''Actuarius'' or ''actarius'', rendered in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
as ''aktouarios'' (), was the title applied to officials of varying functions in the late
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of Roman civilization
*Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
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 ...
empires.
In the late Roman Empire, the ''actuarius'' was an official charged with the distribution of wages and
provisions to the
Roman military.
[.] In this capacity, the post is attested at least until the 6th century, but appears only in antiquated legal texts thereafter.
The title re-appears in the ''
Taktikon Uspensky
The ''Taktikon Uspensky'' or ''Uspenskij'' is the conventional name of a mid-9th century Greek list of the civil, military and ecclesiastical offices of the Byzantine Empire and their precedence at the imperial court. Nicolas Oikonomides
Nikolao ...
'' of circa 842 and the later ''
Kletorologion
The ''Klētorologion'' of Philotheos () is the longest and most important of the Byzantine lists of offices and court precedence ('' Taktika'').. It was published in September 899 during the reign of Emperor Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912) by the ot ...
'' of 899, but the role of its holder is unclear.
In the 10th-century ''
De Ceremoniis
The or (fully ) is the conventional Latin name for a Greek book of ceremonial protocol at the court of the Byzantine emperors in Constantinople. Its Greek title is often cited as ("Explanation of the Order of the Palace"), taken from the work' ...
'' of Emperor
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, and ...
(r. 913–959), the ''aktouarios'' is mentioned as handing over awards to victorious
charioteers, but in the 12th century (or perhaps in the 11th century) the term came to be applied to prominent physicians, possibly those attached to the imperial court (cf.
John Actuarius).
References
Sources
*
Byzantine court titles
Byzantine administrative offices
Byzantine medicine
{{Byzantine-stub