Ruling an Empire in a Changing World: The Origin, Impact, and Reception of the Notitia Dignitatum

The Notitia Dignitatum remains one of the most important yet enigmatic sources for understanding the administration, military organisation, and frontier systems of the later Roman Empire. Bringing together twenty-one contributions from leading international specialists, Ruling an Empire in a Changing World offers an exhaustive scholarly reassessment from an unprecedented range of academic disciplines.

Originating from a 2019 conference held in Freiburg – the first devoted to the Notitia Dignitatum since that in Oxford in 1974 – the volume approaches the text from the perspectives of Ancient History, Epigraphy, Papyrology, Archaeology, Art History, and Medieval Studies. Following an extensive introduction by Peter Brennan, contributors examine the transmission and reception of the Notitia, discuss its manuscript tradition, and offer art historical analyses of its illustrations and how they differ between manuscripts. Subsequent chapters explore the document''s value as a source for the military, administrative, and political history of the late Roman Empire, including studies of frontier defence, administrative structures, and comparisons with contemporary written and archaeological evidence.

Concluding with a wide-ranging assessment of the fifth-century Roman world by Jeroen Wijnendaele, the volume demonstrates the crucial significance of the Notitia for our understanding of this period. As the first publication to unite such a broad range of disciplinary approaches, it will become an essential point of reference for all scholars of Late Antiquity.