How many guys in the Guard?

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered how many soliders were in the Queen's palace guard and what number Eugenides wanted to cut their ranks down to. I must've forgotten how to count, because the book does say!

"...one of more than a thousand men standing in orderly blocks across the parade ground, waiting for their captain."

- The King of Attolia (p. 27)

One thousand men! That's at least ten centuries of soliders devoted to just guarding the palace. Being curious if this was considered an excessive number in RL vs. the QT universe, I looked up the cohort numbers for the Praetorian Guard, which is probably the closest RL equivilant to the Queen's Own. The Praetorians were elite soliders tasked with protecting the Roman emperor.

"Thus, he allowed only nine cohorts to be formed, each originally consisting of 500 men. He then increased them to 1,000 men each, but allowed three units to be kept on duty at any given time in the capital." - Wiki

Nine cohorts! That's a maximum of nine thousand men with at least fifteen hundred serving in the capital at once. (Oh, and I did notice that MWT referenced this by having only the first three centuries of the Guard serving within the inner palace.) However, the important lesson to learn about the Praetorian is this.

"The Praetorians’ may have been tasked with protecting the Roman Emperor, but they were also the single greatest threat to his life. The unit was a major player in the webs of deceit that characterized imperial Rome, and they were willing to slaughter and install new emperors when tempted by promises of money or power." - History Stories

The Preatorians were even directly responsible for the assassination of serveral Roman emperors and were very corrupt.

"...you would entrust that Guard ten years, fifteen years, thirty years from now, with the power of kingmakers. Sooner or later the Guard’s loyalty will be bought and sold like other men’s, and the crown will go to the highest bidder."

-The King of Attolia (p. 384)

All of which means, Gen is exactly right! The monarch's personal guard being too powerful and numerous creates massive civil unrest.

Also, check out Lucius Aelius Sejanus. He kinda reminds me of someone...?

I remembered that Horrible Histories did a skit on the Preatorian being very bad at protecting the emperor. Check it out if you need a good laugh.

Skip to 9:00.

Comments

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

The video is hilarious. I could get sucked in to watching lots more.

This is why Megan's books are so great--all the historical bits in there that make the stories so plausible. And why Sounis is so great--the smart history nerds you all are!

I assume the large numbers of soldiers are there to face any threat to the castle; from without or within. And this is why the leaders of the guard were so important and why Attolia made "term limits" a thing. Do you suppose she demoted them, made them retire, waited until her spies said they were being suborned and then had them killed?

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

""...one of more than a thousand men"

So, that would be 1001 Attolian Knights?

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I definitely recommend Horrible Histories and the children's books the show is based on. Way superior to SNL in my opinion!

I always knew the Attolian Guard was based on Roman soldiers, going by the the description of the uniforms, centurion rankings, and being awarded land for service. ( I wonder if they get paid in salt too? XD) The Preatorians ring even more bells.

I do love that Gen is basically describing what happened with the Praetorian and how they became too powerful and eventually kingmakers themselves. All of which contributed to the corruption of the Roman government and its eventual downfall.

Didn't Gen say Costis's function was mainly decorative or was he just making fun of him? XD Attolia also has a standing army, but I'm sure the Guard is mostly responsible for protecting the monarch and the royal residence. Teleus directly said, we keep the queen safe.

The Preatorian cohort numbers were far bigger, but when you account for population, a thousand men is probably equally as excessive and thus dangerous to the Little Peninsula as the Preatorian was to Rome.

When the queen's seat was unstable, having a small army in her front yard made sense, but I totally get Gen's wolf to guard the farm metaphor.

I thought the term limit was for her generals? To prevent them from amassing too much power. A smart move on her part, and also why most modern governments have term limits on political service.

She has spies that watch her spies after all! She probably had anyone eliminated who was disloyal or conspiring with her country's enemies.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

Vs. Eugenides and the forty thieves?

[filkferengi]

If you write it, we will read it, with right and proper reprobatish glee.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

Not only does this demonstrate how much thought and research MWT puts into her world-building, it's also in keeping with her characterization of Gen: "He'd cleaned the dust off the shelves and honed rudimentary reading skills into a taste for scholarship..." (QoA). Gen didn't waste all those hours of living and reading in Eddis's library. He's a student of history, and it shows! He doesn't want to see Attolia go down any dark, well-trodden paths to disaster.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

The books are actually full of historical references, but one, generally, only notices them if one is already familiar with what she's alluding to. Cue me watching something about ancient Rome and going, wait a second... That sounds really familar!