Herculians
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jovians and Herculians were the imperial guard of the Emperors of the Roman Empire from 284 until 988.
The name originated in the equation of the emperors of the western and eastern half with the pagan gods Iove and Hercules.
The Praetorian Guard was based at Castra Praetoria just outside Rome, and during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian were in league with the Roman Senate. So in 284, Diocletian, who lived in Nicomedia, promoted two faithful legions of Illyricum (Legio V Iovia and VI Herculia) to be the personal protectors of the Roman Emperors, a practise that remained intact with the tetrarchy.
On their promotion, the two old legions, each of about six thousand men, were renamed Ioviani and Herculiani.
In 398, Jovians and Herculians were part of the small body that invaded Africa Province and suppressed the Gildonic revolt.
In 988 they in their turn were replaced in the Byzantine Empire by the Varangian Guard.
