Verona List
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The Verona List (Nomina Provinciarum Omnium) is in a document of AD 312-314 that was recorded by the 5th-century historian Polemius Silvius in his annotated Christian calendar describing the Roman Empire as it existed during the early fourth century. The document is sometimes called Laterculus Veronensis.
It lists all the provinces and the dioceses of which they were are part in the decades following the major administrative reforms of the emperor Diocletian. Additionally it names the main barbarian tribes on the edge of the Empire in Europe and Africa.
The corrupt text of the British section reads as follows:
Eborius episcopus de civitate Eboracensi provincia Britannia.
Restitutus episcopus de civitate Londiniensi provincia suprascripta.
Adelphius episcopus de civitate colonia Londiniensium.
Exinde Sacerdos presbyter, Arminius diaconus.
It will be observed that (contrary to popular belief) the list does not name four provinces and does not state that Lincoln was a provincial capital. The name “Eborius” is obviously fabricated out of “Eboracensi”, and “Sacerdos” is not a name, but a synonym of “presbyter” (both meaning “priest”). The two provincial capitals actually mentioned are London and York, and Bede recorded that Gregory instructed Augustine to establish metropolitan sees in those cities.
Towards the end of the fourth century, a similar document called the Notitia dignitatum was produced, that does name British provinces.
[edit] Source
Frere, S, Britannia, Routledge, London, 1987
[edit] Further reading
- Jones, A.H.M. 1953. The date and value of the Verona list. Journal of Roman Studies 43: 21-29.
- Mann, J. C. 1961. The administration of Roman Britain. Antiquity 35: 316-320.
- Mann, J. C. 1998. The Creation of Four Provinces in Britain by Diocletian. Britannia 29: 339-341.
