The Notitia Dignitatum, What is the Purpose?

B054768
8/12/14

The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document that gives the administrative positions of
the Later Roman Empire. In fact the Notitia Dignitatum is the greatest surviving source the
bureaucracy of the Roman Empire1. The purpose of the document seems rather straightforward.
However two issues have plagued historians for the actual purpose and the date of the document.
Is it an actual official government document transmitted through the centuries to survive in four
separate manuscripts? Or perhaps it just a highly idealized text that helps preserve an
anachronistic view of the Roman Empire during the fifth century as a unified.2 It is necessary to
examine the composition of the text in order to establish some sense of the purpose of the Notitia
Dignitatum. This will allow in turn, to help establish its chronology and possibly solve the
historical problems. Three main issues need to be solved in order to understand how useful the
Notitia Dignitatum. The date of when it was compiled , the purpose, and the reliability need to
draw some conclusion for the document. The intention of this paper is try to conclude what the
purpose of the Notitia Dignitatum played for the administration of the Late Roman Empire.
The composition of the Notitia Dignitatum is divided between the Eastern and Western
Roman Empire. It is an illustrated list of the high civilian and military officials detailing the in
each case responsibilities and subordinates.3 Continuing on the Notitia Dignitatum has a
structured compositionThe Notitia Dignitatum comprises ninety chapters, each describing an
official or military commander by his rank and title, the area of competence, the subaltern
personal of the bureaus resp. the units and the garrisons under his command.4 Ruth OHare
provides a detailed outline, The extant Notitia Dignitatum is made up of two separate Notitiae
which, as the document itself makes evident, were derived from lists which existed in the office
of each primicerius notariorum, chief officer of the notaries.5 Looking more closely it is not the
simple combining of the titles given to positions of the empire in the late fourth and early fifth
century each half of the empire is a consolidated list of dignitaries, and then more extensive
entries for most of the these dictates6. Moving on through the text you are confronted with
chapters which are in turn divided into sections. Here you find the lavish illustrations that
accompany captions reading the insignia of the dignitaries When looking at the illustrations they
form an integral part of the text that include the insignia of specific dignitaries with items they
1 Michael Kulikowski, The Notitia Dignitatum as a Historical Source,Historia 49 (2000), 358.
2 Peter Brennan, The Notitia Dignitatum, in Les Littratures Techniques dans Lantiquite Romaine, ed. C.
Nicolet, (Genve Entretiens Fondation Hardt 42, 1996), 148.

3 Rees, Roger. Diocletian and the Tetrarchy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004. 16.
4 Bernard Palme: Notitia dignitatum (published)." Imperium and Officium Working Papers (IOWP) . 6 May 2011.
http://iowp.univie.ac.at/node/160. 2.

5 Ruth O'hare, An Assessment of the Notitia Dignitatum as a Historical Source for the Late Roman Bureaucracy
(PhD diss., National University of Ireland), 2013.

6 Brennan, The Notitia Dignitatum, 148

represent the administrative functions or the or the military units under the jurisdiction of these
dignities. Continuing through the sections the Notitia Dignum lists the functions of the office
or military units under his authority. With the composition established for the Notitia Dignitatum
the chapters present the basic form and function of Late Roman dignitas.7 In summary the
document divided into Eastern and Western halves, and subdivided into chapters for each office8.
The copies that exist today are not the Late Antique originals. The first known copy is
attested to the Carolingians who made a copy of the original Notitia Dignitatum between the
ninth and tenth centuries9. A probable use by Carolingians this copy as a template for a revived
Roman Empire10. This copy known as the Speyer Codex served as the basis for all the other
transmissions of the text. The most important of the later copies comes from the one preserved in
Munich which according to the historian Alexander contains the most original translations and
illustrations for the Late antique text11. However, what is not possible to conclude is what
exactly was omitted or adapted from the original Speyer Codex is impossible to know.
The dating of the original Notitia Dignantium has produced a large time frame between
378 through 427. Many factors need to be accounted for in order to pin down a reliable time
frame. As noted before the Notitia is not one single text but two with each half composed at
different times. Therefore to mark down a single date of composition is impossible Kowalski's
theorized that the original base text represents the state of the roman Empire during the campaign
of Theodosius I against Eugenius12. When you look at the offices of the Eastern Notita the only
office that appears to be added after the death of Theodosius I is the tabularium dominarum
Augustorum under the administrative position castrensis13. So it is possible to conclude that
Notitia Dignitatum is of Eastern origin due to the offices listed and lack of revisions to the
offices listed after the death of Theodosius I.
Theodosius I seems to have played role in the formation of the western half of the Notitia
Dignitatum. One theory for the formation of the Western Notitia offices were simply the ones of
the western Empire that allied with the usurper Eugenius.14 This could provide a plausible
7 Ibid., 148-149.
8 Rees, Diocletian and the Tetrarchy, 17.
9 J.J. Alexander, The illustrated manuscripts of the Notitia dignitatum: in Goodburn, R. & Bartholomew, P.,
(eds.) Aspects of the Notitia Dignitatum (Paper presented to the conference in Oxford, December 13 to
15, 1974) (British Archaeological Reports - Suppl. ser. 15) (Oxford, 1976) 1976, page 12

10 Brennan, The Notitia Dignitatum, 169

11 Ibid 16
12 Kulikowski The Notitia Dignitatum as a Historical Source, 360
13 Brennan, The Notitia Dignitatum, 165
14 Kulikowski, The Notitia Dignitatum as a Historical Source, 360.

starting point for the Notitia Dignatiums western half . Kulikowski points out that the copies that
exist are for the Western Empire and underwent continual revisions until at the least 419 and
possibly till 42715. Peter Brennan provides an important clue to narrowing down the date what
appears to be the last office added in his study of Notitia Dignitatum. Found in the Western half
is a military unit named the Placidi Valentiniani Felcis which can surely be for the emperor
Places Valentinianus who reigned from 425-45516. As noted before only one office in the Eastern
Notitia was added after the death of Theodosius I therefore we can establish a basic chronology
for the Notitia Dignitatum. Starting in the East the very latest it could be composed in 395 and
moving to the West the final addition occurred during the 420s. What is for certain is that Notitia
is not single snapshot of the administrative positions of the East and West Empire. With the
constant revisions to Western offices and lack of revisions to East the Notitia Dignitatum
presents an evolution of the offices and creates anomalies in the text.
The Notitia Dignitatum is littered with inconsistencies and problems that make
interpreting the document difficult. One of the most glaring issues is that the Notitia Dignitatum
is just catalogues offices and does not record the names of the office holders17. Besides a lack of
names the Notitia Dignitatum omits any group outside the formal hierarchy such as bishops and
highly influential position of held by eunuchs the cubicularii who had direct access and
interaction with the Roman Emperor18 . In fact the document has a total lack of any Christian
influence whether it is in the illustrations or texts19. Most of the mistakes rest with the western
half. Brennan writes, The failure of the West to record the information controlling postal
warrants, the failure to group western military officials under regional subheadings, like the ones
found in the eastern index...most telling is the failure to preserve integrated illustrations and
preserve proper chapters20
HIstorians are often quick to dismiss the Notitia Dignitatum as but when coupled with
papyri from Egypt this notion comes into question. Anna Marie Kaiser attempts to use this
evidence from papyri to actually show that the Notitia Dignitatum has some historical evidence.
To assess the credibility of the pars Oriens, we can compare the units listed under the
commands of the comes limitis Aegypti and the dux Thebaidis with the army units known from

15 Ibid.
16 Brennan, The Notitia Dignitatum, 166.
17 Rees, Diocletian and the Tetrarchy, 16
18 O'hare, An Assessment of the Notitia Dignitatum as a Historical Source for the Late Roman Bureaucracy
201

19 Brennan, The Notitia Dignitatum, 158

20 Ibid., 159.

the papyri21. The ones found match the units stationed before 400 and the units who were
stationed in Egypt after 400 are not listed22. The papyri attest thirty-two of these sixty-five
units, although at this point we have not yet distinguished units attested in the papyri by name
and station from units known only by station or name23.
As said above the Notitia Dginatium is not a single document but two halves that
have gone under changes that produced a list of offices in the empire. So, at first glance the
Notitia Dignantium is a practical document used by the imperial administration. Peter Ward adds
that the Notitia Dignitatum possibly came from a copy used by the magister peditum
praesentalis or, as this office was known from the time of Stilicho, the magister utriusque
militiae, in the West to maintain a record of the field armies24. Considering that the document
itself is incomplete of every office of the empire the most relevant ones survive within the
document are for the military. Stilicho also plays a heavy role in continuing the theory of a
practical manual for the imperial administration. Mann writes, that Stilicho wanted to extend his
control over both halves of the empire factoring in the death of Arcadius in 408 and young age of
Theodosius II he produced a governmental outline of the administration he wanted to control25.
The army is a focus of this argument because in the eastern half of the notitia dignitatum the
military offices are in higher detail than merely listing the offices26. Adding that Stilicho as
magister utriusque? militiae wanted to keep detailed records on the units of the Eastern Empire
in hope of uniting them under his control27. Mann adds that after the demise of Stilicho the
magister peditum took over the lists in the Notitia Dignitatum, by looking at the revisions that
were carried out in the military chapters all which concern this office 28.
Adding to the theory of practical manual is historian Peter Ward. He proposes that since
the Notitia Dignantium dates from the reign of Theodosius that intention was to provide a
framework of reference on government hierarchy for his successors.29 The straightforward
21 Anna Kaiser, Egyptian Units and the reliability of the Notitia dignitatum, pars Oriens (Version 01)." Imperium
and Officium Working Papers (IOWP) . 6 August 2014. http://iowp.univie.ac.at/node/298. 4-5

22 Ibid., 8
23 Ibid., 9
24 J.C.Mann,"The Notitia Dignitatum - Dating and Survival." Britannia 22 (1991): 215. accessed November 26,
2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/526645.

25 Mann, ,"The Notitia Dignitatum - Dating and Survival," 217-218.

26 Ibid., 217
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid., 218
29 Ward 1974 434

interpretation as an official administrative document does not take in account few factors. The
mistakes and omissions in both sections of the Notitia Dignitatum possibly point to a different
purpose that would make using the document a for the administration of the Roman Empire a
rather difficult task. The nature of the Notitia Dignitatum is complex and seems to evolve in
purpose. To understand these is to see the Notitia Dignitatum as two documents, the western
and eastern sections probably evolving in purposes.
Other theories reject the pure administrative purpose of the Notitia Dignitatum all
together. New theories point to highly ceremonial purpose. The first Thomas Brennan attempted
to cast aside the theory of an evolution of Notitia Dignitatum as a practical manual to just one of
pure symbolic meaning.30 His theory is a departure from previous scholarship which places the
original composition during the reign of Valentinian III who at the time was under the regency of
Galla Palladia.31 Taking account the political situation of the Western Empire during his reign
the loss of provinces dealt a serious blow to imperial prestige. Brennan concludes that the
Notitia Dignitatum helped to alleviate this problem by maintaining the okimenue of the Western
Empire32. Problems are abound with the administrative ability of the Roman Empire during this
time with multiple bureaucracies, unity, among the administrations would be paramount to the
ideology of the Emperors and respective courts. The notitia together could only provide this
unity among the imperial administrations but in highly artificial form33. In his article Brennan
points to particular official the primicerius in the Notitia Dignitatum for its creation at the court
of Valentinian III34. Continuing on with this proposal he even tries to narrow down a specific
individual, Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, who was the primaries and provided the necessary
patronage for preserving the works of the Roman Empire such as the Saturnalia of Macrobius35.
Brennan presents a strong case as purely ceremonial purpose of the notitia Dignitatum. Brennan
summarizes his view, It is best seen as an artificial creation from lists which had become
progressively obsolete in a messy archive as they lost their original purpose36.
Continuing with this ideological purpose is historian Kowalski. He takes a more middle
of line approach than Brennan. His theory is that the Notitia Dignantium was two documents

30 Brennan, The Notitia Dignitatum, 148-169.

31 Ibid.
32 Ibid., 158
33 Ibid., 164
34 Ibid., 168
35 Ibid.,
36 Ibid., 165

composed at different times but shared the same ideological purpose. Instead of placing it
directly with Galla Placidia and Valentinian IIIs court in 425. Noting the Eastern origin of the
Notitia Dignitatum Kowalski puts forth that Theodosius I did commission the work by the time
of 395.37 The Theodosian original maintained what could be described as an ideological text that
insisted on this unity at time when the Roman Empire was patently divided.38 Although
according to Kulikowskis theory he maintains that just because the text is an ideological one the
Notitia can tell us certain things about the Roman bureaucracy and administrations39. But in
order to gain some useful information the texts have to be divided but even doing that the
chronology and revisions make trying to find consistent information on the imperial
administration.40
The Notitia Dignitatum The differences in state and composition of the two halves of the
Notitia Dignitatum complicate matters more. The Eastern half seems to have little revision after
the death of Theodosius I. Compared to the West which evolved for fifty years adding and
omitting certain offices. The chronology of the Notitia Dignitatum is convoluted. However, with
certainty historians can demonstrate that document was completed during the late fourth and
early fifth centuries. As for the purpose, the two theories of practicality and ideological means
continue to divided historians. Kulikowski demonstrates that the Notitia Dignitatum evolved
throughout its history. For this I agree with his conclusion. When supported with evidence from
papyri the practicality of the Notitia Dignitatum comes to the forefront. Just because the Notitia
Dignitatum served an ideological role the truth

37 Kulkowski 360
38 Ibid. 360
39 Ibid. 360
40 Ibid 361

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