This page created 3 August 2014, and last modified: 31 October 2015 (Maier reference numbers added)

The Equites tertii stablesiani is listed (15.8 in Ingo Maier's numbering scheme) as one of the vexillationes comitatenses under the Magister Militum per Orientem. Like all eastern cavalry units, save for that of the Domestici equites (30.2) and (potentially) some of the Scholae under the Magister Officiorum, its shield pattern is not recorded in the Notitia.

Unlike many eastern cavalry units, however, its existence is noted outside the Notitia. Firstly, a letter dated 432/3 from Theoderet, bishop of Cyrrhus (modern Nebi Huri in northern Syria), and preserved in a 12th century codex made in Monte Cassino, records that he had given a letter to a diaconus (deacon) of the tertio stabilisianorum who happened to be heading to Samosata. Secondly, emperor Justin I wrote in 520 to Hypatius, then Magister Militum per Orientem, instructing him to investigate certain religious irregularities alleged to have been committed by soldiers from the numero tertio stabilisianorum, apparently still stationed in Cyrrhus, and if proven, to expel them from the unit and then torture them; the letter is preserved as part of the recordings of Fifth Ecumenical Council of 533. See: Philip Rance, cited below.

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. Philip Rance; "The Third Equites Stablesiani at Cyrrhus", Chiron 42 (2012), 347-360; available here (last accessed 31 October 2015). Return

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