Protostrator - History and Evolution

History and Evolution

The title means "first stratōr", reflecting the office's initial nature as chief of the imperial taxis of the stratores ("grooms"), who formed a schola under the Count of the Stable. Although the existence of stratores is attested since Antiquity, the first direct mention of the office of the prōtostratōr dates to 765. During the middle Byzantine period (up to the mid-11th century), its official place in the hierarchy was not high, but its proximity to the emperor did facilitate a rapid rise, as exemplified by the future emperors Michael II and Basil I the Macedonian. The prōtostratōr had a prominent place in imperial ceremonies, riding beside the Byzantine emperor on processions, or even introducing foreign envoys at imperial audiences. In the 9th-11th centuries, his subordinates included the stratōres, the armophylakes ("keepers of the armaments" or possibly "of the chariots", from armatophylakes), and three stablokomētes ("stable counts").

By the late Komnenian period, however, the post had risen considerably in importance: in the Komnenian army, the holder of the office was second-in-command of the army after the megas domestikos, and was equated by Niketas Choniates to the Western marshal. The office continued to exist during the Palaiologan period until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. It remained one of the highest dignities of state, although from the late 13th century on, multiple persons could hold it.

The title is also attested in the medieval Kingdom of Georgia, where it was held by the duke (eristavi) of Svaneti, Iovane Vardanisdze, under King David IV (r. 1189–1125).