urban Cohorts due to the fact that the basically served the emperor, they did have some functions related to law enforcement.

During the period of the Roman Republic, the praetorians we deployed as guards for the top military officers in the Roman army – namely the generals. Many of these generals also held positions as public officials but it is unclear whether the praetorians remained their bodyguards in a civic capacity. There is evidence that some officials hired their own bodyguards for protection, so there is a good chance that some of these praetorians would have been hired in a private capacity.

When Rome evolved from a Republic to an Empire, the praetorians more or less came under the direct control of the emperor and acted as imperial bodyguards. Sections of the Praetorian Guard accompanied the emperor on military campaigns, protecting officials, while a cohort was always stationed near the emperor.

Detachments of the Guard were dispatched to Germania to join the legions of Germanicus and helped the general in his quest to retrieve the legionary eagles lost in the disaster of Teutoburg Forest.

While the Praetorian Guard had a long history of protecting the emperor, exerting pressure over the emperor and also at-times played ‘kingmaker’, it did have other law enforcement components.

At times throughout the empire, they were deployed as ‘riot police’, like the urban cohorts, with Tacitus claiming that in 23 BC there were around 4,500 men deployed in Rome and nearby regions tasked with keeping the peace in Italy.

The Praetorian Guard acted like the intelligence services we have today, gathering information by way of reconnaissance missions and clandestine meetings and interrogations, much of this at the behest of the emperor. It should be noted however that they would have conducted their own operations, independent of the emperor, given the immense power they wielded within the empire.

Contained within the Praetorian Guard were the Speculatores Augusti. They acted as reconnaissance units, charged with the gathering and transmission of intelligence and well as carrying out other special operations. They were also tasked with carrying out arrests, imprisoning individuals and also carrying out executions.

As was the case with the cohortes urbanae, the Praetorian Guard were disbanded by Emperor Constantine around AD 312 as they too supported Constantine’s rival, Maxentius.

The Frumentarii were the secret police of the empire who were also used as an intelligence agency. They were founded as a courier service during the reign of the Emperor Domitian at the end of the first century AD but eventually turned into an intelligence service due to the mere fact that as couriers, they came into contact with many people and were regularly travelling the expanses of the empire, giving them unmatched knowledge of the empire as a whole.

They gathered empire-wide intelligence, while emperors used them to gain valuable information about those close to them, including family and friends. They also carried out assassinations.

Over time, they gained a bad reputation among the citizens of Rome, concerned by their extreme power and their willingness to use it, regardless of the consequences. They were eventually disbanded in the early fourth century AD.