Notitia Dignitatum
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Notitia dignitatum is the Latin title, literally meaning Note on the dignities (i.e. offices), of a unique document of the imperial chanceries, the ultimate authority, on the government of the eastern and western Roman empires, down to the provincial level. It is a list of dignitaries and their areas of responsibility, in the Late Roman Empire, at about 400 AD. It is usually considered to be up to date for the Western empire at about 420, and for the Eastern empire at around 400. However, no absolute date can be given.
Currently there are four copies, including a coulour-illuminated 1554 copy., dating back to the 14th and 15th century, of an earlier manuscript, now lost, that collected several documents, among the other one dating back to 9th century.
Contents
For each of both emperors separately, the Notitia enumerates all major 'dignities' (i.e offices) in the his gift, often with their resort and even his exact officium (staff, enumerated except for the apparently lowest other cohortilini).
- First this is done for the central government at his court (including a few top level subordinates, especially Pretorian prefects).
- Then it is done for the provincial governors, arranged by and preceded by the competent diocesis (under a vicar), these again ordered by pretorian prefecture.
- Interspersed among the civilian offices are the 'new' military authorities, which in time become the more important ones:
- the magistri militum at court (guards) or prefecture (strategic reserve) level, often one for infantry and one for horse cavalry
- within the dioceses the military counts and (lower) dukes (see Comes and Dux), both generally assigned to one or a few provinces, mainly on the Rhine, Danube, Persian or desert borders, often in garrison at a limes, some (like their superiors' own troops) in mobile reserve.
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 may want 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 John 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 CNH (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~igmaier/notitia.htm|) website, and if available on the web are linked therefrom
For example, a complete English translation by William FAIRLEY is on the web in the Medieval Sourcebook (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/notitiadignitatum.htm|)
- 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 (http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost05/Notitia/not_intr.html), with pictures, from bibliotheca Augustana
- Late Roman Shield Patterns (http://www.ne.jp/asahi/luke/ueda-sarson/NotitiaPatterns.html), a study on the shield patterns of Roman army contained in Notitia Dignitatum