Germani custodes corporis

[Urselius]

I've just discovered a literary reference. In Choniates (trans. Magoulias) a public trial hearing was attended by the emperor Andronikos I Komnenos (1182-1185), an altercation broke out and his "bodyguard" are recorded as "taking their double-edged SWORDS OFF THEIR SHOULDERS" and making to attack some of the judges, who Andronikos had denounced. Who the bodyguards were isn't stated, but given the conservatism of imperial ceremony they might have still been called spatharocandidatoi. I suspect that any members of the entourage carrying scabbarded swords were carrying 'swords of state' and that the guardsmen were carrying naked swords sloped against their shoulders, so as to be instantly available to protect the emperor.