Chartularius

The ''chartoularios'' or ''chartularius'' ( el, χαρτουλάριος), Anglicized as chartulary, was a late Roman and Byzantine administrative official, entrusted with administrative and fiscal duties, either as a subaltern official of a department or province or at the head of various independent bureaus.

History

The title derives from Latin ''chartulārius'' from ''charta'' (ultimately from Greek χάρτης ''chartēs''), 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 xeosdromou'' (, "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 isc), 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 egaloitou 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.
*Two ''chartoularioi'', one for each of the two ''dēmoi'', the Blues and Greens, of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople..
*The ''megas chartoularios'' was a Palaiologan-era honorary court title, recorded by pseudo-Kodinos, which entailed no specific office or function.

References

Sources

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{{Byzantine Empire topics, governance

Byzantine administrative offices
Byzantine fiscal offices