Symponos
The symponos (Greek: σύμπονος) was, along with the logothetes tou praitoriou, one of the two senior subalterns to the Eparch of Constantinople, the chief administrator of the capital of the Byzantine Empire.[1] His main responsibility was the supervision of the city's guilds on the Eparch's behalf.[2][3] Earlier scholars suggested that each guild had its own symponos, but this hypothesis has been rejected since.[4][5] John B. Bury identified him as the successor of the adsessor attested in the late 4th-century Notitia Dignitatum, but the earliest surviving seal of a symponos dates to the 6th or 7th centuries. The office is last attested in 1023.[4][5] According to the Taktikon Uspensky, the symponos and the logothetes tou praitoriou preceded, rank-wise, the chartoularii of the Byzantine themes and domesticates, but were beneath the rank of spatharios.[6]
References
- ^ Kazhdan 1991, p. 705; Bury 1911, p. 70.
- ^ Laiou 2007, Nicolas Oikonomides, "The Role of the Byzantine State in the Economy", p. 975.
- ^ Sinnigen 1957, p. 55: "In the ninth century, the ministry was divided into two departments, one under a symponos or assessor, who supervised the urban guilds, the other under the logothetes tou praitoriou, who may (like the earlier primiscrinius) have been concerned with the administration of justice."
- ^ a b Kazhdan 1991, p. 1989.
- ^ a b Bury 1911, p. 71.
- ^ Bury 1911, p. 70.
Sources
- Bury, John Bagnell (1911). The Imperial Administrative System of the Ninth Century - With a Revised Text of the Kletorologion of Philotheos. London, United Kingdom: Published for the British Academy by Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZoBDAAAAIAAJ.
- Kazhdan, Alexander Petrovich, ed (1991). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York, New York and Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.
- Laiou, Angeliki E., ed (2007) [2002]. The Economic History of Byzantium: From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century. Washington, District of Columbia: Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 978-0884023326. http://www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/EHB.html.
- Sinnigen, William Gurnee (1957). The Officium of the Urban Prefecture during the Later Roman Empire. American Academy in Rome. http://books.google.com/books?id=NnYSAAAAIAAJ.