A ''sakellarios'' ( el, σακελλάριος) or ''sacellarius'' is the title of an official entrusted with administrative and financial duties (cf. ''sakellē'' or ''sakellion'', "purse, treasury") in a government or institution. The title was used in the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

with varying functions and the title remains in use in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

Civil administration

The first known ''sakellarios'' was a certain Paul, a

freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

appointed by Emperor

Zeno Zeno ( grc, Ζήνων) may refer to: People * Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Philosophers * Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes * Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 BC), ...

(reigned 474–491). Hence, the ''sakellarios'' usually is presumed to have headed a ''

sakellion A ''sakellarios'' ( el, σακελλάριος) or ''sacellarius'' is the title of an official entrusted with administrative and financial duties (cf. ''sakellē'' or ''sakellion'', "purse, treasury") in a government or institution. The title was ...

'' (or ''sakella'', ''sakelle''), a term that appears in early

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

sources with the apparent sense of "treasury", more specifically of "cash", as opposed to the ''

vestiarion The ''vestiarion'' ( el, βεστιάριον, from la, vestiarium, "wardrobe"), sometimes with the adjectives ''basilikon'' ("imperial") or ''mega'' ("great"),. was one of the major fiscal departments of the Byzantine bureaucracy. In English, it ...

'' that was for goods. Despite the origin of the term, the ''sakellarioi'' of the early Byzantine period (fifth–seventh centuries) are not directly associated with financial matters. Rather they appear connected with the imperial bedchamber (''koiton''), bearing court titles such as ''

spatharios The ''spatharii'' or ''spatharioi'' (singular: la, spatharius; el, σπαθάριος, literally "spatha-bearer") were a class of Late Roman imperial bodyguards in the court in Constantinople in the 5th–6th centuries, later becoming a purely ho ...

'' or ''

koubikoularios ''Cubicularius'', Hellenized as ''koubikoularios'' ( gr, κουβικουλάριος), was a title used for the eunuch chamberlains of the imperial palace in the later Roman Empire and in the Byzantine Empire. The feminine version, used for the l ...

'', while some holders of the office were entrusted with distinctly non-financial tasks: Emperor

Heraclius Heraclius ( grc-gre, Ἡράκλειος, Hērákleios; c. 575 – 11 February 641), was List of Byzantine emperors, Eastern Roman emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exa ...

(r. 610–641) appointed the ''sakellarios''

Theodore Trithyrius Theodore Trithyrius ( el, Θεόδωρος Τριθύριος; died 636), commonly known by his title as Theodore the Sacellarius, was a Byzantine treasurer of the state ('' sacellarius'') and a military commander during the last years of the rei ...

to command against the Arabs, and yet another ''sakellarios'' conducted the examination of

Maximos the Confessor Maximus the Confessor ( el, Μάξιμος ὁ Ὁμολογητής), also spelt Maximos, otherwise known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople ( – 13 August 662), was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar. In his earl ...

under

Constans II Constans II ( grc-gre, Κώνστας, Kōnstas; 7 November 630 – 15 July 668), nicknamed "the Bearded" ( la, Pogonatus; grc-gre, ὁ Πωγωνᾶτος, ho Pōgōnãtos), was the Eastern Roman emperor from 641 to 668. Constans was the last ...

(r. 641–668). It is only in the early eighth century that ''sakellarioi'' are directly mentioned as treasurers. By the time of the ''

Taktikon Uspensky The ''Taktikon Uspensky'' or ''Uspenskij'' is the conventional name of a mid-9th century Greek list of the civil, military and ecclesiastical offices of the Byzantine Empire and their precedence at the imperial court. Nicolas Oikonomides has dated ...

'' of c. 843, the ''sakellarios'' had become a general

comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...

of the fiscal bureaux (the ''sekreta''), with notaries reporting to the office holder in each department. The head of the ''sakellion'' department from this period on became the ''

chartoularios tou sakelliou 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 depar ...

''. From the late eleventh century, the prefix ''megas'' ("grand") was added to it. The post continues in evidence until at least 1196, although for a time, it may have been subsumed into that of the ''

megas logariastes ( gr, λογαριαστής, , accountant) was a type of financial official in the Byzantine Empire from the early 11th century onwards, with the task of controlling expenses. The post is attested for the first time in 1012, and existed both with ...

'' under

Alexios I Komnenos Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during ...

(r. 1081–1118).

Ecclesiastical administration

Imitating the practice of the imperial court, the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...

had its own ''sakellion''. Like the office holder's secular counterpart, the patriarchal ''sakellarios'' lost its function as treasurer. By the late eleventh century the ecclesiastic official took over the supervision of donations to, and the administration of, the monasteries of Constantinople. At the same time, it also acquired the prefix ''megas'' and replaced the ''

megas skeuophylax Magnús Þór Jónsson (born 7 April 1945), better known by the stage name Megas, is a vocalist, songwriter, and writer who is well known in his native Iceland. Interest in music Being an admirer of Elvis Presley, Megas welcomed the arrival of ...

'' as the second-most important official of the patriarchate. By the thirteenth century, the institution of ''megas sakellarios'' had been replicated in the provincial sees as well.

References

Sources

* * {{Byzantine Empire topics, governance Eastern Christian ecclesiastical offices Byzantine fiscal offices