Excubitors
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.
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.
Individual seals of office suggest that the title of excubitor became an honorific dignity rather than an active military appointment during the early part of the 8th century.
This changed c. 760, when the Emperor Constantine V reformed the corps into one of the élite tagmata - professional heavy-cavalry regiments that constituted the core of the Byzantine army of the middle-Byzantine period.
[2][3][4] Unlike the older palace regiments of the Scholae Palatinae, which were under the control of the magister officiorum and eventually degenerated to parade-ground formations, the Excubitors long remained a crack fighting force.
[5][6][7] The unit was headed by the count of the Excubitors (Latin: comes excubitorum; Ancient Greek: κόμης τῶν ἐξκουβίτων/ἐξκουβιτόρων, romanized: komēs tōn exkoubitōn/exkoubitorōn), who was entirely independent of all other officials and subordinated only to the emperor himself.
At the same time, the tagmata, being loyal to the emperor's person, represented a counterbalance to the thematic armies of the provinces and constituted a powerful tool in implementing the iconoclastic policies pursued by Constantine V.[25][26] Their original role as palace guardians was taken over by another, newly created tagma, that of the Vigla.
[28][29] By the 780s, following years of imperial favour and military victories under Constantine V and his son Leo IV the Khazar (r. 775–780), the tagmata had become firm adherents to the iconoclast cause.
[36] The most prominent domestic of the Excubitors of the period was Michael II the Amorian (r. 820–829), whose supporters overthrew Emperor Leo V the Armenian (r. 813–820) and raised him to the throne.
[43] Unlike the Scholae, which comprised several sub-units garrisoned throughout Bithynia (and occasionally in Thrace) as well as Constantinople,[44] the Excubitors were a small and elite unit that served in the imperial palace itself and was intended exclusively to protect the emperor.
[43] The historian Warren Treadgold speculates that they fulfilled a role similar to the regular cavalry decurions, commanding troops of 30 men each,[6] but the scribones also appear in charge of administrative matters such as handing out pay to the soldiers,[46] as well as more sensitive tasks such as delivering letters, making arrests, and preparing expeditions.
[43] In its later incarnation as a tagma, the regiment (often called collectively τὸ ἐξκούβιτον, to exkoubiton or τὰ ἐξκούβιτα, ta exkoubita) was structured along the same standardized lines followed by the other tagmata, with a few variations in the titles of its officers.
[51] This has led to the suggestion that, probably under Romanos II (r. 959–963), the regiment, like the senior Scholae, was split in two units, one for the West and one for the East, each headed by a respective domestic.
[55] The fact that the unit did not partake in campaigns during the 7th century preserved it from the reforms that affected the field army during this period, so that the late antique terminology for its junior officers remained relatively intact.
The junior officers also included the skeuophoroi (σκευοφόροι, 'standard carriers'), signophoroi (σιγνοφόροι, i.e. signifers) and sinatores (σινάτορες, from the late Roman rank of senator, now much reduced in prominence).
Drawing on the lists of officers and accounts of Arab geographers Ibn Khordadbeh and Qudamah, historian Warren Treadgold suggested an establishment strength of c. 4,000 men, which for the Scholae and the Excubitors rose to c. 6,000 with the division of the regiments in the mid-10th century.
[65] For security reasons, both the Scholae and the Excubitors were scattered in garrisons in Thrace and Bithynia rather than being stationed within Constantinople, making it harder for them to be used in mounting a coup.
