The ( grc-gre, τατᾶς), more formally the ( grc-gre, τατᾶς τῆς αὐλῆς, , of the court) was a
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 ...
court office attested in the 12th–14th centuries, whose exact functions are unclear.
The title is first attested in the seal of
John Komnenos Vatatzes
John Komnenos Vatatzes, ( gr, Ἰωάννης Κομνηνὸς Βατάτζης, ''Iōannēs Komnēnos Vatatzēs''), or simply John Komnenos or John Vatatzes (the transliteration 'Batatzes' is also employed) in the sources, was a major military ...
in the 12th century, and over the next two centuries. Nevertheless, the exact functions it entailed are unclear: according to the 14th-century historian
Pachymeres
George Pachymeres ( el, Γεώργιος Παχυμέρης, Geórgios Pachyméris; 1242 – 1310) was a Byzantine Greek historian, philosopher, music theorist and miscellaneous writer.
Biography
Pachymeres was born at Nicaea, in Bithynia, wher ...
, the was one of the three major court functionaries along with the (imperial cup-bearer) and the (master of the imperial table), but the 15th-century historian
Doukas
The House of Doukas, Latinized as Ducas ( el, Δούκας; feminine: Doukaina/Ducaena, Δούκαινα; plural: Doukai/Ducae, Δοῦκαι), from the Latin title ''dux'' ("leader", "general", Hellenized as 'ðouks'', is the name of a Byzant ...
explains the title as "pedagogue". This led
Ernst Stein Ernst Edward Aurel Stein (19 September 1891, in Jaworzno – 25 February 1945, in Fribourg) was an Austrian-Jewish Byzantinist and a historian of Late Antiquity.
Ernst was the son of Ernst Eduard Stein and Henrietta Rosalie (née Hein) and the ...
to suggest that he succeeded the as imperial preceptor, a hypothesis rejected later by
Vitalien Laurent
Vitalien Laurent (born Louis Philippe Olivier Laurent; Séné, 26 May 1896 – Paris, 21 November 1973) was a French priest and Byzantinist. He was editor of the journal '' Échos d'Orient'' (predecessor of the ''Revue des études byzantines'').
...
.
References
Sources
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Byzantine palace offices
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