( 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 A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word ''court'' may also be ap ...

used in the 10th and 11th centuries. The term is etymologically connected to the , the imperial

wardrobe A wardrobe, also called armoire or almirah, is a standing closet used for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that sep ...

, but despite earlier attempts to connect the and the related title of , the head of the class of the , with the officials of the , no such relation appears to have existed.. The title is first attested for the reign of Emperor

John I Tzimiskes John I Tzimiskes (; 925 – 10 January 976) was the senior Byzantine emperor from 969 to 976. An intuitive and successful general who married into the influential Skleros family, he strengthened and expanded the Byzantine Empire to inclu ...

(), when it was held by Nikephoros Phokas, son of the Leo Phokas. The title remained high in the Byzantine imperial hierarchy throughout most of the 11th century, being often combined with the title of and awarded to prominent generals, among others Isaac Komnenos (emperor in 1057–1059) when he was of the East,

Leo Tornikios Leo Tornikios () was a mid-11th century Byzantine general and noble. In 1047, he rebelled against his cousin, the Byzantine Emperor, Constantine IX Monomachos (). He raised an army in Thrace and marched on the capital, Constantinople, which he ...

and

Nikephoros Botaneiates Nikephoros III Botaneiates (; 1002–1081), Latinized as Nicephorus III Botaniates, was Byzantine Emperor from 7 January 1078 to 1 April 1081. He became a general during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, serv ...

(emperor in 1078–1081) during his tenure as of

Edessa Edessa (; ) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, in what is now Urfa or Şanlıurfa, Turkey. It was founded during the Hellenistic period by Macedonian general and self proclaimed king Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Sel ...

and

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

. The ''

Escorial Taktikon The ''Escorial Taktikon'' (other spellings: ''Escurial Taktikon'', ''Escorial Tacticon'', ''Escurial Tacticon''), also known as the ''Taktikon Oikonomides'' after Nicolas Oikonomides who first edited it, is a list of Byzantine Empire, Byzantine of ...

'', a list of offices and court titles and their precedence compiled in the 970s, distinguishes between "bearded" () , who also held the titles of or , and the eunuch () , who held the title of . As with other titles of the middle Byzantine period, the prestige of declined towards the end of the 11th century, when it is attested as being held by lower-ranking officials. To counter this devaluation, the superior title of (Greek: , 'first ') appeared at the same time. Both titles, however, do not appear to have survived the reign of Emperor

Alexios I Komnenos Alexios I Komnenos (, – 15 August 1118), Latinization of names, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus, was Byzantine Emperor, Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. After usurper, usurping the throne, he was faced with a collapsing empire and ...

().

References

Sources

* * * *{{cite book, last=Oikonomides, first=Nicolas, authorlink=Nicolas Oikonomides, title=Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles, location=Paris, publisher=Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, year=1972, language=French, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RFdmAAAAMAAJ Byzantine court titles