Α ''strator'' () was a position in the Roman and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

militaries roughly equivalent to a

groom A bridegroom (often shortened to groom) is a man who is about to be married or who is newlywed. When marrying, the bridegroom's future spouse is usually referred to as the bride. A bridegroom is typically attended by a best man and Groomsman, ...

. The word is derived from Latin ''sternere'' ("to strew", i.e. hay, straw). The ''strator'' (in Greek narrative sources often replaced with the Greek equivalent of ''hippokomos'') was typically a soldier, sometimes even a

centurion In the Roman army during classical antiquity, a centurion (; , . ; , or ), was a commander, nominally of a century (), a military unit originally consisting of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time; from the 1st century BC ...

, who was chosen from the ranks to act as a groom for a senior officer or civil official. His tasks included attending to and even procuring horses, and the supervision of the stable. In the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, the ''stratores'' of the imperial court formed a distinct corps, the '' schola stratorum'', headed by the Count of the Stable (''comes stabuli''), and later, in the middle Byzantine period, the '' protostrator'' (πρωτοστράτωρ, "first ''strator''"). In the provincial administration, senior ''stratores'' chosen among centurions etc. were typically members of the staff of

Roman governor A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many Roman province, provinces constituting the Roman Empire. The generic term in Roman legal language was ''re ...

s and in turn headed other, more junior ''stratores''. In the Byzantine Empire, the title was more generally used as an honorific dignity for mid-level civil and military officials from the 8th century on, which led to the actual grooms of the imperial court being distinguished as "''stratores'' of the imperial ''stratorikion''". The dignity of the ''strator'' belonged to those intended for "bearded men" (i.e. non-

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, 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 2 ...

s), and was conferred by the award of an insigne (''dia brabeiou axia''), in this case a jewelled gold whip. It ranked relatively low in the imperial hierarchy: in the '' Kletorologion'' of 899, it ranks sixth from the bottom, above the '' kandidatos'' and below the '' hypatos''. The title appears in Western Europe from the mid-8th century onwards, possibly under Byzantine influence. The variant form ''starator'' is attested in the

Kingdom of Cyprus The Kingdom of Cyprus (; ) was a medieval kingdom of the Crusader states that existed between 1192 and 1489. Initially ruled as an independent Christian kingdom, it was established by the French House of Lusignan after the Third Crusade. I ...

in 1402.

References

{{reflist Byzantine court titles Horse-related professions and professionals Latin words and phrases