This page created 5 April 2014, and last modified: 14 April 2014 (some commentary modified)

The Thraces is a unit of auxilia palatina under the command of the second Master of the Soldiers in the Imperial Presence. Its shield pattern as shown in various manuscripts (albeit called "Traces" in the Bodleian and the Parisian manuscripts) is as below:

This shield pattern, showing a complete lion, is closely related to that of the unit of exactly the same rank under the command of the other Master of the Soldiers in the Imperial Presence (the first): the Hiberi, as the following patterns taken from the Paris manuscript should help to illustrate:

Both units are named after peoples inhabiting mountain ranges that were in ancient times also populated by lions: the Thraces the mountains of northern Greece/southern Bulgaria (assuming "Thraces" is correct, and "Traces" is not), and the Hiberi in the Caucasus (assuming the Caucasian Hiberians are meant, and not those of Spain! In any case, lions may have existed in Spain until being extirpated during the Roman era).

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