Note 393 — PHOTIUS BIBLIOTHECA OR MYRIOBIBLON[6] (continued 3)
John Henry Freese translation
The name is said to have originally meant a body of soldiers who accepted any one’s “bread” in return for attendance upon him. They would thus have formed a kind of bodyguard (Ducange). One of the “themes” or military divisions of the empire was also called the Bucellarian.