The ''logothetēs tōn agelōn'' (), in English the Logothete of the Herds, was the

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 ...

official responsible for the state-run estates ('' mētata'') in western

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

that reared

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

s and

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...

s for the

Byzantine army The Byzantine army was the primary military body of the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine armed forces, serving alongside the Byzantine navy. A direct continuation of the East Roman army, Eastern Roman army, shaping and developing itself on the legac ...

and the imperial Public Post.

History and functions

The Byzantine office appears in the 9th century and is commonly accepted to be the evolution of the 4th-century Roman '' praepositus gregum et stabulorum'', who was subordinate to the '' comes res privatae''. Uniquely among the

logothetes Logothete (, ''logothétēs'', pl. λογοθέται, ''logothétai''; Med. , pl. ''logothetae''; ; ; ; , ''logotet'') was an administrative title originating in the eastern Roman Empire. In the middle and late Byzantine Empire, it rose to become ...

, the ''logothetēs tōn agelōn'' is listed among the high military officials ('' stratarchai'') in the 899 '' Klētotologion'' of Philotheos, 40th in the hierarchy from the emperor, highlighting the office's close connection with the army... The importance of the office increased from the 10th century, reaching its zenith in the late 13th century, when it was held by several of the most important state officials.

Subordinate officials

The subordinates of the ''logothetēs tōn agelōn'' were: *The '' prōtonotarioi'' for

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

, where the ''mētata'' were apparently concentrated. *The '' dioikētai'' of the ''mētata'' (), the administrators of the horse farms and successors to the Roman ''procuratores saltuum''. *The ''episkeptētai'' ("inspectors") and ''komētes'' ("counts"), the latter of unclear function.

Sigillographic Sigillography, also known by its Greek-derived name, sphragistics, is the scholarly discipline that studies the Sealing wax, wax, lead, clay, and other Seal (emblem), seals used to authenticate archive, archival documents. It investigates not o ...

evidence also attests to the existence of ''chartoularioi'' and of an '' ek prosōpou'' ("representative") of the department.

List of known ''logothetai tōn agelōn''

References

Sources

* * * * * {{Byzantine offices after pseudo-Kodinos Byzantine administrative offices Byzantine military offices Agelon Horse-related professions and professionals