This page created 24 August 2014, and last modified: 7 December 2015 (Maier reference numbers added)

The Equites secundo sagittarii is listed (102/5.29 in Ingo Maier's numbering scheme) as the 17th of the 32 vexillationes comitatenses in the Magister Equitum's cavalry roster; it is assigned (102/5.240) to the Comes Africae. Its shield pattern (101#7) as shown in various manuscripts, under the label (101.g) Secundo sagittarii, is as below:

The pattern has a white main field with a yellow rim. The boss is white quartered with red (indigo in B); an indigo (faded to pink in M) crescent appears at the 12 o'clock position of the main field, horns upwards. Such small crescents are not particularly rare charges in the Notitia, being also found in the patterns of the Equites Marcomanni (102/5.24) and the Equites sagittarii Parthi iuniores in the west (102/5.32), and amongst the eastern infantry, the Matiarii iuniores (9.22) and Batavi seniores (9.24) under the Magister Militum Praesentalis I, and the Pannoniciani iuniores (18.26) and Tzanni (18.27) under the Magister Militum per Thracias.

The name sagittarii implies (but does not establish) the unit was bow-armed; while secundo establishes the unit as the second in a series of similarly-named units recorded in the Magister Equitum's cavalry roster, other members of which are the Equites primo sagittarii (102/5.28), the Equites tertio sagittarii (102/5.30), and the Equites quarto sagittarii (102/5.231); their shield patterns are not particularly similar, although a comparison of their patterns, as taken from the Parisian manuscript below, shows only those of the 3rd and 4th regiments have any degree of similarity to each other:

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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