This page created 13 April 2014, and last modified: 27 October (Frankfurt fragment image added)

One of the auxilia palatina units listed in the Magister Peditum's infantry roster is called the Salii; it assigned to the Magister Equitum's Gallic command under the name Salii seniores. Its shield pattern as shown in various manuscripts, under the label Salii, is as below:

The pattern has a red rim, an indigo-violet main field and boss (more purple in B, faded to maroon in W, except the boss, which is white, and nearly white in M and Ff, except the boss in M, which is black); the main field features a white wreath centred around the boss.

This pattern is one of the few in the Notitia that clearly shows a wreath - a symbol of victory that is found much more frequently in other Roman military-themed graphical sources. One might be tempted to conclude that there are more wreathes hiding in the Notitia, but have been mis-drawn as either simpler circles (see in particular that of the Felices Arcadiani seniores under the Magister Militum per Orientem, which shows a transitional form), or as other objects entirely: note how the pattern depicted in the second portion of the Munich manuscript (W) has been interpreted by its artist as a lyre.

Nonetheless, regardless of whether the wreath is precisely drawn or not, it is evident that this is the "wrong" shield pattern; like that of some other western auxilia platina units, it has been shifted from its proper place (or, to be more exact, the label has likely been shifted from its proper place). Shifting the pattern by one position, like those of its neighbours, as shown here using the patterns shown in the Parisian manuscript...

...means the above shield pattern properly belongs to the Tubantes, and the Salii (seniores) now has the shield pattern labelled the Grati, and which resembles the other Salii, under the the command of the first Master of the Soldiers in the Imperial Presence, in the eastern half of the empire, in that both bear brown wolves. This can be seen (albeit rather indistinctly in the case of the eastern unit) by comparing the patterns in the Parisian manuscript as shown below; the two other two units featuring paired wolves are also shown by way of comparison:

Another unit of Salii, the Salii (iuniores) Gallicani, is found under the "Comes" Hispenias; its shield pattern is unrelated. The name Salii is tribal, deriving from the Salian Franks, and from where the "Salic law" derived from.

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