This page created 27 December 2015, and last modified: 27 December 2015

The Cuneus equitum Dalmatarum Fortensium is listed (80.2 in Ingo Maier's numbering scheme) as the first of the units under the command of the Dux Daciae ripensis, and is said to be station at Bononia.

Like all the mounted units under the Dux Daciae ripensis (i.e. the Duke of riverine Dacia, corresponding to northern Bulgaria), the unit is termed a cuneus in the Notitia; it is also one of five detachments of equites Dalmatae in the command (out of nine cavalry detachments in total). As with all limitanei units in the Notitia, its shield pattern is not recorded.

The unit does appear to have left epigraphic evidence: a gravestone (CIL 5,5823) from (Mediolanum (Milan, Italy) gives the deceased's unit as the NVMER DALMAT FORT; the unit was probably moved to the Danube after Constantine I's defeat of Maxentius (Bononia is modern Vidin in northwest Bulagria).

The "Fortensium" in the unit's name is shared by many other units listed in the Notitia, and is thus rather generic, since its meaning is "strong, brave, powerful", etc. In particular, there is a Cuneus equitum Fortensium (143.6) listed under the Dux Provinciae Valeriae ripensis.

1. Maier, Ingo; "Appendix 4: Numeration of the new edition of the compilation 'notitia dignitatum' (Cnd)"; last accessed 26 October 2015. See also for here for numbering examples. Return

2. Speidel, M.P.; "Who Fought in the Front?", in G. Alföldy, B. Dobson, and W. Eck (Eds.), Kaiser, Heer und Gesellschaft in der Römischen Kaiserzeit, Stuttgart, 2000, pp 473-82, at p 481. Return

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