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 is often known as the department of the Public Wardrobe. Originating from the late Roman palace office of the ''sacrum vestiarium'', it became an independent department in the 7th century under a ''chartoularios''. By the late Byzantine period, it had become the state's sole treasury department. The public ''vestiarion'' must not be confused with the Byzantine emperor's private wardrobe, the ''oikeiakon vestiarion'', which was headed by the '' prōtovestiarios''.

History and functions

The bureau of the ''sacrum vestiarium'' (Latin for "sacred wardrobe") is first attested as one of the ''scrinia'' under the ''comes sacrarum largitionum'' in the 5th century, and was then headed by a ''primicerius''. In the 7th century, as the old Roman departments were broken up, the ''sacrum vestiarium'' and the bureaus of the ''scrinium argenti'' and ''scrinium a milarensibus'', which supervised the mints, were combined to form the department of the ''vestiarion'', under the ''chartoularios tou vestiariou'' (). This official is variously known in the sources also as ''vestiarios'' (βεστιάριος) and 'epi tou''''vestiariou'' (). The office of ''vestiariou'', attested in the late 13th and 14th centuries by George Pachymeres and Pseudo-Kodinos, however, was apparently a distinct and independent office, which function as the paymaster of the naval ships and apparently corresponds to that of "prefect of the army" () attested in the 6th century as army paymasters.

The ''vestiarion'' functioned parallel to the other state fiscal departments, the '' sakellion'' and the various '' logothesia'', and was responsible for minting coin and bullion, as well as the maintenance of imperial arsenals in Constantinople and the provisioning of the imperial fleet and army. In effect, the ''vestiarion'' functioned parallel to the ''sakellion''; salaries for instance were paid one half by each department. In the 12th century, the ''vestiarion'' became the sole state treasury, and was commonly referred to simply as the ''tameion'' ("treasury"). As such it survived into the Palaiologan period, when its chairman (''prokathēmenos'') was in charge of "revenue and expenditure".

Organization

The information on the department's internal structure during the middle Byzantine period (late 7th-11th centuries) comes primarily from the '' Klētorologion'' of Philotheos, a list of offices compiled in 899. Under the department head, the ''chartoularios tou vestiariou'' entails:

*A number of ''basilikoi notarioi'' of the ''sekreton'' (), imperial notaries at the head of sub-departments, corresponding to the late Roman ''primiscrinii''.
*A '' kentarchos'' (Greek: , "centurion of the ''vestiarion''") and a ''legatarios'' (Greek: λεγατάριος), of unknown functions.
*An ''archon tēs charagēs'' (Greek: , "master of the mint").. The same official is probably identifiable with the ''chrysoepsētēs'' attested elsewhere in Philotheos and in the earlier '' Taktikon Uspensky''.
*The ''chartoularios'' in charge of the ''exartēsis'', the imperial naval arsenal. Also known as the ''exartistēs'' (Greek: ).
*A number of ''kouratores'' ("curators").
*A number of ''chosvaētai'' (Greek: ), of unknown functions. Their strange title may be a corruption of ''vestiaritai'' ("men of the ''vestiarion''").
*A number of '' mandatores'' (Greek: μανδάτορες, "messengers"), under a '' prōtomandatōr''.

References

Sources

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Government of the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine fiscal offices

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