Vestiaritai

Template:Titlelang Template:Short description The (Template:Langx, ; Template:Singular , Template:Translit, ) were a corps of imperial bodyguards and fiscal officials in the Byzantine Empire, attested from the 11th to the 15th centuries.

History and functions

The appear in the mid-11th century, with the first known , John Iberitzes, attested in 1049. As their name indicates, they had a connection to the imperial wardrobe and treasury, the , probably initially raised as a guard detachment for it. From circa 1080 on, they were formally distinguished into two groups: the "inner" or "household" ( or ), attached to the emperor's private treasury (the or ) under a , and the "outer" () under a , who were probably under the public or state treasury (). Gradually, they replaced various other groups of armed guards that the Byzantine emperors had employed inside Constantinople itself, such as the or the , and became the exclusive corps of the emperor's confidential agents. As the princess and historian Anna Komnene writes, they were the courtiers "closest" to the emperor. With the military crisis of the 1070s, they were also formed into a regular palace guard regiment, serving alongside the Varangian Guard in the Komnenian-era army.

The are attested as late as 1387, and likely continued to exist after. In the 13th and 14th centuries, however, their role was chiefly fiscal: they were responsible for levying soldiers and wagons from the provinces, under the control of the of the themes of the East. The chief of the was called () in the 13th and 14th centuries (not to be confused with the much older and more important office of ). The title is attested as late as 1451, when it was held by the historian George Sphrantzes. In the mid-14th century Book of Offices of Pseudo-Kodinos, it ranks nineteenth in the order of precedence, following the . According to the same work, its insignia were: a wooden staff () with gold and red-gold knobs, a hat with embroidery of the type, another type of hat called of white and gold silk with gold-wire embroidery and images of the emperor in the front and back, and a silk robe of office or .

Sources

• Bartusis, Mark C. (1997). The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society 1204–1453. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1620-2.
• Template:Recherches sur les institutions byzantines
• Template:Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
• Oikonomides, Nicolas (1976). Travaux et Mémoires 6 (in français). Paris: E. de Boccard.
• Verpeaux, Jean, ed. (1966). Pseudo-Kodinos, Traité des Offices (in français). Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.