page_title: Excubitors
section_title: Structure
hierarchical_section_title: Excubitors / Structure
caption_attribution_description: English: Seal of [Marti]nos (?), patrik[ios], b[asilikos] a'[prōto]spath[arios] and domest[ikos] t[ōn] b[asilikōn] exkoub[itōn]
context_page_description: The Excubitors were founded in c. 460 as the imperial guards of the early Byzantine emperors. Their commanders soon acquired great influence and provided a series of emperors in the 6th century. The Excubitors fade from the record in the late 7th century, but in the mid-8th century, they were reformed into one of the elite tagmatic units, the professional core of the middle Byzantine army. The Excubitors are last attested in the Battle of Dyrrhachium in 1081.
context_section_description: The internal structure of the original excubitores regiment is unknown, other than that it was a cavalry unit, and that it had officers called scribones. The historian Warren Treadgold speculates that they fulfilled a role similar to the regular cavalry decurions, commanding troops of 30 men each, but John B. Bury suggested that the scribones, though associated with the excubitores, were a separate corps.
  In its later incarnation as a tagma, the regiment (often called collectively τὸ ἐξκούβιτον, to exkoubiton or τὰ ἐξκούβιτα, ta exkoubita) was structured along standardized lines followed by the other tagmata, with a few variations. The regimental commander, the Domestic of the Excubitors, (often also shortened to "the Excubitor", ὁ ἐξκουβίτωρ/ἐξκούβιτος) is well attested in the various lists of offices in the 9th–10th centuries, where his post is also held in tandem with that of the chief (dēmarchos) of the racing faction (dēmos) of the Greens. The Domestics were originally of strikingly low court rank (mere spatharioi), but they gradually rose to importance: while in the Taktikon Uspensky of c. 842 the Domestic of the Excubitors came behind all the thematic commanders (stratēgoi) in order of precedence, in the Klētorologion of 899, the Domestic is shown as superior to the stratēgoi of the European themes and even to the Eparch of Constantinople. At the same time, the court dignities they held rose to those of prōtospatharios and even patrikios. 
  The Escorial Taktikon, written c. 971/75, records the existence of a "Domestic of the Excubitors of the East" (δομέστικος τῶν ἐξκουβίτων τῆς ἀνατολῆς), and a "Domestic of the Excubitors of the West" (δομέστικος τῶν ἐξκουβίτων τῆς δύσεως), as well as a subaltern "Domestic of the Excubitors". 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. However, unlike the Scholae, these designations no longer appear after, and they may have been of brief existence. The subaltern Domestic of the Excubitors may either by a copyist error, or, according to Vera von Falkenhausen, indicate a subordinate official in charge of Excubitors stationed in the provinces; indeed such provincial detachments are attested, albeit only for the theme of Longobardia in southern Italy and of Hellas in Greece.
  The Domestic  was assisted by a topotērētēs (τοποτηρητής, lit. "placeholder", "lieutenant") and a chartoularios (χαρτουλάριος, "secretary"). Based on a reference from the hagiography of St. Joannicius, in 773 the regiment itself was divided into at least eighteen banda, probably each commanded by a skribōn (σκρίβων). Each of them was further divided into sub-units headed by a drakonarios (δρακονάριος, deriving from the late Roman draconarius), and included three classes of standard-bearers who functioned as junior officers: the skeuophoroi (σκευοφόροι, "standard carriers"), signophoroi (σιγνοφόροι, i.e. signifers) and sinatores (σινάτορες, from the late Roman rank of senator). There were also the usual messengers (μανδάτορες, mandatores) under a prōtomandatōr, some of whom were also termed legatarioi (λεγατάριοι).
  The size of the tagma of the Excubitors and its subdivisions can not be determined with certainty; as with the other tagmata, scholars are of differing opinions regarding its numerical strength. 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. Other scholars, most prominently John Haldon, have revised estimates to some 1,000 men for each tagma. 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.
caption: Seal of [Mart]inos (?), Domestic of the Imperial Excubitors
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