This page created 3 April 2014, and last modified: 27 October (Frankfurt fragment image added)

One of the auxilia palatina units in the Magister Peditum's infantry roster, and assigned to the "Comes" Hispenias, is called the Tubantes. Its shield pattern as shown in various manuscripts is as below:

The shield pattern has a red rim and a white or pale blue ground. The boss is maroon (O, W, Ff), pink (O, faded maroon?), white (M), or yellow (B), encircled with a red (white in W, pink in Ff) band and supported by a pillar of the same colour. The main feature is a head, apparently human, in the top half of the shield. That in W looks like it might be a solar visage, those of O and P look more like a stereotypical "wild barbarian", while that of B looks somewhat in between; those of M and Ff have exceptionally long hair.

However, it is evident that this is the "wrong" shield pattern; like that of some other western auxilia platina units, it has been shifted from its proper place (or, to be more exact, the label has likely been shifted from its proper place): the above shield pattern seemingly properly belongs to the Leones iuniores, in which case the head might be that of a lion).

However, unlike with the Leones iuniores, it is not immediately clear which shield pattern, if any, should alternatively be assigned to the Tubantes. This is due to the inclusion of three "extra" units in the Magister Peditum's list between the Leones iuniores and the Tubantes that are not given any shield patterns: the Exculcatores seniores, the Sagittarii Tungri, and the Exculcatores iuniores. Nonetheless, since it can be seen that the next-but-one pattern, assigned to the Grati, should likely be assigned to the Salii (seniores) (the unit immediately after the Tubantes) due to its similarity to the eastern unit also called the Salii, it is evident that the three "extra" units should not have any shields assigned to them, and so the patten assigned to the Salii seniores actually belongs to the Tubantes. These relationships are shown below, using the patterns shown in the Parisian manuscript:

It should also be noted that there is another auxilia palatina unit called the, under the command of the second Master of the Soldiers in the Imperial Presence. The name Tubantes is a tribal one, belonging to a people that lived in what is now the Netherlands; the tribe was also called the Tui(h)anti, and from which modern Twente region likely derives its name.

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