The title of ''megas archōn'' (; "grand
archon
''Archon'' (, plural: , ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem , meaning "to be first, to rule", derived from the same ...
") was a
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 ...
court title during the 13th–14th centuries.
History and functions
The title of ''megas archōn'' appears originally as a translation of foreign titles, with the meaning of "
grand prince"; thus in the middle of the 10th century Emperor
Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos calls the
Magyar ruler
Árpád as "great prince of ''
Tourkia''
ungary () in chapter 40 of his ''
De Administrando Imperio
(; ) is a Greek-language work written by the 10th-century Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII. It is a domestic and foreign policy manual for the use of Constantine's son and successor, the Emperor Romanos II. It is a prominent example of Byz ...
''.
The
Nicaean emperor Theodore II Laskaris
Theodore II Laskaris or Ducas Lascaris (; November 1221/1222 – 16 August 1258) was Emperor of Nicaea from 1254 to 1258. He was the only child of Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and Empress Irene Laskarina. His mother was the eldest da ...
() first established it as a specific court rank, originally designating the highest-ranking officer of the emperor's retinue. By the time
pseudo-Kodinos wrote his ''Book of Offices'' in the mid-14th century, however, it had become a purely honorific dignity without any duties attached. In the ''Book of Offices'', the post is listed in the 35th place of the imperial hierarchy, between the ''
prōtospatharios'' and the ''
tatas tēs aulēs'', but other contemporary lists of offices (e.g. the appendix to the ''
Hexabiblos''), which reflect the usage during the late reign of
Andronikos II Palaiologos
Andronikos II Palaiologos (; 25 March 1259 – 13 February 1332), Latinization of names, Latinized as Andronicus II Palaeologus, reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1282 to 1328. His reign marked the beginning of the recently restored em ...
() or during the reign of
Andronikos III Palaiologos (), place him in the 38th place. The list of ''Xeropot. 191'' places him in 34th in the hierarchy, while in the list of office given in the 15th-century manuscript ''Paris. gr. 1783'', the title is missing. His ceremonial costume is given by pseudo-Kodinos as follows: a gold-embroidered ''skiadion'' hat, a plain silk ''
kabbadion'' kaftan, and a ''skaranikon'' (domed hat) covered in golden and lemon-yellow silk and decorated with gold wire and images of the emperor in front and rear, respectively depicted enthroned and on horseback. He bore no staff of office (''dikanikion'').
Known holders
References
Sources
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{{Byzantine offices after pseudo-Kodinos
Byzantine court titles