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Quaestor Sacri Palatii
The ''quaestor sacri palatii'' ( gr, κοιαίστωρ/κυαίστωρ τοῦ ἱεροῦ παλατίου, usually simply ), in English: Quaestor of the Sacred Palace, was the senior legal authority in the late Roman Empire and early Byzantium, responsible for drafting laws. In the later Byzantine Empire, the office of the ''quaestor'' was altered and it became a senior judicial official for the imperial capital, Constantinople. The post survived until the 14th century, albeit only as an honorary title. Late Roman ''quaestor sacri palatii'' The office was created by Emperor Constantine I (), with the duties of drafting of laws and the answering of petitions addressed to the emperor. Although he functioned as the chief legal advisor of the emperor and hence came to exercise great influence, his actual judicial rights were very limited.. Thus from 440 he presided, jointly with the praetorian prefect of the East, over the supreme tribunal in Constantinople which heard appeals ...
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Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire, Rome's control rapidly expanded during this period—from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. Roman society under the Republic was primarily a cultural mix of Latin and Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is especially visible in the Roman Pantheon. Its political organization developed, at around the same time as direct democracy in Ancient Greece, with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by a senate. The top magistrates were the two consuls, who had an extensive range of executive, legislative, judicial, military, and religious po ...
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Tribonian
Tribonian ( Greek: Τριβωνιανός rivonia'nos c. 485?–542) was a notable Byzantine jurist and advisor, who during the reign of the Emperor Justinian I, supervised the revision of the legal code of the Byzantine Empire. He has been described as one of the wisest collaborators of Emperor Justinian. Tribonian was a Greek, born in Side, in Pamphylia, around the year 500. He was well educated and practiced law before the court of the praetorian prefect. Justinian made Tribonian ''magister officiorum'' (Master of Offices), although it is not clear when, and then appointed him ''quaestor sacri palatii'' in September 529. In 528, before he was appointed quaestor, Tribonian was named by Justinian as one of the commissioners charged with preparing the new imperial legal code, the '' Codex Justinianeus'', which subsequently was issued on April 7, 529. In 530, after Tribonian had become quaestor, it was natural for Justinian to put him in charge of the next major law reform projec ...
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Eunuch
A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium BCE. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures: courtiers or equivalent domestics, for espionage or clandestine operations, castrato singers, concubines, or sexual partners, religious specialists, soldiers, royal guards, government officials, and guardians of women or harem servants. Eunuchs would usually be servants or slaves who had been castrated to make them less threatening servants of a royal court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence. Seemingly lowly domestic functions—such as making the ruler's bed, bathing him, cutting his hair, carrying him in his litter, or even relaying messages—could, in theory, give a eunuch "the ruler's ear" a ...
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Epi Ton Deeseon
The ''epi tōn deēseōn'' ( el, , "the one in charge of petitions") was a Byzantine office, whose holder was responsible for receiving and answering petitions to the Byzantine emperor. Subordinate officials with the same title also existed in the provinces, and the Patriarch of Constantinople also had an ''epi tōn deēseōn''. The office is usually considered (cf. Bury) as the direct continuation of the late Roman ''magister memoriae'', but this identification is not certain. The title is first attested in a 7th-century seal. In the lists of precedence like the '' Klētorologion'', he was counted among the judicial officials (''kritai''), and surviving seals show that until the 11th century, its holders held relatively mid-ranking dignities, no higher than '' prōtospatharios''. From the latter half of the 11th century however and during the 12th, the office rose much in importance, with its holders receiving higher titles and being drawn from among the Empire's nobility. The las ...
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Logothetes Tou Dromou
The ( gr, λογοθέτης τοῦ δρόμου), in English usually rendered as Logothete of the Course/Drome/ or Postal Logothete, was the head of the department of the Public Post ( la, cursus publicus, gr, δημόσιος δρόμος, demosios dromos, or simply , ), and one of the most senior fiscal ministers (logothetes) of the Byzantine Empire. History and functions The office of the is explicitly attested for the first time in circa 762, but traces its origins to the officials supervising the Public Post in Late Antiquity. Until the late 4th century, the administration of the Roman Empire's Public Post was a responsibility of the praetorian prefectures. Due to the abuse of the Post and its privileges by the officials of the praetorian prefecture, in the late 4th century the oversight over the Post passed to the , while the day-to-day administration remained in the hands of the praetorian prefecture. As a result, an official known as the , the inspector of the Publi ...
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Quaesitor
The ''quaesitor'' ( el, κοιαισίτωρ, κυαισίτωρ) was a Late Roman/Byzantine police official of Constantinople, specifically a magistrate, responsible for controlling the flow of legal and illegal immigration into the capital city of Byzantium.; . The office of the ''quaesitor'' was first established in 539 through the ''Novella'' 80 of Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565), designed to deal with the arrival of unemployed people to Constantinople living as criminals or beggars. One of his functions was to investigate people passing through Constantinople by determining their names, origins, and reasons for being in the city. Furthermore, the ''quaesitor'' had the authority to deal with unemployed persons by forcing the physically fit among the unemployed to work in a public industry such as a bakery (if an unemployed person refused to work, he would be expelled from Constantinople). The ''quaesitor'' was also granted judicial functions whereby his court dealt with certa ...
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Cassiodorus
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' was part of his surname; not his rank. He also founded a monastery, Vivarium, where he spent the last years of his life. Life Cassiodorus was born at Scylletium, near Catanzaro in Calabria, Italy. Some modern historians speculate that his family was of Syrian origin based on his Greek name. His ancestry included some of the most prominent ministers of the state extending back several generations. His great-grandfather held a command in the defense of the coasts of southern Italy from Vandal sea-raiders in the middle of the fifth century; his grandfather appears in a Roman embassy to Attila the Hun, and his father (who bore the same name) served as ''comes sacrarum largitionum'' and ''comes rerum privatarum'' to Odovacer and as Pra ...
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Roman Senate
The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in 753 BC). It survived the overthrow of the Roman monarchy in 509 BC; the fall of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC; the division of the Roman Empire in AD 395; and the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476; Justinian's attempted reconquest of the west in the 6th century, and lasted well into the Eastern Roman Empire's history. During the days of the Roman Kingdom, most of the time the Senate was little more than an advisory council to the king, but it also elected new Roman kings. The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown following a coup d'état led by Lucius Junius Brutus, who founded the Roman Republic. During the early Republic, the Senate was politically weak, while the various executive magistr ...
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Ostrogothic Kingdom
The Ostrogothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of Italy (), existed under the control of the Germanic Ostrogoths in Italy and neighbouring areas from 493 to 553. In Italy, the Ostrogoths led by Theodoric the Great killed and replaced Odoacer, a Germanic soldier, erstwhile-leader of the ''foederati'' in Northern Italy, and the ''de facto'' ruler of Italy, who had deposed the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustulus, in 476. Under Theodoric, its first king, the Ostrogothic kingdom reached its zenith, stretching from modern southern France in the west to the modern western Serbia in the southeast. Most of the social institutions of the late Western Roman Empire were preserved during his rule. Theodoric called himself ''Gothorum Romanorumque rex'' ("King of the Goths and Romans"), demonstrating his desire to be a leader for both peoples. Starting in 535, the Byzantine Empire invaded Italy under Justinian I. The Ostrogothic ruler at that time, Witiges, could ...
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Odoacer
Odoacer ( ; – 15 March 493 AD), also spelled Odovacer or Odovacar, was a soldier and statesman of barbarian background, who deposed the child emperor Romulus Augustulus and became Rex/Dux (476–493). Odoacer's overthrow of Romulus Augustulus is traditionally seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire as well as Ancient Rome. Though the real power in Italy was in his hands, he represented himself as the client of the emperor in Constantinople, Zeno. Odoacer often used the Roman honorific patrician, granted by Zeno, but was referred to as a king ( la, rex) or duke ( la, dux) in many documents, so is not clear which was his actual charge. He himself used the title of king in the only surviving official document that emanated from his chancery, and it was also used by the consul Basilius. Odoacer introduced few important changes into the administrative system of Italy. He had the support of the Roman Senate and was able to distribute land to his followers withou ...
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Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period from 395 to 476, where there were separate coequal courts dividing the governance of the empire in the Western and the Eastern provinces, with a distinct imperial succession in the separate courts. The terms Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire were coined in modern times to describe political entities that were '' de facto'' independent; contemporary Romans did not consider the Empire to have been split into two empires but viewed it as a single polity governed by two imperial courts as an administrative expediency. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476, and the Western imperial court in Ravenna was formally dissolved by Justinian in 554. The Eastern imperial court survived until 1453. Though the Empire had seen periods ...
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Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region. Italy is also considered part of Western Europe, and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione. Italy covers an area of , with a population of over 60 million. It is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome. Italy was the native place of many civilizations such as the Italic peoples and the Etruscans, while due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, the country has also historicall ...
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