Published: 2022-08-20

The columns in the insignia of the ‘Notitia dignitatum’?

Jacek Wiewiorowski
Zeszyty Prawnicze
Section: Artykuły
https://doi.org/10.21697/zp.2022.22.2.10

Abstract

Ths paper analyzes the meaning of the columns visualized in the insignia of the Late Roman military commander known as the Comes Limitis Aegypti, and preserved in the Notitia Dignitatum Pars Orientis 28. All the surviving versions of this register, which were made around 400 but not later than by the 430s, are copies of Codex Spirensis, an illuminated Carolingian copy of the late antique original most of which is now lost. This paper examines all the extant versions of the “Count of Egypt’s” insignia. They are a visual rendering of the powers enjoyed by Late Roman magistrates and their status in the administrative system of the Late Roman Empire. The insignia of Egypt are special because they feature signa militaria, emblems proper to specific military units. They are presented on columns over the images of “forts” symbolizing the key units of the Roman army under the command of the Comes Limitis Aegypti. I reach a conclusion that the way the columns have been drawn in some of the primary copies of the Codex, where they are presented with particular attention to detail, should be attributed to an error on the part of their illustrators, who misunderstood the symbolism of the signa militaria. The columns in the insignia of Egypt should be treated as a decorative element of no significance.

Keywords:

Te Notitia Dignitatum; insignia; the Comes Limitis Aegypti; signa militaria; column.

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Citation rules

Wiewiorowski, J. (2022). The columns in the insignia of the ‘Notitia dignitatum’?. Zeszyty Prawnicze, 22(2), 203–239. https://doi.org/10.21697/zp.2022.22.2.10

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