The Germani corporis custodes (“German bodyguards”) flit in and out of our histories of the Julio-Claudian emperors. We catch tantalizing glimpses of them providing security for members of the imperial family, right up until the death of Nero, when they were abolished by new emperor Galba, to whom they owed no loyalty. Their names and origins are known from their gravestones, around 30 of which have been found in Rome, but questions remain about their legal status and general organization.
Over a century ago, Theodor Mommsen, the preeminent scholar of Roman law, realized that these men literally belonged to the familia Caesaris (the slaves and freedmen of the emperor); although they were effectively soldiers, they were legally slaves. Several gravestones indicate that the deceased was a Germanus Germanicianus, or a “German who previously belonged to Germanicus”. Mommsen astutely suggested that these men had been captured by the imperial prince Germanicus, nephew and adopted son of the emperor Tiberius, during his campaigns across the Rhine in AD 14–16. As the property of an imperial prince, they would then have entered the familia Caesaris on Germanicus’ death in AD 19. We know that one of these men became the property of Germanicus’ brother, Tiberius Germanicus (the later emperor Claudius); others were given to Germanicus’ sons, Drusus Caesar and Nero Caesar.
However, at least one guardsman can be shown to have predated these, for the grave-marker of a certain Sinnius ( VI, 4437) ("bodyguard who previously belonged to Drusus"), referring to Germanicus’ father, Drusus the Elder, who died in 9 BC. We may compare Philomusus, a freedman in the service of Livia, wife of the emperor Augustus, who also carried the surname , indicating a similar origin ( VI, 4180).
