The Equites tertio sagittarii



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

Spear

The Equites tertio 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, under the label Equites tertii sagittarii, using the adjectival tertii rather than the adverbial tertio, is as below:

Shield patterns



Disclaimer: remember, I'm not an expert in the field of Notitia studies, so take my comments with a grain of salt...


The pattern shows a yellow rim, and working inwards, bands of purple (faded to pink in M, W), yellow (white in W), green (the broadest band, and faded to yellow in M), blue (purple in P, white in M, and absent in B), purple (blue in P, faded to pink in M, and white in W), and finally a small red central disc (white in M and absent in B).

The name sagittarii implies (but does not establish) the unit was bow-armed; while tertio establishes the unit as the third 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 secundo 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:

Shield patterns

Spear

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