Units of History - The Frumentarii: Assassins of Rome DOCUMENTARY

deep within the heart of Rome lay the headquarters of one of the Empire's most feared units shrouded in mystery they seemed to have begun as humble grain men and courriers yet as the tendrils of their reach grew so too did their ability to covertly enact the will of the emperor from enforcement and Espionage to arrests and assassinations they are often acquainted to the CIA or the Secret Service Antiquity yet how much of this legendary reputation can we attribute to fact or fiction to answer this question let's explore the history of the [Music] frumentarii so if you're like me and use YouTube for basically everything from news to education and entertainment then you're definitely going to want to check out YouTube premium it's a better experience and it helps support the channel and a disclaimer before we get started if you subscribe through the link in this post or the banner appearing in this video I may get a commission there's a bunch of benefits first YouTube Premium Cuts the ads second YouTube premium makes the experience much more enjoyable and flexible features like background play lets you play videos off screen while you do other things on your phone or lock it entirely smart downloads lets you pre-load content for when you have no internet or poor data and continue watching lets you transition between devices seamlessly third you'll get access to the YouTube music app for adree offline and in the background streaming there's many more perks included but one of the key Concepts is that part of your monthly fee actually goes in to directly support channels like Invicta so to give you a taste we've actually worked with YouTube to offer a 2-month free trial which you can start today by checking out the description and please if you do subscribe use our link as Invicta gets commission from this program so anyways try it out enjoy and I'll see you out there the origin of the Frum menari is not well attested to however evidence points to them potentially emerging from two pre-existing Army duties the collection of grain and the collection of intelligence we can tackle each in turn with regards to the collection of grain the association is quite evident given that the term fermentum in Latin literally translates to grain ancient military authors make frequent mention of such fermentum in their campaigns both in its collection and distribution to the men tacitus labels the soldiers tasked with transporting this grain as F menores Caesar's comment trees meanwhile explicitly label them as fumari this would appear to be a clear connection to the frumentarii we are interested in however in such early years the role seems to have been rather ad hoc and not quite as professionalized as their later Incarnation yet in the decades following the era of Caesar it seems that the logistical apparatus behind the grain Supply gradually matured we know for instance that in osta Rome's Coastal port a dedication was made by a centurio frumentarius to his Superior officer the prefect of the grain Supply presumably such men were part of the important organization established to ensure the masses of Rome received their all important food supply a similar logistical group was likely also embedded within each legion's provincial Fortress to ensure that it too was fed evidence for this appears in the form of a handful of ferary inscriptions where we see soldiers self-identify as the frumentarius of their Legion for the care of the brain Supply yet the inner workings of these provisioning systems eludes us what proves more confusing is that around the 2nd Century ad we see frumentarii agents being associated with another parallel collection system that of intelligence this apparatus arose from the connective tissue which had grown between the various Legions their local Governor's offices and the central Imperial government in Rome in terms of the legions these had already evolved a system of professionalized military intelligence for armies in the field this ultimately took the form of a three-layered system which included the following a close range of patrolling precursores a mid-range ring of scouting exploratories and a far-reaching projection of spying speculatory the existence of such units bred a talented pool of intelligence operatives with a robust set of standards and practices while their reports and services would have been used by the legionary commander much would eventually have filtered to the local Governor whose job it was to remain well informed about his Province and its surrounding area such legionary reports combined with additional sources would then have been compiled synthesized and shared up the chain of command to the powers in Rome this was done via an efficient Korean Network known as the cursus puus which ran across virtually the entire breadth of the Empire thus it seems natural that over the years this intelligence pipeline would gradually develop its own bureaucratic organization as it did so the frari seemed to have become involved as can be be seen in ferary depictions where we see intelligence agents riding a top the messenger carts of Rome's career Network ultimately how these two Origin stories one of men collecting grain and one of men collecting intelligence may have emerged or evolved into one another is unknown yet the overlap between the two roles seems quite natural after all the status of the all important grain Supply was in and of itself a valuable piece of intelligence it was also true that the people involved in its collection the Farmers Merchants and sailors would have had a pulse on the going on of the world thus agents traveling back and forth across the Empire to supervise grain Logistics or to collect and carry information could easily perform both tasks at once evidence of this dual role appears one of the earliest epigraphic records of the fanari in a letter from an Egyptian archive dated to the early secondth Century ad a man writes that he had sent a message quote which soproni Clemens the frumentarius will deliver but however the frari came to be from the 2 Century on we have quite clear evidence that they were established as a distinct group of operatives with a base in in Rome now let us take a look at their organization headquarters equipment and service history we can begin with their organization according to various inscriptions the frumentarii were apparently a collection of soldiers who had been detached from their Legions to serve on this special assignment the entire group which numbered perhaps anywhere from a few dozen to a 100 or so men was organized into a unit known as the numerous fontar room it was structured in the manner of a regular military force with Junior officers centurions and an overall commander known as the preps paragor or chief of the foreigners from here one could apparently use the position as a stepping stone to seek higher offices as we shall see close service to the Emperors had its perks and there may even have been a track leading from frari to the vaunted ranks of the pretorians as is hinted at by Casas Dio who attributes the rise of three petorian prefects to their prior service among the frari now let us explore the headquarters of this unit though the members of the numerous from Inari Orum by necessity were often dispersed across the empire they nonetheless shared a central home back in Rome located at top the celian hill it was known as the castra paragina or foreigners Camp the headquarters appears to have been of facility in a similar manner as the more famous Castro Pretoria of the pretorians as such it boasted its own Barracks support structures and a small shrine records facilities may have been present but it does not seem that the castra paragina functioned as any sort of grand repository for the secrets of Rome rather it would have been the various archives and libraries which housed much of the written work stored in the capital there was also the ab episis or Office of the procurator in charge of Imperial correspondence which may have acted to process information yet for most of their history these institutions were run by civil rather than military figures with no mention of a connection to the operation of the frari such a state of affairs dampens the idea that any sophisticated Central Intelligence operation existed in Rome to the extent that any such apparatus had Arisen it would most likely have been found out in the provinces after all it was here that Governors were kept up to speed with the latest news of their local area with the task of acting as a first responder to any pressing matters rather than waiting for directions from the distant Emperors though of course advice and permission was often sought out to this end a Governor's headquarters boasted huge records facilities run by military staff officers of the officium perhaps the frari given their military rank may have been counted among their number such an arrangement would have benefited the Emperors who might get a second set of eyes on the activities of their underlings but we shall cover these efforts in due time for now let's zoom in to get a better look at the members of the fumari up close in terms of appearance there may be a temptation to imagine them on two ends of a spectrum either with ornate gear befitting their special role or with extremely clandestine outfits in the manner of some undercover agent however what records we do have seem to indicate that the fru andari were basically outfitted as regular soldiers at times this meant donning their full kit but otherwise having the Liberty to dress down for convenience there are however some hints at identifying pieces of gear for instance men who use the CER service on Imperial Duty were identified by carrying a special Lance known as the benefi Arius perhaps this item made its way into the standard outfit of a frumentarii agent Beyond this speculation we can more confidently expect the usual gradation of distinguishing marks which accompan the various ranks of the optos the centurions and the senior commanders so what did these frumentarii do unfortunately we don't have a detailed record but we can nonetheless sketch an outline based on some Clues this involves the following roles as grain supervisors couriers spies assassins and agents of law enforcement regarding the first two these duties would have been continuations of the earlier tasks which predated their origin the fact that such activities continued on when the frent proper had been established is attested to by both textual and epigraphic records for instance in 210 ad a centurion of the fumari is recorded as helping to coordinate the dredging of a harbor used to offload grain in 238 ad during a period of Imperial transition we are told that quote a letter sent to all the provinces by means of the menari ordered that whoever gave assistance to Maxim menus would be numbered among the enemy while we previously mentioned that such grain and Courier related duties tied them to the location of an army A governor's office or key ports it seems that there were also special assignments one gravestone of an agent for instance lists his title not as the frumentarius of any Legion but as quote a frumentarius of the emperor stationed at leyon thus we see that they were increasingly being used as tools of the Emperor as such there were certainly more creative ways one might use them according to the Historia Augusta for instance hadrien began to use them as domestic Spies The Passage reads quote for he was inquisitive not only about his own household but Al about his friends to the point of investigating their secrets through his frumentarii by intercepting letters from a senator's wife hadrien was apparently able to learn of complaints about the man's indulgent habits in Rome the ensuing reprimand caught the senator off guard leaving him to wonder how he had been exposed similar stories of domestic spying are reported with regards to the Emperors macrinus and gallienus froment arier apparently also listened in at the games and theaters to hear what the public had to say that this sort of operation took place is not surprising after all in days past the senators of the Republic had employed their own systems to spy on the businesses and households of their Rivals naturally the most powerful man in Rome did the same but this need not only have been used to sniff out potential threats such information was generally useful for the proper management of the Empire's Human Resources who might best be promoted transferred or demoted were all as important decisions to make as who might best be killed yet this last option was not ruled out indeed we have several links to the Frum manari being used as assassins during the reign of Commodus for instance petorian prefects had apparently wished to eliminate an individual and quote murdered him as he was returning to his estate by means of the frumentarii other mentions of assassinations are a bit less explicit in 195 ad for example we hear vaguely that some agents had been dispatched to Britain to assassinate The Pretender Clodius albinus their identity as frari is thus assumed rather than confirmed another intriguing story comes during the reign of emperor seus when a certain Centurion named achillus notorious as the Assassin of senators was sent by his enemies to kill the Monarch contemporary writings meanwhile identify a man by the name of Marcus achillus Felix who was a centurion of the frumentarii though it may be a coincidence linking the two seems plausible ultimately however it is difficult to determine whether these sorts of assassinations were a standard service of the frari or rather a reflection of the desires of the powers in charge who wished to wield them as such one might imagine that the out in the open nature of the Frum manari may have undermined their ability to act as spies or assassins however the very fact that they appeared to act as Logistics officers and Couriers may have deferred some suspicion one might also Imagine That on missions of sub auge they were given enough resources and leeway to recruit others to help them to this end the use of dtores or informants may have been standard procedure but such work in the shadows is unlikely to have been recorded and thus remains pure speculation finally we must mention yet one more role which we see associated with the fumari that of law enforcer this comes to us from scattered sources an edict from the 3r century ad for example records how the frumentarii quote arrested nine put them in Chains and sent them to the equestrian procurator such arrests are most commonly attested to in the era of Christian persecution the author eus tells of one case where a frumentarius was sent to hunt down a man by the name of dius the Christian reportedly hid away in his home for 4 days while the agent prowled the streets rivers and Fields looking for him in other writings St cyprien reports that he had to flee from fumari sent to arrest him while the disciple Paul was supervised by aarius while awaiting trial in Rome yet they were not uniquely seen as feared enforcers arrests and assistance in peacekeeping operations also could be appreciated for example inscriptions mention how frumentarii were actually called upon in several instances to intervene on behalf of rural communities facing harassment from soldiers and other troublemakers Beyond this we have even more mentions of the odd jobs taken up by fanari Across The Empire one ran a prison in Anatolia one supervised building activity in Deli and one raised emergency City walls in Salona thus we see how the Frum andari were a quite flexible organization whose agents could be dispatched by the Emperor or his Governors to take on a range of roles on a quite ad hoc basis ultimately however it seems that this sort of runaway scope creep proved their undoing by the end of the 3rd Century they had begun to run rampant with a notorious reputation for trouble the ancient author Aurelius Victor claims that quote they had apparently been set up to investigate and report on any potential rebellions in the provinces and by their wicked concoction of accusations and by spreading fear everywhere particularly in the most remote areas they caused the most awful disruption to everything the end result was that their organization would be disbanded by a Dian yet the need for such a security and information service did not disappear thus it was that they would eventually be replaced by the more rigidly controlled and bureaucratized institutions of the late Empire such as that that of the agentes in rabus however their story she'll have to wait for another time a quick reminder again that if you're a heavy user of YouTube like myself and you want to enjoy adree in the background and offline streaming of content consider YouTube premium and if you use the link 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Channel: Invicta

Views: 49,296

Keywords: invicta, invicta history

Id: Nm8aSZm4JUM

Length: 21min 59sec (1319 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 11 2024