Excubitors

Common card · No. 439603

The Excubitors (Latin: excubitores or excubiti, lit. 'those out of bed', i.e. 'sentinels'; transcribed into Greek as ἐξκουβίτορες or ἐξκούβιτοι, exkoubitores/exkoubitoi) were founded in c. 460 as an imperial guard-unit by the Roman emperor Leo I the Thracian. The 300-strong force, originally recruited from among the warlike mountain tribe of the Isaurians, replaced the older Scholae Palatinae as the main imperial bodyguards. The Excubitors remained an active military unit for the next two centuries, although, as imperial bodyguards, they did not often go on campaign. Their commander, the Count of the Excubitors (comes excubitorum, κόμης τῶν ἐξκουβίτων), soon acquired great influence. Justin I was able to use this position to rise to the throne in 518, and thereafter the Counts of the Excubitors were among the main political power-holders of their day; two more, Tiberius II Constantine and Maurice, rose to become emperors in the late 6th century. In the later part of the 7th century the...

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