Fig.

1: 12 Patterns for the Legiones Palatinae

Blue and Red in

Notitia Dignitatum
Joannes Richter
1 Introduction
The Books Exodus and Chronicles reveal a great number of
symbolic coloured woven materials (red, blue and purple
twining) in the divine instructions for the Covenant tent and
for Solomon's temple1.
Medieval paintings and illuminated manuscripts provide us
with a vast number of red and blue coloured illustrations, in
which these colours seem to represent religious symbols.
Roman historians report the religious symbolism in purple
decorations for the senators and purple garments for the
emperor and his family. Purple stripes (named clavi) were
reserved for the knights and senators. As a divine emperor
Nero reserved purple clothing for the imperial family2.
As more recent document the 5th century Notitia Dignitatum
probably represents the missing link between Exodus, the
symbolism in Roman garments and the medieval illuminated
Bibles.
Notitia Dignitatum details administrative symbols in the
Roman empire, which at that time already had been governed
for 90-100 years by a religious tolerance of Christianity 3. The
manuscript(s) provides us with an overview of the late Roman
shield patterns for the military forces around 400 AD.

1
Exodus 28:2-5. See the documentation in The Hermetic Codex
2
see the documentation in The Hermetic Codex
3
after Saint Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed
religious tolerance of Christians throughout the empire.

2
A quick look at the Late Roman Shield Patterns for the 127
units under the overall command of the Master of the Foot will
convince us of the dominance of the colours red, blue, orange,
black and white. Only minor amounts of purple, green and
yellow have been used.
These shield patterns may have been widely known throughout
the Roman empire, resulting in popular symbols for shield
patterns among the Celtic and Germanic soldiers, generals and
their kings. The patters probably survived the medieval chaotic
eras and were to be remembered in later times for medieval
garments and coats of arms. We remember most of the royal
garments and coats of arms in the Middle Age have been
coloured red, blue, black, white and golden.
This manuscript documents some of the Roman samples and
compares the patterns with medieval symbolism, which reveal
a striking correspondence between modern coats of arms and
modern flags. The other illustrations of the Notitia Dignitatum
are quite similar and do not really deliver more insight at this
time.

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2 Exodus and Chronicles
The Books Exodus and Chronicles reveal a great number of
symbolic coloured woven materials (red, blue and purple
twining) in the divine instructions for the Covenant tent and
for Solomon's temple4:
28: 5They shall take the gold, and the blue, and the
purple, and the scarlet, and the fine linen. 6“They shall
make the ephod of gold, of blue, and purple, scarlet,
and fine twined linen, the work of the skilful workman.
7
It shall have two shoulder-pieces joined to the two ends
of it, that it may be joined together. 8The skilfully
woven band, which is on it, that is on him, shall be like
its work and of the same piece; of gold, of blue, and
purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.
15“You shall make a breastplate of judgment, the work
of the skilful workman; like the work of the ephod you
shall make it; of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet,
and fine twined linen, shall you make it.
28They shall bind the breastplate by the rings of it to the
rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it may be on
the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and that the
breastplate may not swing out from the ephod.
There is a total of 25 divine orders for the usage of blue,
purple and scarlet. In these descriptions the German Luther-
Bible also mentions the colour white as an additional, maybe
important attribute for the twined linen. We will now compare
these divine commands with ancient Roman symbolism.

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Exodus 28:2-5

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3 The Notitia Dignitatum
The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman
imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents
of Roman government, it details the administrative
organisation of the eastern and western empires, listing several
thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial
level.
It is usually considered to be up to date for the Western empire
in the 420s, and for the Eastern empire in 400s. However, no
absolute date can be given, and there are omissions and
problems.
All the known and extant copies of this late Roman document
are derived, either directly or indirectly, from a codex (Codex
Spirensis) that is known to have existed in the library of the
cathedral chapter at Speyer in 1542 but which was lost before
1672 and cannot now be located. That book contained a
collection of documents (of which the Notitia was the last and
largest document, occupying 164 pages) that brought together
several previous documents of which one was of the 9th
century.
The heraldry in illuminated manuscripts of Notitiae is thought
to copy or imitate no other examples than those from the lost
Codex Spirensis. The most important copy of the Codex is that
made for Pietro Donato (1436), illuminated by Peronet Lamy.
A full overview of the illustrations has been documented in the
Wikipedia site Notitia dignitatum and Latin Wikisource has
original text related to this article: Notitia dignitatum.

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4 Magister Peditum page 1
The first page documents the shields for the 12 Legiones
Palatinae:

1. Ioviani seniores
2. Herculiani seniores
3. Divitenses seniores
4. Tongrecani seniores
5. Pannoniciani seniores
6. Moesiaci seniores
7. Armigeri propugnatores seniores
8. Lanciarii Sabarienses
9. Octavani
10. Thebaei
11. Cimbriani
12. Armigeri propugnatores iuniores

The units' shield patterns are illustrated below from top to

bottom, left to right, in the order given above.
Both the Ioviani seniores and the Herculiani seniores are using
an eagle in their shield patterns, which may also be found in a
great number of modern coats of arms, e.g.:

Fig. 2: Ioviani seniores

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 Fig. 3: Magister Peditum page 1

See the legend at Magister Peditum page 1

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The Ioviani seniores are painted in red & blue and located at
the very first position of the overview.

Fig. 4: Shield Patterns for the 12 Legiones palatinae

public domain (because its copyright has expired.)
At the first positions both the Ioviani seniores and the
Herculiani seniores (which are using an eagle in their shield
patterns), may be considered as the most important pedestrian
legions of the western Roman army of that time.

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5 Magister Peditum page 2

Fig 5: Magister Peditum page 2

public domain (because its copyright has expired.)

This page displays paint some of the auxiliary troops, painted
in red and blue, orange, black and white.

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6 Magister Peditum page 3

Fig. 6: Magister Peditum page 3

public domain (because its copyright has expired.)
This page sketches some more of the auxiliary troops, painted
in red and blue, orange, black and white.

10
7 Magister Peditum page 4

Fig. 7: Magister Peditum page 4

Magister Peditum page 4 from the Roman Notitia Dignitatum

(5th century AD)
public domain (because its copyright has expired.)

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The flag of South Korea
At Page 4 from the Roman Notitia Dignitatum the shield
pattern of the armigeri defensores seniores (4th row, third from
left), the earliest representations of the symbol known today as
Yin and Yang.

From Notitia Dignitatum to the Taegeukgi

The flag of South Korea, or Taegeukgi (also spelled Taegukgi
in convention) was taken from the Chinese design of the yin
and yang symbol and has three parts: a white background; a red
and blue taegeuk ("Taijitu" or "Yin and Yang") in the centre;
and four black trigrams, one in each corner of the flag.
The taegeuk represents the origin of all things in the universe;
holding the two principles of "Yin", the negative aspect
rendered in blue, and "Yang", the positive aspect rendered in
red, in perfect balance. Together, they represent a continuous
movement within infinity, the two merging as one.
The earliest surviving depiction of the flag was printed in a
U.S. Navy book Flags of Maritime Nations in July 1882.

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 Fig. 8: Flag of Korea / South
Korea 1882

from the Wikimedia Commons.

Reference: The Fundamental Color Symbols Blue and Red

British Royal Air Forces

At Page 4 from the Roman Notitia Dignitatum the shield
pattern of the attecotti iuniores Gallicani (second row, third
from left) may refer to the symbol for the British Royal Air
Forces:

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8 Magister Peditum page 5

Fig. 9: Magister Peditum page 5

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9 Magister Peditum page 6

Fig.10: Magister Peditum page 6

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