Notitia_dignitatum

Shields of Magister Militum Praesentalis II. Page from the Notitia Dignitatum, a medieval copy of a Late Roman register of military commands

The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents of Roman government, it details the administrative organisation of the eastern and western empires, 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 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 that is known to have existed in the library of the cathedral chapter at Speyer 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 in illuminated manuscripts of Notitiae is thought to copy or imitate no other examples than those from the lost codex Spirensis.

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 (staff, enumerated except for the most junior). These are organised by:

• Court officials (including the most senior dignitaries such as praetorian prefects).

• Vicars and provincial governors, arranged by praetorian prefecture and diocese.

• Military commanders (magistri militum, comites rei militaris and duces), 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.

Sources and references

• Westermann Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte contains many precise maps
• Pauly-Wissowa (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 et Laterculi provinciarum, edidit Otto Seeck, 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

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Notitia dignitatum

Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Notitia dignitatum

• Various Latin texts, translations and commentaries (including maps and concordances) are listed at the specialized CNH website, and if available on the web are linked therefrom. There is also a map 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 Medieval Sourcebook. 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.
• Notitia Dignitatum, with pictures, from bibliotheca Augustana
• Late Roman Shield Patterns, a study on the shield patterns of Roman army contained in Notitia Dignitatum
• "Notitia Dignitatum", Otto Seeck, ed. 1876
• Dr Ingo Maier on Notitia Dignitatum

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