This page created 24 August 2014, and last modified: 24 August 2014

The Equites secundo sagittarii is listed as one of the vexillationes comitatenses in the Magister Equitum's cavalry roster; it is assigned to the Comes Africae. Its shield pattern as shown in various manuscripts is as below:

The pattern has a yellow rim with a white main field. The boss is white quartered with red (with blue in B); a small 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 common charges in the Notitia, being also found in the patterns of the Equites Marcomanni and the Equites sagittarii Parthi iuniores in the west, and amongst the eastern infantry, the Matiarii iuniores and Batavi seniores under the Magister Militum Praesentalis I, and the Pannoniciani iuniores and Tzaanni 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, the Equites tertio sagittarii, and the Equites quarto sagittarii; their shield patterns are not particularly similar, although a comparison of their patterns, as taken from the Parisian manuscript below, shows those of the 3rd and 4th regiments to be somewhat more similar to each other than to the others:

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