A
sakellarios
(
Greek
:
σακελλ?ριο?
) or
sacellarius
is the title of an official entrusted with administrative and financial duties (cf.
sakell?
or
sakellion
, "purse, treasury") in a government or institution. The title was used in the
Byzantine Empire
with varying functions and the title remains in use in the
Eastern Orthodox Church
.
Civil administration
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]
The first known
sakellarios
was a certain Paul, a
freedman
appointed by Emperor
Zeno
(reigned 474?491).
Hence, the
sakellarios
usually is presumed to have headed a
sakellion
(or
sakella
,
sakelle
), a term that appears in early
Byzantine
sources with the apparent sense of "treasury", more specifically of "cash", as opposed to the
vestiarion
that was for goods.
Despite the origin of the term, the
sakellarioi
of the early Byzantine period (fifth?seventh centuries) are not directly associated with financial matters. Rather they appear connected with the imperial bedchamber (
koiton
), bearing court titles such as
spatharios
or
koubikoularios
, while some holders of the office were entrusted with distinctly non-financial tasks: Emperor
Heraclius
(r. 610?641) appointed the
sakellarios
Theodore Trithyrius
to command against the Arabs, and yet another
sakellarios
conducted the examination of
Maximos the Confessor
under
Constans II
(r. 641?668).
It is only in the early eighth century that
sakellarioi
are directly mentioned as treasurers.
By the time of the
Taktikon Uspensky
of c. 843, the
sakellarios
had become a general
comptroller
of the fiscal bureaux (the
sekreta
), with notaries reporting to the office holder in each department.
The head of the
sakellion
department from this period on became the
chartoularios tou sakelliou
.
From the late eleventh century, the prefix
megas
("grand") was added to it.
The post continues in evidence until at least 1196, although for a time, it may have been subsumed into that of the
megas logariastes
under
Alexios I Komnenos
(r. 1081?1118).
Ecclesiastical administration
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]
Imitating the practice of the imperial court, the
Patriarchate of Constantinople
had its own
sakellion
.
Like the office holder's secular counterpart, the patriarchal
sakellarios
lost its function as treasurer. By the late eleventh century the ecclesiastic official took over the supervision of donations to, and the administration of, the monasteries of Constantinople. At the same time, it also acquired the prefix
megas
and replaced the
megas skeuophylax
as the second-most important official of the patriarchate.
By the thirteenth century, the institution of
megas sakellarios
had been replicated in the provincial sees as well.
References
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Sources
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Preceding
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Early
(330–717)
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Middle
(717–1204)
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Late
(1204–1453)
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By modern region
or territory
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