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The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents of Roman government, it details the administrative organisation of the eastern and western empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
s, listing several thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial level. It is usually considered to be up to date for the Western empire
Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire refers to the western half of the Roman Empire, from its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, today widely known as the Byzantine Empire....
 in the 420s, and for the Eastern empire in 400s.






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The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents of Roman government, it details the administrative organisation of the eastern and western empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
s, listing several thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial level. It is usually considered to be up to date for the Western empire
Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire refers to the western half of the Roman Empire, from its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, today widely known as the Byzantine Empire....
 in the 420s, and for the Eastern empire in 400s. However, no absolute date can be given, and there are omissions and problems.

There are several extant fifteenth and sixteenth-century copies (plus a colour-illuminated 1542 version). All the known and extant copies of this late Roman document are derived, either directly or indirectly, from a codex
Codex

A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with separate pages normally bound together and given a cover. It was a Roman invention that replaced the scroll, which was the first form of book in all Eurasian cultures....
 that is known to have existed in the library of the cathedral chapter at Speyer
Speyer

Speyer is a city in Germany with approx. 50,000 inhabitants, located beside the river Rhine. It lies 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim....
 in 1542 but which was lost before 1672 and cannot now be located. That book contained a collection of documents, of which the 'Notitia' was the last and largest document, occupying 164 pages. that brought together several previous documents of which one was of the 9th century. The heraldry
Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of devising, granting, and blazoning Coat of arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms....
 in illuminated manuscripts of Notitiae is thought to copy or imitate no other examples than those from the lost Codex Spirensis. The most important copy of the Codex is that made for Pietro Donato
Pietro Donato

Pietro Donato was a Renaissance humanist and the Bishop of Padua . He was a noted bibliophile, epigraphist, collector, and patron of art.Born to a Venice Patricianship family, Pietro received his education at the humanist boarding school of Gasparino Barzazzi....
 (1436), illuminated by Peronet Lamy
Peronet Lamy

Peronet Lamy , called Perenet lenlumineur , was a Gothic painting and Illuminated manuscript who spent his career in the employ of the House of Savoy....
.

Contents

For each half of the empire, the Notitia enumerates all major 'dignities' (i.e offices) in its gift, often with their location and even their exact officium
Officium

Officium is a Latin word with various meanings in Ancient Rome, including "service", " duty", "courtesy", "ceremony" and the like. It also translates the Greek kathekon and was used in later Latin to render more modern offices....
 (staff, enumerated except for the most junior). These are organised by:

  • Court officials (including the most senior dignitaries such as praetorian prefect
    Praetorian prefect

    Praetorian prefect was the constant title of a high office in the Roman Empire state that changed fundamentally in nature.The praetorian prefect was commander of the Praetorian Guard until Constantine I abolished the guard in 314....
    s).


  • Vicars
    Vicarius

    Vicarius is a Latin word, meaning substitute or deputy. It is the root and origin of the English word "vicar" and cognate to the Persian word most familiar in the variant vizier....
     and provincial governors
    Roman province

    In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of the Italia ....
    , arranged by praetorian prefecture
    Praetorian prefecture

    The praetorian prefectures were the largest administrative divisions of the late Roman Empire, above the mid-level Roman diocese and the low-level provinces....
     and diocese
    Roman diocese

    A Roman or civil diocese was one of the administrative divisions of the later Roman Empire, starting with the Tetrarchy. It formed the intermediate level of government, grouping several Roman provinces and being in turn subordinated to a praetorian prefecture....
    .


  • Military commanders (magistri militum
    Magister militum

    Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine I . Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire....
    , comites rei militaris
    Comes

    Comes is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus , especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. The word comes derives from com- "with" + ire "go."...
     and duces
    Dux

    Dux is Latin for leader and for duke, and in Ancient Rome could refer to anyone who commanded troops, such as tribal leaders....
    ), showing the full titles and stations of their regiments.


The most recent editor of Notitia Dignitatum is Robert Ireland, in British Archaeological Reports, International Series 63.2.

Interpretation


The Notitia presents four main problems, as regards the study of the Empire's military establishment:

  1. The Notitia depicts the Roman army at the end of the 4th century. Therefore its development over the 4th century from the Principate structure is largely conjectural, due to the lack of other evidence.
  2. It was compiled at two different times. The Eastern section apparently dates from c395 AD; the Western from considerably later, c420. Furthermore, each section is probably not a contemporaneous "snapshot", but relies on data stretching back as far as twenty years. The Eastern section may contain data from as early as 379, the start of the rule of Theodosius I
    Theodosius I

    Flavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire....
    . The Western section contains data from as early as c400: for example, it shows units deployed in Britain, which must date from before 410, when Roman troops were evacuated from the island. In consequence, there is substantial duplication, with the same unit often listed under different commands. It is impossible to ascertain whether these were detachments of the same unit in different places at the same time, or the same whole unit at different times. Also, it is likely that some units only existed on paper or contained just a skeleton personnel.
  3. The Notitia has many sections missing and lacunae (gaps) within sections. This is doubtless due to accumulated text losses and copying errors as it was repeatedly copied over the centuries: the earliest manuscript we possess today dates from the 15th century. The Notitia cannot therefore provide a comprehensive listing of all units in existence.
  4. The Notitia does not contain any personnel figures. Therefore, the size of individual units, and of the various commands, cannot be ascertained, as we have little other evidence of unit sizes at this time. In turn, this makes it impossible to assess accurately the overall size of the army. Depending on the strength of units, the late 4th century army may, at one extreme, have equalled the size of the 2nd century force (i.e. over 400,000 men); at the other extreme, it may have been far smaller. For example, the forces deployed in Britain c400 may have been just 18,000 against c55,000 in the 2nd century.


Depictions

The Notitia contains the earliest known depictions of the diagram which later came to be known as yin and yang symbol. The infantry units armigeri defensores seniores ("shield-bearers") and Mauri Osismiaci had a coat of arms
Coat of arms

A coat of arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings or often just arms for short, in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person and used by them in a wide variety of ways....
 which corresponds to the dynamic, clockwise version of the symbol. The emblem of the Thebaei, another Western Roman infantry regiment, featured a pattern of concentric circles comparable to its static version. The Roman yin-yang-like symbols predate the earliest Taoist
Taoism

Taoism refers to a variety of related philosophical and religious traditions and concepts. These traditions have influenced East Asia for over two thousand years and some have spread to the West....
 versions by almost seven hundred years.

Citations


Sources and references

  • Westermann Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte contains many precise maps
  • Pauly-Wissowa
    Pauly-Wissowa

    The Realencyclop?die der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, commonly called the Pauly-Wissowa or simply RE, is a German language encyclopedia of classical antiquity scholarship....
     (German-language encyclopaedia on all classical Antiquity) provides articles and further bibliography on almost every term or name one might wish to know more about
  • Notitia dignitatum: accedunt Notitia urbis Constantinopolitanae
    Notitia urbis Constantinopolitanae

    The Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae is an ancient "regionary", i.e., a list of monuments, public buildings and civil officials in Constantinople during the mid-5th century , during the reign of the emperor Theodosius II....
     et Laterculi provinciarum    , edidit Otto Seeck
    Otto Seeck

    Otto Seeck was a Germany classical historian. He was born in Riga.Received his teaching credentials in Berlin in 1877, and with the support of Theodor Mommsen was appointed to a position with the University of Greifswald, where he met Karl Julius Beloch who had quarrelled with Mommsen....
    , Berolini: Weidmann, 1876.
  • A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284-602. A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986, ISBN 0-8018-3285-3


External links


  • Various Latin texts, translations and commentaries (including maps and concordances) are listed at the specialized , and if available on the web are linked therefrom. There is also a of the Roman state c.400. On this site you will find a complete bibliography and also links. For example, a complete English translation by William Fairley is on the web in the . As every translation is a calculated risk, balancing between illegibility for the modern non-expert reader and historical inaccuracy, one does best to look up the Latin original and search further from there.
  • , with pictures, from bibliotheca Augustana
  • , a study on the shield patterns of Roman army contained in Notitia Dignitatum