Jovians and Herculians were the imperial guard of the Emperors of the Roman Empire from 284 until 988

The Praetorian Guard were 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 A.D. Diocletian who lived in Nicomedia, some 60 miles from Byzantium in Asia Minor, promoted two faithful legions of Illyricum 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 Jovians and Herculians. In 988 they in their turn were replaced in the Byzantine Empire by the Varangian Guard

see also: List of Roman legions

External links

• The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Vol 1 Chapter XIII New Bodies of Guards, Jovians and Herculians