The Praetorian Guard (Latin: Cohortēs praetōriae) was a unit of the Imperial Roman army that served as personal bodyguards and intelligence agents for the Roman emperors.

The Praetorian Guard were an escort for high-rank political officials (senators and procurators) and were bodyguards for the senior officers of the Roman legions. In the year 27 BC, after Rome's transition from republic to empire, the first Emperor of Rome, Caesar Augustus, designated the Praetorians as his personal security escort. For three centuries, the guards of the Roman emperor were also known for their palace intrigues, by which influence upon imperial politics the Praetorians could overthrow an emperor, and then proclaim his successor as the new Caesar of Rome. In AD 312, Constantine the Great disbanded the cohortes praetoriae and destroyed their barracks at the Castra Praetoria.