Symponos Explained

The symponos (Greek, Modern (1453-);: σύμπονος) was, along with the logothetes tou praitoriou, one of the two senior subalterns to the Eparch of Constantinople, the chief administrator of the capital of the Byzantine Empire.^[1] His main responsibility was the supervision of the city's guilds on the Eparch's behalf.^{[2] [3]} Earlier scholars suggested that each guild had its own symponos, but this hypothesis has been rejected since.^{[4] [5]} John B. Bury identified him as the successor of the Latin: adsessor attested in the late 4th century Notitia Dignitatum, but the earliest surviving seal of a symponos dates to the 6th or 7th centuries. The office is last attested in 1023.^{[4] [5]} According to the Taktikon Uspensky, the symponos and the logothetes tou praitoriou preceded, rank-wise, the chartoularioi of the Byzantine themes and domesticates, but were beneath the rank of spatharios.^[6]

Sources

• • • Book: Laiou. Angeliki E.. Angeliki Laiou. The Economic History of Byzantium: From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century . 2007 . 2002 . Washington, District of Columbia. Dumbarton Oaks. 978-0-88402-332-6.
• Book: Sinnigen, William Gurnee. The Officium of the Urban Prefecture during the Later Roman Empire. Rome. American Academy in Rome. 1957 . registration.

Notes and References

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3. "In the ninth century, the ministry was divided into two departments, one under a symponos or assessor, who supervised the urban guilds, the other under the logothetes tou praitoriou, who may (like the earlier primiscrinius) have been concerned with the administration of justice."

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