ABSTRACT
Pace Freis, from ad 23 the urban cohorts shared the castra praetoria on the Viminal with the praetorians. Other literary and epigraphic evidence would favour an Antonine date for distinct barracks of the Urbani and praetorians – or at least the increased presence of the milites urbani in north-central Rome. The urban cohorts could have been assigned a deterrent function against potential clashes between the various components of society and likewise against external pressures originating from the territory just outside the city. Although the term 'police' in the modern sense may seem incorrect, the urban cohorts surely performed tasks related to maintaining public order in the city and its environs. All available evidence for the period when the military role of the urban cohorts was intensified and the soldiers began to have separate camps from praetorians points to a separation of their roles and responsibilities in the late Antonine rather than the Severan period.
