Logofet of stratiotics

Logofeta of the army or stratiotics ( Greek λογοθέτης τοῦ στρατιωτικού ) - a category of officials - logofeta of the Byzantine Empire , responsible for army reporting and payment of salaries to soldiers and officers.

The position of the army logofetov dates back to lat. rationalis aerarii militaris of the Roman Empire . Also, this logofet corresponded to the Roman procurator castrensis , who controlled the imperial palace and the payment of maintenance to the palace guard. Already in the VI century, under Justinian I, these agents were seconded to the army from the office of the Praetorian Prefect . Their duties can be understood from the description of Procopius of Caesarea in The Secret History - on the basis of the available lists, they paid the soldiers the content that was due to them ^[1] .

On the question of the time of the emergence of military logoism as a separate department, there are two main hypotheses. According to F. Ouspensky , G. Ostrogorsky and others, it arose under the emperor Heraclius (610–641) and existed already by 627, that is, by the time the females were first mentioned. In contrast, proponents of the theory that the emergence of the feminine system was a complex and lengthy process attribute the appearance of the institution in question to the end of the 7th century. Thus, the allocation in 680 of the army logofets into a special organizational structure, which transferred the functions of the abolished pretoria prefectures in terms of army management, was the completion of a long process of replacing obsolete Late Antique institutions ^[2] . Probably, during this period a special part of the budget appeared, which they managed ^[3] .

The value of the post reached its maximum in the 10th century, when, among other things, they included the construction of fortresses and bridges. The structure of the stratiotics logo office for this period is known from the treatise On Ceremonies , according to which the following officials were subordinate to the army logo ^[4] :

• secreton ( χαρτουλάριοι τοῦ σεκρέτου );
• Khartularii femata ( χαρτουλάριοι τῶν θεμάτων ) and tagmata ( τῶν ταγμάτων ), overseeing the financial affairs of the feminine army and the imperial tagm;
• A certain number of legataries ( λεγατάριοι ), whose duties are not exactly known ^[5] ;
• Options ( ὀπτίονες , from lat. Optio ), directly paying money to the troops;
• Protocancellaria ( πρωτοκαγκελλάριος ) and, obviously, a certain number of cancellaria ;
• A certain number of ( μανδάτορες ), "messengers".

According to the same source, the logotype of stratiotics took 35th place in the court ranking . This high rank gave the right to participate in the imperial gala dinners ^[6] .

After the administrative reforms of Alexei I Komnin , who wanted to more strictly control the financial management of the empire. The texts of the XII century do not mention the army logophone, which probably means the disappearance of this post. However, it existed in the Nicene Empire and under the Paleologists ^[7] .

Based on prosopographic and sigillographic data, 23 people are known who headed the military logofet department ^[8] .