The ''spatharokoubikoularios'' (, "sword-chamberlain") 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 dignity reserved for

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

palace officials. He was a ceremonial sword-carrier assigned to the personal guard of 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 ...

.. It later became a simple court rank, being the third-lowest dignity for eunuchs, coming after the '' ostiarios'' and before the ''

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 ...

''.. According to the '' Klētorologion'' of 899, the insigne of the rank was a

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

-handled

sword A sword is an edged and bladed weapons, edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter ...

References

Sources

* * Byzantine palace offices Byzantine titles and offices reserved for eunuchs Swordfighters {{Byzantine-stub