A ''prostagma'' () or ''prostaxis'' (πρόσταξις), both meaning "order, command", were documents issued by 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 ...

imperial chancery bearing an imperial decision or command, usually on administrative matters. ''Prostaxis'' was the common term in the 11th–13th centuries, when it was replaced by ''prostagma''. The earliest such document to survive dates to 1214, however. They were usually short documents, signed by the

Byzantine emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

with the ''

menologem __NOTOC__ The menologem (, ''mēnológēma''), menologium (Latin), or menologion (, ''mēnológion'') was a dating clause used in certain types of official acts of the Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Emp ...

'' in red ink, and usually with the emperor's wax seal. The ''prostagmata'' of the Emperors of Trebizond were signed with an abridged form of the imperial signature. Similar documents issued by the Despots were termed ''

horismos In mathematical physics, the causal structure of a Lorentzian manifold describes the possible causal relationships between points in the manifold. Lorentzian manifolds can be classified according to the types of causal structures they admit (''ca ...

'', while those of the

Patriarch of Constantinople The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople () is the archbishop of Constantinople and (first among equals) among the heads of the several autocephalous churches that comprise the Eastern Orthodox Church. The ecumenical patriarch is regarded as ...

or other state officials were variously termed ''

ara Ara may refer to: Biology * ''Ara'' (bird), a genus of parrots * Ara (fish) (''Niphon spinosus''), a species of fish * L-arabinose operon, also known as ara Places * Ara (mountain), a mountain in Armenia * Ara, Armenia, a village in Armenia ...

eleusis'', ''entalma'', ''grama'', etc.

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular **Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans ** Serbian language ** Serbian culture **Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...

rulers also issued ''prostagmata''. The ''prostagmata'' were used for "transmitting orders, .granting privileges, for legislating and for regulating, for attesting an oath taken by the emperor (''horkomotikon prostagma'')", as well as "for appointing individuals to administrative positions, or for granting honorific titles", replacing the '' probatoriae'' and '' codicilli'' inherited from late Roman practice and used until the 10th century.

References

Sources

* * * {{cite journal , last = Ostrogorsky , first = George , authorlink = George Ostrogorsky , title = Prostagme srpskih vladara , trans-title= The Prostagmas of the Serbian Rulers , journal = Prilozi za književnost, jezik, istoriju ifołklor , volume = 34 , year = 1968 , pages = 245–257 , language = Serbo-Croatian Government of the Byzantine Empire Medieval documents