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 from the imperial court down to the provincial level. It is usually considered to be up to date for the Western empire at about 420 AD, and for the Eastern empire at around 400. However, no absolute date can be given, and there are omissions and problems. Jump to: navigation, search The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus). ... Jump to: navigation, search The Roman Empire is the name given to the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 286 AD. It would exist intermittently in several periods between the 3rd Century and the 5th Century, after Diocletians Tetrarchy and the reunifications associated... Centuries: 4th century - 5th century - 6th century Decades: 370s - 380s - 390s - 400s - 410s - 420s - 430s - 440s - 450s - 460s - 470s Years: 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 Events: Saint Augustine of Hippo publishes The City of God Validity limit for the information on Western Roman Empire in... Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered around its capital in Constantinople. ... Centuries: 4th century - 5th century - 6th century Decades: 350s - 360s - 370s - 380s - 390s - 400s - 410s - 420s - 430s - 440s - 450s Years: 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 Events: Constantine III seizes control of the Roman garrison in Britain, declares himself emperor, and crosses into Gaul. ...

The Notitia derives its name from the description at the beginning of the manuscripts: "Notitia dignitatum omnium tam civilium quam militarium utriusque imperii occidentis orientisque. hoc documentum rationem reddit de structura et administratione imperii Romani aetate Theodosiana. ultima redactio notitiae dignitatum a primis decenniis saeculi quinti provenit." ("Listing of the officers, both civil and military, of both empires, western and eastern. This document presents the structure and the administration of the Roman Empire during the Theodosian age. The last edition of the notitia dignitatum comes from the first decade of the fifth century").

There are several extant 14th and 15th century copies (plus a colour-illuminated 1542 version). All derive from a lost manuscript that brought together several previous documents of which one was of the 9th century.

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: Officium (plural officia) is a Latin word with various meanings, including service, (sense of) duty, courtesy, ceremony and the likes. ...

• 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.

Praetorian prefect (Latin Praefectus praetorio) was the constant title of a high office in the Roman state that changed fundamentally in nature. ... The division of the Roman Empire into four Praetorian prefectures originated in the age of the Tetrarchy yet outlived that period. ... Pope Pius XI blesses Bishop Stephen Alencastre as fifth Apostolic Vicar of the Hawaiian Islands in a Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace window. ... Magister militum (Master of the Soldiers) was a rank used in the later Roman Empire dating from the reign of Constantine. ... Comes is the Latin word for companion, either individually or as a member of a collective known as comitatus (compare comitatenses), especially the suite of a magnate, in some cases large and/or formal enough to have a specific name, such as a cohors amicorum. ... Dux is Latin for leader (from the verb ducere, to pull) and could refer to anyone who commanded two or more legions. ...

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 Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986, ISBN 0-8018-3285-3

Pauly-Wissowa is the name commonly used for the Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, 1894ff, a German encyclopedia of classical scholarship. ...

External links

• 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