This page created 19 May 2014, and last modified: 28 October (Frankfurt fragment image added)

The Iovii iuniores is one of the auxilia palatina units listed in the Magister Peditum's infantry roster; it is assigned to the command of the Comes Illyricum. Its shield pattern in various manuscripts is, like that of the Iovii seniores, captioned with the plain label Iovii (except in the two Munich manuscripts, M & W), as shown below:

The pattern has a red-rim and an indigo main field (more purple in B, and much faded in M, W, and especially Ff), charged with a haunched animal in red-brown, possibly a beaver. However, it is evident that this might be the "wrong" shield pattern; like that of some other western auxilia platina units, it may have been shifted from its proper place (or, to be more exact, the label may have been shifted from its proper place), although which pattern (if any) among those shown properly belongs to the Iovii iuniores is not immediately apparent.

The historian Ammianus (26.7.13; 27.8.7) pairs "the" Iovii with the Victores. When the Iovii were split into seniores and iuniores units is unknown (in the Notitia the Iovii seniores is assigned to the Magister Peditum's Italian command). Inscriptional evidence for the Iovii iuniores comes from the cemetery at Colonia Iulia Concordia (modern Portogruaro in Veneto, Italy), which produced an inscription (CIL 5, 8753) mentioning the unit in the form of the militum Ioviorum iuniorum. See here for Hoffmann's 1963 analysis (in German).

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