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The Praetorians became the 'deciders' during power vacuum moments and would have the weight of the authority in anointing the new leader because without there s

The Praetorians became the 'deciders' during power vacuum moments and would have the weight of the authority in anointing the new leader because without there support the new nominee could not be viewed as legit ... and though it seems there was less of political motivation early on, over time, they basically sold out and just used their authority for political purposes to gain money and power. Though it would rather seem there was a lot of civic corruption during that time on all levels.

orf 8y ago
This was somewhat early in the empire though and had some ridiculous heights. At one point the Praetorian guard (the emperors personal army within Rome) auctioned off their support and caused absolute havok in what is called 'the year of the 4 emperors' (I think this is the same point in time, it's been a while since I've read about it). However their power diminished a lot as the empire grew and Rome became less relevant. Eventually emperors began to not even visit Rome at all during their lives, and the power of the guard faded to nothing. At the time I was commenting about they had next to no influence, much like the senate.