Epi tes trapezes

The epi tes trapezes (Greek: ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς τραπέζης, lit. 'the one in charge of the table') was a Byzantine court post, responsible for the imperial banquets.

History

The office, more fully known as the domestikos tes basilikes trapezes (δομέστικος τῆς βασιλικῆς τραπέζης, '

The epi tes trapezes was assisted by a staff, the so-called hypourgia (ὐπουργία), headed by the domestikos tes hypourgias (δομέστικος τῆς ὐπουργίας) and including also secretaries styled notarios tes hypourgias (νοτάριος τῆς ὐπουργίας).[1]^[3] The German scholar Werner Seibt proposed that the epi tes trapezes absorbed the main functions of the kastresios, an earlier official with an apparently similar role.^[4] Another official with similar duties, the kenarios, is attested only a couple of times during the first decades of the 9th century. Seibt considers him either a subaltern official to the epi tes trapezes or an intermediate stage between the kastresios and the final absorption of his duties into the epi tes trapezes.^[5]

From the 13th century on, the epi tes trapezes and the variant domestikos tes trapezes became purely honorary court titles, bereft of any specific duties. In this vein,

Sources

• OCLC 1046639111
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• ISBN 0-19-504652-8
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