This page created 20 April 2014, and last modified: 5 December 2015 (Maier reference citations added)

The Equites promoti iuniores is listed (102/5.42 in Ingo Maier's numbering scheme) as 23rd of the 32 vexillationes comitatenses in the Magister Equitum's cavalry roster; it is assigned (102/5.260) to the Comes Africae. Its shield pattern (101#13) as shown in various manuscripts, under the label (101.n) Promoti iuniores, is as below:

Judging from the way other colours have faded in some of the manuscripts, the main colour of this simple pattern would originally appear to have been some variant of purplish-violet; the boss is quartered back and white (B lacks any blck in its quarterings). There is another listing (9.14) of a unit called Equites promoti iuniores in the Notitia, under the the command of the first Master of the Soldiers in the Imperial Presence in the eastern half of the empire; as with all eastern cavalry units, its shield pattern is alas not recorded. This may represent the same unit formerly stationed in the east; however, the evidence is tolerably clear that many, and perhaps even most, of the east-west duplicated units in the Notitia are genuinely distinct units.

In the west, there is also an Equites promoti seniores listed (102/5.04), the second of the vexillationes palatinae under the Magister Equitum's list and which is assigned to Magister Peditum's Italian command. Its shield pattern is the same as that of the western iuniores unit, except for the colours being differently (red field; blue quarterings); it must be said however that the same is true of various other units, such as the Equites sagittarii Parthi seniores (102/5.27; red with black quarterings), the Equites armigeri seniores (102/5.25; green with red quarterings), and among the infantry, the Taurunenses (98/9.135; red with green quarterings).

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

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