The (), more formally the () 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 attested in the 12th–14th centuries, whose exact functions are unclear. The title is first attested in the seal of John Komnenos Vatatzes in the 12th century, and over the next two centuries. Nevertheless, the exact functions it entailed are unclear: according to the 14th-century historian Pachymeres, the was one of the three major court functionaries along with the (imperial cup-bearer) and the (master of the imperial table), but the 15th-century historian

Doukas The House of Doukas ( pl. Doukai; , pl. , feminine form Doukaina; ), Latinized as Ducas, was a Byzantine Greek noble family, whose branches provided several notable generals and rulers to the Byzantine Empire in the 9th–11th centuries. A mat ...

explains the title as "pedagogue". This led Ernst Stein to suggest that he succeeded the as imperial preceptor, a hypothesis rejected later by

Vitalien Laurent Vitalien Laurent (born Louis Philippe Olivier Laurent; Séné, 26 May 1896 – Paris, 21 November 1973) was a French priest and Byzantinist. He was editor of the journal '' Échos d'Orient'' (predecessor of the '' Revue des études byzantines''). ...

References

Sources

* * Byzantine palace offices {{Byzantine-stub