Roman regiments of the VIth century.

[Spurius Papirius Cursor]

I think it's possible that this unit was formed out of Galla Placidia's Gothic bodyguard....

That would be very possible I'd imagine. They are called bucellarii most places I've seen them referred to. Although I've also seen them referred to as Auxilia Palatina, which confuses me. Can someone un-confuse me here?

I'd warn for 'scribal errors' for they often are the historian's best friend. ... Also, Latin teachers may be correct on grammar, but still wrong about the original.

Good point. I remember hearing at least one of my lecturers sayng (and me reading in a research article!) "I can't believe (ancient writer "X") would have said something like that!" when discussing a passage they thought was incorrect in some way. The truth is most of our opinions of these ancient writers come from translations of mediaeval manuscripts - that is, from generations of copyists.Who knows if Cicero's or Sophocles' spelling or grammar was perfect? Certainly - even in his own time, the ancient author's influence over the quality of copies made of his works had to diminish rapidly after the initial version he dictated or wrote himself.

Speaking of spelling, I have to confess I got the spelling of Valentinian III's names from Professor Wikipedia. I've since seen the spelling of the lad's middle name as "Placidus" quite widely, and in such respected researchers as Bury and Nischer. So I guess I needn't have agonized whether a "long 'i'" was or wasn't a "double 'i'".

Cheers

Howard / Spurius