This page created 30 April 2015, and last modified: 27 December 2015 (Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum Fortensium link added)

Some forty-nine units of cunei (singular: cuneus) are apparently noted in the Notitia (the numbers beside the names refer to Ingo Maier's numbering scheme):

15.12 Cuneus equitum secundorum clibanariorum Palmirenorum, a comitatenses vexillation under the Magister Militum per Orientem
56/7.2 Cuneus equitum Maurorum scutariorum, under the Dux Thebaidos
56/7.3 Cuneus equitum scutariorum, also under the Dux Thebaidos
74.2 Cuneus equitum scutariorum, under the Dux Scythiae
74.3 Cuneus equitum Solensium, also under the Dux Scythiae
74.4 Cuneus equitum stablesianorum, also under the Dux Scythiae
74.5 Cuneus equitum stablesianorum, also under the Dux Scythiae
74.6 Cuneus equitum catafractariorum, also under the Dux Scythiae
74.7 Cuneus equitum armigerorum, also under the Dux Scythiae
74.8 Cuneus equitum Arcadum, also under the Dux Scythiae
76.2 Cuneus equitum scutariorum, under the Dux Moesiae secundae
76.3 Cuneus equitum Solensium, also under the Dux Moesiae secundae
76.4 Cuneus equitum scutariorum, also under the Dux Moesiae secundae
76.5 Cuneus equitum armigerorum, also under the Dux Moesiae secundae
76.6 Cuneus equitum secundorum armigerorum, also under the Dux Moesiae secundae
76.7 Cuneus equitum scutariorum, also under the Dux Moesiae secundae
76.8 Cuneus equitum stablesianorum, also under the Dux Moesiae secundae
78.2 Cuneus equitum Constantiacorum, under the Dux Moesiae primae
78.3 Cuneus equitum promotorum, also under the Dux Moesiae primae
78.4 Cuneus equitum sagittariorum, also under the Dux Moesiae primae
78.5 Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum, also under the Dux Moesiae primae
78.6 Cuneus equitum promotorum, also under the Dux Moesiae primae
78.7 Cuneus equitum sagittariorum, also under the Dux Moesiae primae
78.8 Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum, also under the Dux Moesiae primae
78.9 Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum, also under the Dux Moesiae primae
80.2 Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum Fortensium, under the Dux Daciae ripensis
80.3 Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum Divitensium, also under the Dux Daciae ripensis
80.4 Cuneus equitum scutariorum, also under the Dux Daciae ripensis
80.5 Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum Divitensium, also under the Dux Daciae ripensis
80.6 Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum, also under the Dux Daciae ripensis
80.7 Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum, also under the Dux Daciae ripensis
80.8 Cuneus equitum stablesianorum, also under the Dux Daciae ripensis
80.9 Cuneus equitum scutariorum, also under the Dux Daciae ripensis
80.10 Cuneus equitum Constantinianorum, also under the Dux Daciae ripensis
102/5.44 Cuneus equitum promotorum, listed in the Magister Equitum's cavalry roster
141.2 Cuneus equitum scutariorum, under the Dux Provinciae Pannoniae secundae ripariensis et Saviae
141.3 Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum, also under the Dux Provinciae Pannoniae secundae ripariensis et Saviae
141.4 Cuneus equitum Constantianorum, also under the Dux Provinciae Pannoniae secundae ripariensis et Saviae
141.5 Cuneus equitum promotorum, also under the Dux Provinciae Pannoniae secundae ripariensis et Saviae
141.6 Cuneus equitum constantium, also under the Dux Provinciae Pannoniae secundae ripariensis et Saviae
141.7 Cuneus equitum Italicianorum, also under the Dux Provinciae Pannoniae secundae ripariensis et Saviae
143.2 Cuneus equitum scutatorum, under the Dux Provinciae Valeriae ripensis
143.3 Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum, also under the Dux Provinciae Valeriae ripensis
143.4 Cuneus equitum Constantianorum, also under the Dux Provinciae Valeriae ripensis
143.5 Cuneus equitum stablesianorum, also under the Dux Provinciae Valeriae ripensis
143.6 Cuneus equitum Fortensium, also under the Dux Provinciae Valeriae ripensis
145.2 Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum, under the Dux Pannoniae primae et Norici ripensis
145.3 Cuneus equitum stablesianorum, also under the Dux Pannoniae primae et Norici ripensis, and the
154.37 Cuneus Sarmatarum, under the Dux Britanniarum.

The word cuneus broadly means "wedge" in Latin, and finds its way into the English language in e.g. "cuneiform writing", due to the characteristic wedge-shaped stylus marks such scripts display. It could also be used to describe a geometrical sector (e.g. a block of seats at an amphitheatre). In military usage it could be used not only to describe a body of troops drawn up in wedge-shaped formation, but also, as in the Notitia, as the name of a body of troops themselves, without reference to formation, in the same way that in English a squadron (from the Italian squadra) doesn't have to be drawn up in a square shape.

Of the units called cunei in the Notitia, 48 of the 49 are explicitly called Equites (i.e. cavalry), and the 49th, the Cuneus Sarmatarum, was clearly also of cavalry as demonstrated by extrinsic evidence. What, if anything, distinguishes a unit of equites also called a cuneus from units of equites not so-called is unclear. The example of the Cuneus equitum secundorum clibanariorum Palmirenorum (15.12 ) shows the designation is not limited to limitanei units. However, since it is the last unit in a list of comitaneses equites units, it may have been recently promoted from limitanei status, as almost certainly was the Cuneus equitum promotorum that is listed (102/5.44) in the Magister Equitum's cavalry roster but is not given a station, and thus would appear to have been a recent transferral from a limitanei command. It is thus presumably a duplicate of another western Cuneus equitum promotorum unit - quite possibly 141.5, this being the only other western unit bearing the exact same name.

It may be relevant that a high proportion of cunei share their station with another unit: depending on the exact reckoning method, I count 24 of the 47 limitanei cunei units (or detachemnts of units) as sharing their location with another unit (for two, it is another cuneus: 143.3 and 143.4).

1. Ingo Maier; "Appendix 4: Numeration of the new edition of the compilation 'notitia dignitatum' (Cnd)"; last accessed 7 December 2015. See also for here for numbering examples. Return

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