praetorian

Dictators obviously maintain unilateral control of their militaries, employed as they invariably are as praetorian protectors and coercive extensions of their autocratic overlords.

A former bodyguard of the president, he now runs Russia's national guard, Rosgvardia, formed by President Putin in 2016 as a kind of personal army in the style of a Roman empire-like praetorian guard.

“It’s an army within an army, the regime’s praetorian guard,” he said.

"We are truly living in a situation where the FBI has become a praetorian guard from Rome where they take it unto themselves to decide who wields power in this country," Miller said.

First, he meets his Cabinet this morning, his praetorian guard, who fanned on Monday fanned out to every patch of grass in Westminster to try to prop him up.