Spatharios

2 Other occurrences

The spatharii or spatharioi (singular: Latin: spatharius; Greek: , literally "spatha-bearer) were
a class of Late Roman imperial bodyguards in the court in
Constantinople in the 5th6th centuries, later becoming
a purely honorary dignity in the Byzantine Empire.

In the Lex Alemannorum (79.7), a spatharius is a

swordsmith.
lfric of Eynsham glosses spatharius as swordbearer": "swyrd-bora. Id est, Ensifer."
In the 12th century, the Milites Ordinis Militaris S.
Jacobi de la Spatha, a Portuguese chivalric order,
were known as Spatharii.

History

In medieval Moldova, the Sptar was the keeper of

the royal sword and bludgeon, commander of the
cavalry and second-in-command of the army after
the voivode.[6]

Originally, the term was probably applied to both private and imperial bodyguards.[1] The original imperial spatharioi were probably or later became also the
eunuch cubicularii (Greek: koubikoularioi), members of
the sacrum cubiculum (the imperial sacred chamber)
charged with military duties. They are attested from the
reign of Emperor Theodosius II (r. 408450), where the
eunuch Chrysaphius held the post.[1] The existence of the
specic title of spatharokoubikoularios for eunuchs in 532
probably suggests the existence by then of other, noneunuch, spatharioi in imperial service. The various generals and provincial governors also maintained military
attendants called spatharioi, whilst those of the emperor
were distinguished with the prex basilikoi (imperial
ones).[2] The ocer leading the imperial spatharioi held
the title prtospatharios (rst spatharios"), which became a separate dignity probably in the late 7th century.[3]

3 References
[1] Kazhdan 1991, pp. 19351936.
[2] Bury 1911, p. 112.
[3] Bury 1911, p. 27.
[4] Bury 1911, pp. 22, 26.
[5] Bury 1911, p. 22.
[6] Dicionarul explicativ al limbii romne (DEX), Academia
Romn, Institutul de Lingvistic Iorgu Iordan, Editura
Univers Enciclopedic, 1998; entry: sptar

By the early 8th century, these titles had lost their original military connotations and become honoric titles.
The title of spatharios ranked initially quite high, being
awarded for instance by Emperor Justinian II (r. 685
695) to his friend and future emperor Leo III the Isaurian
(r. 717741).[1] It gradually declined, however, and in
the Kltorologion of 899, it occupies the seventh-highest
place in the hierarchy of ranks for non-eunuchs, above
the hypatos and below the spatharokandidatos.[4] According to the Kltorologion, the insignia of the dignity was a
gold-hilted sword.[5] At the same time, the term oikeiakos
spatharios still designated a bodyguard of the imperial
oikos (household), as distinct from the basilikoi spatharioi who now were the holders of the honorary dignity.[1]
The term ceased to be used in these contexts after circa
1075, and by the time Anna Komnene wrote her Alexiad
in the early 12th century, a spatharios was held to be completely insignicant.[1]

4 Sources
Bury, John Bagnell (1911). The Imperial Administrative System of the Ninth Century - With a Revised Text of the Kletorologion of Philotheos. London: Published for the British Academy by Henry
Frowde, Oxford University Press.
Kazhdan, Alexander (1991). Spatharios. In
Kazhdan, Alexander. The Oxford Dictionary of
Byzantium. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 19351936. ISBN 978-0-19504652-6.
1

5 FURTHER READING

Further reading
du Fresne, Carolo (18831887). Spatharius (t. 7,
col. 545a)". Glossarium Mediae et Inmae Latinitatis (in French). Niort: L. Favre.

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Spatharios Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatharios?oldid=644590790 Contributors: Dbachmann, RussBot, Aldux, Garion96,

SmackBot, Cplakidas, CmdrObot, Squids and Chips, VolkovBot, Randalph P. Williams, Addbot, Luckas-bot, RjwilmsiBot, Renato de
carvalho ferreira, Euzen, No. 108 and Anonymous: 8

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