[notart666]

It's a tradition that was carried over from the vegetarian guard often recruited from the nords due to reaching their population limit early, they would often journey south to work in Roman controlled regions though it's different in how it was adapted just like how most groups take in traditions and beliefs from things they've seen elsewhere. It's not really indicative of anything really.

[dboreham]

Although a vegetarian guard sounds intriguing (but not as cool as a Vegan Guard), probably this was the Varangian Guard.

[Tao3300]

Glad someone fixed that. I was picturing some wizened old man with a staff who can kick ass through some combination of experience, zeal, and healthy living :)

[Tagbert]

Joys of autocorrect

[staticautomatic]

The Varangian guard were in Constantinople. So kinda sorta “Roman-controlled” but not exactly Rome.

[Mikeb85]

Constantinople was part of the Roman Empire (as the name implies, it was 'founded' by the Roman emperor Constantine) and considered itself the Roman empire until it fell.

[moviewise]

Quoth They Might Giants, "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)":

Istanbul was Constantinople

Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople

Been a long time gone, Constantinople

Why did Constantinople get the works?

That's nobody's business but the Turks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XlO39kCQ-8

[staticautomatic]

Sure. I just mean that if you didn’t know better, you might conclude from the parent comment that the Varangian guard were geographically based in Rome.

[barry-cotter]

How was it “kinda sorta”? They were the direct, unbroken, legal and institutional continuance of the Roman Empire.

[tokai]

No its exactly Rome. That is what they would have called themselves and they had the provenance to back it up.

[notart666]

Well not exactly it was throughout Roman controlled territories throughout hundreds of years not just a single place. Often times mercenaries and raider groups. In places like the France especially. Many settlements and colonies were established and in places like north Germany it's predominately still Scandinavian. And I don't mean Denmark but Hamburg. It's where Hitler got his whole rhetoric about the superior Nordic race and the inferior slavs even though he was from Austria and Germanic not Scandinavian.