The ''prōtoierakarios'' or ''prōtohierakarios'' ( el, πρωτοϊερακάριος, "first falconer"), also ''prōthierakarios'' (πρωθιερακάριος), 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 and honorific title in the 13th–15th centuries.

History and functions

The office first appears in the 13th-century

Empire of Nicaea The Empire of Nicaea or the Nicene Empire is the conventional historiographic name for the largest of the three Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C. M. Woodhous ...

, although it clearly had earlier antecedents. Hunting was a particular passion of Byzantine emperors, and

falconry Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...

in became increasingly popular among the upper classes from the 11th century on, judged from the references in literary sources and the appearance of manuals on falconry. In the 14th century,

Andronikos III Palaiologos , image = Andronikos_III_Palaiologos.jpg , caption = 14th-century miniature.Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek. , succession = Byzantine emperor , reign = 24 May 1328 – 15 June 1341 , coronation = ...

() is said to have maintained over a thousand hunting dogs and over a thousand falcons. In the ''Book of Offices'' written by

pseudo-Kodinos George Kodinos or Codinus ( el, Γεώργιος Κωδινός), also Pseudo-Kodinos, ''kouropalates'' in the Byzantine court, is the reputed 14th-century author of three extant works in late Byzantine literature. Their attribution to him is mere ...

in the middle of the 14th century, the post occupies the 48th place in the imperial hierarchy, between the '' logothetēs tou stratiōtikou'' and the '' logothetēs tōn agelōn''. The French scholar

Rodolphe Guilland Rodolphe Joseph Guilland (Lons-le-Saunier, 1888 – Saint-Marcellin, Isère, 5 October 1981) was a French Byzantinist. Life Born in 1888, he completed his thesis on Nikephoros Gregoras (a biography in 1926, and his edited correspondence in 1927), ...

suggested that it was closely associated with the '' prōtokynēgos'' ("first huntsman"), who was in the 41st place, and that holders of the former office were promoted to the latter. According to pseudo-Kodinos, his functions were to supervise the keepers of the falcons. As a sign of this he bore a left-hand gauntlet on his belt, decorated with gold braid and

purple Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters ...

eagles. His uniform was otherwise typical of the mid-level courtiers: a gold-brocaded hat (''skiadion''), a plain silk '' kabbadion'', and a ''skaranikon'' (domed hat) covered in golden and lemon-yellow silk and decorated with gold wire and images of the emperor in front and rear, respectively depicted enthroned and on horseback. The office could be held by more than one persons at the same time. The lowly rank and obscure charge of the position means that its holders are not often attested in the sources.

List of known ''prōtoierakarioi''

References

Sources

* * * * * {{Byzantine offices after pseudo-Kodinos Byzantine court titles Greek words and phrases History of hunting Falconry Lists of office-holders in the Byzantine Empire

History and functions

List of known ''prōtoierakarioi''

See also

References

Sources