This page created 9 August 2014, and last modified: 3 December 2015 (Maier reference numbers added)

The Armigeri iuniores is listed (102/5.39 in Ingo Maier's numbering scheme) as the 27th of the vexillationes comitatenses in the Magister Equitum's cavalry roster; it is assigned (102/5.249) to the Comes Africae as the Equites armigeri iuniores. Its shield pattern (101#17), as shown in various manuscripts under the label (101.r) Armigeri iuniores, is as below:

The pattern has a red rim bordered with an inner yellow rim. The main ground is plain red (but white in B). The boss is is spiked (except in W, which is shown normally); the actual spike is black (O, M, W), white (P), or yellow (B), while the supporting boss is green (O, P), yellow (B), white (W), or white and yellow (M). Among cavalry units, a spiked boss is also shown for the Equites stablesiani Italiciani (102/5.41), and among infantry, for the eastern Batavi seniores (9.24) and the Brachiati iuniores (9.25), and just possibly for the Honoriani Atecotti iuniores (98/9.75) and the western Batavi seniores (98/9.39).

The name Armigeri should probably imply 'armoured', and given most soldiers were armoured to some extent, likely 'heavily armoured'. Accordingly, this raises the possibility that the cavalry armigeri units might be the equivalent of horse catafracts. However, this is just one of many possible explanations of the title - see my discussion on Armigeri for more details. In the Notitia, seven other cavalry units carry the title, as do three of infantry.

Epigraphic evidence (CIL 8,9255) for the Equites armigeri iuniores comes from Rusguniae (modern Bordj El Bahri, Matifou, in Algeria) in the form of an inscription mentioning one Flavius Nuvel, who declared himself to be an EQITUM ARMICERORUM VVNIOR, i.e. an "eq(u)itum armi(g)erorum (i)unior(um)", while dedicating a new Christian basilica .

1. Ingo Maier; "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. Jan Willem Drijvers; "Helena Augusta: The Mother of Constantine the Great and the Legend of Her Finding of the True Cross"; Brill, Leiden, 1992; at p 90. Return

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