The ''prōtoierakarios'' or ''prōtohierakarios'' (, "first
falconer"), also ''prōthierakarios'' (πρωθιερακάριος), 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 office and honorific title in the 13th–15th centuries.
History and functions
The office first appears in the 13th-century
Empire of Nicaea
The Empire of Nicaea (), also known as the Nicene Empire, was the largest of the three Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by Walter Abel Heurtley, W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C ...
, although it clearly had earlier antecedents. Hunting was a particular passion of Byzantine emperors, and
falconry
Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...
in became increasingly popular among the upper classes from the 11th century on, judged from the references in literary sources and the appearance of manuals on falconry. In the 14th century,
Andronikos III Palaiologos () is said to have maintained over a thousand hunting dogs and over a thousand falcons.
In the ''Book of Offices'' written by
pseudo-Kodinos in the middle of the 14th century, the post occupies the 48th place in the imperial hierarchy, between the ''
logothetēs tou stratiōtikou'' and the ''
logothetēs tōn agelōn''. The French scholar
Rodolphe Guilland suggested that it was closely associated with the ''
prōtokynēgos'' ("first huntsman"), who was in the 41st place, and that holders of the former office were promoted to the latter. According to pseudo-Kodinos, his functions were to supervise the keepers of the falcons. As a sign of this he bore a left-hand gauntlet on his belt, decorated with gold braid and
purple eagles. His uniform was otherwise typical of the mid-level courtiers: a gold-brocaded hat (''skiadion''), a plain silk ''
kabbadion'', 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. The office could be held by more than one persons at the same time.
The lowly rank and obscure charge of the position means that its holders are not often attested in the sources.
List of known ''prōtoierakarioi''
See also
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Medieval hunting
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Grand Falconer of France
References
Sources
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{{Byzantine offices after pseudo-Kodinos
Byzantine court titles
Greek words and phrases
History of hunting
Falconry
Lists of office-holders in the Byzantine Empire