A ''sakellarios'' () or ''sacellarius'' is the title of an official entrusted with administrative and financial duties (cf. ''sakellē'' or ''sakellion'', "purse, treasury") in a government or institution. The title was used in the

Byzantine Empire 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 History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

with varying functions and the title remains in use in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

Civil administration

The first known ''sakellarios'' was a certain Paul, a

freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

appointed by Emperor

Zeno Zeno may refer to: People * Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Zeno (surname) Philosophers * Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes * Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 B ...

(reigned 474–491). Hence, the ''sakellarios'' usually is presumed to have headed a ''

sakellion A ''sakellarios'' () or ''sacellarius'' is the title of an official entrusted with administrative and financial duties (cf. ''sakellē'' or ''sakellion'', "purse, treasury") in a government or institution. The title was used in the Byzantine Empi ...

'' (or ''sakella'', ''sakelle''), a term that appears in early

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 ...

sources with the apparent sense of "treasury", more specifically of "cash", as opposed to the ''

vestiarion The ''vestiarion'' (, from , "wardrobe"), sometimes with the adjectives ''basilikon'' ( "imperial") or ''mega'' ( "great"),. was one of the major fiscal departments of the Byzantine bureaucracy. In English, it is often known as the department of ...

'' that was for goods. Despite the origin of the term, the ''sakellarioi'' of the early Byzantine period (fifth–seventh centuries) are not directly associated with financial matters. Rather they appear connected with the imperial bedchamber (''koiton''), bearing court titles such as ''

spatharios The ''spatharii'' or ''spatharioi'' (singular: ; , literally " spatha-bearer") were a class of Late Roman imperial bodyguards in the court in Constantinople in the 5th–6th centuries, later becoming a purely honorary dignity in the Byzantine Emp ...

'' or ''

koubikoularios ''Cubicularius'', Hellenization, Hellenized as ''koubikoularios'' (), was a title used for the eunuch Chamberlain (office), chamberlains of the imperial palace in the later Roman Empire and in the Byzantine Empire. The feminine version, used for t ...

'', while some holders of the office were entrusted with distinctly non-financial tasks: Emperor

Heraclius Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas. Heraclius's reign was ...

(r. 610–641) appointed the ''sakellarios''

Theodore Trithyrius Theodore Trithyrius (; died 636), commonly known by his title as Theodore the Sacellarius, was a Byzantine treasurer of the state ('' sacellarius'') and a military commander during the last years of the reign of Byzantine emperor Heraclius. Life ...

to command against the Arabs, and yet another ''sakellarios'' conducted the examination of

Maximos the Confessor Maximus the Confessor (), also spelled Maximos, otherwise known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople ( – 13 August 662), was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar. In his early life, Maximus was a civil servant, and an ...

under

Constans II Constans II (; 7 November 630 – 15 July 668), also called "the Bearded" (), was the Byzantine emperor from 641 to 668. Constans was the last attested emperor to serve as Roman consul, consul, in 642, although the office continued to exist unti ...

(r. 641–668). It is only in the early eighth century that ''sakellarioi'' are directly mentioned as treasurers. By the time of the ''

Taktikon Uspensky The ''Taktikon Uspensky'' or ''Uspenskij'' is the conventional name of a mid-9th century Greek list of the civil, military and ecclesiastical offices of the Byzantine Empire and their precedence at the imperial court. Nicolas Oikonomides Nikolao ...

'' of c. 843, the ''sakellarios'' had become a general

comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accountancy, accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior- ...

of the fiscal bureaux (the ''sekreta''), with notaries reporting to the office holder in each department. The head of the ''sakellion'' department from this period on became the ''

chartoularios tou sakelliou The ''chartoularios'' or ''chartularius'' (), Anglicized as chartulary, was a late Roman and Byzantine administrative official, entrusted with administrative and fiscal duties, either as a subaltern official of a department or province or at the ...

''. From the late eleventh century, the prefix ''megas'' ("grand") was added to it. The post continues in evidence until at least 1196, although for a time, it may have been subsumed into that of the ''

megas logariastes () was a type of financial official in the Byzantine Empire from the early 11th century onwards, with the task of controlling expenses. The post is attested for the first time in 1012, and existed both within the financial bureaux () of the centr ...

'' under

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 ...

(r. 1081–1118).

Ecclesiastical administration

Imitating the practice of the imperial court, the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (, ; ; , "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul") is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed ...

had its own ''sakellion''. Like the office holder's secular counterpart, the patriarchal ''sakellarios'' lost its function as treasurer. By the late eleventh century the ecclesiastic official took over the supervision of donations to, and the administration of, the monasteries of Constantinople. At the same time, it also acquired the prefix ''megas'' and replaced the ''

megas skeuophylax Magnús Þór Jónsson (born 7 April 1945), better known by the stage name Megas, is an Icelandic vocalist, songwriter, and writer. Childhood and interest in music (1945-1970) Being an admirer of Elvis Presley, Megas welcomed the arrival of ro ...

'' as the second-most important official of the patriarchate. By the thirteenth century, the institution of ''megas sakellarios'' had been replicated in the provincial sees as well.

References

Sources

* * {{Byzantine Empire topics, governance Eastern Christian ecclesiastical offices Byzantine fiscal offices