Chartoularios

The title derives from Latin from (ultimately from Greek ), a term used for official documents, and is attested from 326, when chartularii were employed in the chanceries (scrinia) of the senior offices of the Roman state (the praetorian prefecture, the officium of the magister militum, etc.). Originally lowly clerks, by the 6th century they had risen in importance, to the extent that Peter the Patrician, when distinguishing between civil and military officials, calls the former chartoularikoi. From the 7th century on, chartoularioi could be either employed as heads of departments within a fiscal department (sekreton or logothesion), as heads of independent departments, or in the thematic (provincial) and tagmatic administration, although the occasional appointment of chartoularioi at the head of armies is also recorded. The ecclesiastic counterpart was called a chartophylax, and both terms were sometimes used interchangeably. ==Chartoularioi==

• The chartoularioi tou [oxeos] dromou (, "chartularies of the course"), subaltern officials in the department of the dromos ("the Course") under the logothetēs tou dromou. • The so-called chartoularioi megaloi tou sekretou (, "grand chartularies of the department"), as heads of the various bureaus of the department of the genikon ("the General [Fisc]"), and the chartoularioi tōn arklōn () or exō chartoularioi (, "outer chartularies") as the senior treasury officials posted in the provinces ("outer" meaning outside Constantinople). • The chartoularios tou oikistikou () or simply ho oikistikos, whose precise functions are unknown, is also attested under the genikon; it did become an independent bureau by the 11th century, but disappears after that. It is recorded that he was in charge of tax exemptions, and had various juridical duties in some themata in the 11th century; the office may have been associated with the imperial domains (oikoi). • The chartoularioi [megaloi] tou sekretou (), as the senior subaltern officials of the department of the logothetēs toū stratiōtikou, who supervised the military fisc, and further chartoularioi of the individual themata () and tagmata (), supervising the financial affairs of the thematic troops and the imperial tagmata, respectively. • The chartoularios tou sakelliou (), in charge of the Sakellion treasury. • The chartoularios tou vestiariou (), in charge of the Vestiarion treasury. • The chartoularios tou kanikleiou (), in charge of the imperial inkpot (the kanikleion), a post given to one of the most trusted aides of the Byzantine emperor. • The chartoularios tou stablou (, "chartulary of the stable"), initially a subaltern official under the komēs tou stablou ("Count of the Stable"), in the 11th century the epithet megas was added and he became head of his department, supervising the imperial stud farms (mētata or chartoularata) in the Balkans and Asia Minor and being responsible for the provisioning of the imperial baggage train. A further chartoularios, in charge of the large army encampment (aplēkton) at Malagina (), was subordinated to him. • The megas chartoularios was a Palaiologan-era honorary court title, recorded by pseudo-Kodinos, which entailed no specific office or function. ==References==