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I have a question (or a bunch of questions) that I'm desperately trying to find an answer to...it seems that everywhere I look I'm getting information that is either conflicting or vague. So hopefully someone here can straighten me out! I know that when Diocletian set up the Tetrarchy, he didn't continue to use the Praetorian Guard as his own personal guard unit. If I'm understanding correctly, he created the Jovians and Herculians from two faithful legions to be the new imperial guards. Is that correct? Were the Jovians attached to him (who styled himself Jovianus) and the Herculians to Maximian in Rome? Or did Maximian still have the Praetorian Guard, and the Jovians and Herculians were both attached to Diocletian? Also, I'm getting a bit hung up on the technical terms for the military divisions. Let's say the Jovians were in fact Diocletian's personal bodyguard. Would they have been considered a comitatus praesentales? Was the term "palatini" only used after Constantine? As for their hierarchy, I think I had read that the Praetorian Guard was commanded at the highest level by a Tribune...was this also the case of Jovians? Does anyone know what the numbers and ranks in this elite group might have looked like? Would they have had centurions, etc? Also, I know that Constantine achieved the rank of "tribunus ordinis primi"...and I thought I had read from somewhere else that he was in Diocletian's personal guard. So basically I'm wondering, would Constantine have served in the Jovians, and is this "tribune of the first order" a possible rank in that group? Any help would be SO appreciated...I'm getting dizzy trying to make sense of all of this. Thanks!
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