Excubitors

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The Excubitors (Latin: Excubitores or Excubiti, literally "those out of bed", i.e. "sentinels"; in Greek: Εξκουβίτορες or Εξκούβιτοι) were the imperial guards of the early Byzantine emperors, and later one of the elite tagmatic units.

[edit] History

They were founded by Emperor Leo I in 461 and recruited from among the sturdy and warlike Isaurians, as a counterbalance to the Germanic soldiers under Aspar. Its strength was 300 men, and it was commanded by a Comes Excubitorum, a position of great power in the Byzantine court. It was held among others by Justin I, his nephew Justinian the Great and Tiberius II, all of whom used this position to become emperors.

The unit survived into the middle Byzantine period (7th - 11th centuries), but reorganized into a tagma, one of the elite imperial heavy cavalry regiments of the Byzantine army.