This page created 2 August 2014, and last modified: 26 September 2014 (Jones commentary added)

The second of the 18 pseudocomitatenses units listed (98/9.132 in Ingo Maier's numbering scheme) in the Magister Peditum's infantry roster is called the Legio secunda Iulia Alpina; it is assigned (102/5.111) to the command of the Comes Illyricum as the Secunda Iulia. Its shield pattern (97#4) as shown in various manuscripts, under the label (97.d) Secundaa Iulia Alpina, is as shown below:

The pattern is simple, with a white boss encircled by a grey band (more pink in M, W). The rim is white, and the main ground is plain green (faded to yellow in M).

The name Iulia Alpina would appear to refer to the Julian Alps, and this unit is clearly the second in a series of three legions with the same thematic name; there is also a Legio prima Iulia Alpina (98/9.131), a pseudocomitatenses legion serving in the Magister Peditum's Italian command; and a Tertia Iulia Alpina (98/9.122), a comitatenses legion, also serving in the Magister Peditum's Italian command (Jones, p 99 of his 3rd volume, instead thought "Iulia" referred to one of Constantine I's sons: Julius Crispus, Julis Constantius, or Julius Constantine, but this has found little favour). These units appear to have once belonged to the now-defunct command of the Comes Italiae; their shield patterns are shown together below, using the patterns taken from the Paris manuscript show:

Legio III Iulia Alpina, being a comitatenses unit, seems to have been given a "different" pattern from the other two; it may be the patterns shown for Legio I Iulia Alpina and Legio II Iulia Alpina are their "original" ones from when they were under the command of the Comes Italiae, but more likely they are related because they were assigned to the same field army when removed from the command of the Comes Italiae.

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