Civitates et castella in the Notitia Dignitatum

Abstract This paper examines the vignettes in the Notitia Dignitatum depicting civitates, burgi, castella and other similar settlements. Their mode of representation, although altered by different copyists, follows a well-established tradition in itineraria picta and other similar documents from the Roman period. In some cases, the representations correspond almost literally to the text of the de rebus bellicis (de limitum munitionibus 20). The author of the representations, and therefore the Notitia itself, wanted to represent two essential aspects: on the one hand, the wall as an identifying feature of cities, walls that constitute their dignitas, an idea to which the imperial laws of the Codex Theodosianus refer on numerous occasions, and on the other hand, the fortified and secure aspect of the landscape of the Roman Empire. A dioecesis is sometimes depicted as a fortified city (for example, the Comes Italiae). The images aim to convey a compact, defensive and closed aspect of the border regions. Not all representations correspond to cities: a distinction must be made between cities, burgi, turres and castella. It is a significant coincidence that authors such as Hydatius, in the second half of the 5th century, and John of Biclar, in his Chronica, a work from the middle of the 6th century, describe the landscape in similar terms: the territory is composed of civitates and castella .