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 chartoularioi of the Byzantine themes and domesticates, but were beneath the rank of spatharios.[6]

References

  1. ↑ ODB, "Eparch of the City" (A. Kazhdan), p. 705; Bury 1911, p. 70.
  2. ↑ Laiou 2007, Nicolas Oikonomides, "The Role of the Byzantine State in the Economy", p. 975.
  3. ↑ 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."
  4. 1 2 ODB, "Symponos" (A. Kazhdan), p. 1989.
  5. 1 2 Bury 1911, p. 71.
  6. ↑ Bury 1911, p. 70.

Sources

  • Bury, J. B. (1911). The Imperial Administrative System of the Ninth Century – With a Revised Text of the Kletorologion of Philotheos. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 1046639111.
  • Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
  • 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 978-0-88402-332-6.
  • Sinnigen, William Gurnee (1957). The Officium of the Urban Prefecture during the Later Roman Empire. Rome: American Academy in Rome.
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