Vestiaritai

The {{Transliteration|el|vestiaritai}} appear in the mid-11th century, with the first known {{Transliteration|el|vestiarites}}, John Iberitzes, attested in 1049.{{harvnb|ODB|p=2163}}. As their name indicates, they had a connection to the imperial wardrobe and treasury, the {{Transliteration|el|vestiarion}}, probably initially raised as a guard detachment for it. From circa 1080 on, they were formally distinguished into two groups: the "inner" or "household" {{Transliteration|el|vestiaritai}} ({{Transliteration|el|eso}} or {{Transliteration|el|oikeioi vestiaritai}}), attached to the emperor's private treasury (the {{Transliteration|el|eso}} or {{Transliteration|el|oikeiakon vestiarion}}) under a {{Transliteration|el|megas primikerios}}, and the "outer" ({{Transliteration|el|exo vestiaritai}}) under a {{Transliteration|el|primikerios}}, who were probably under the public or state treasury ({{Transliteration|el|basilikon vestiarion}}).{{sfn|Oikonomides|1976|p=130}} Gradually, they replaced various other groups of armed guards that the Byzantine emperors had employed inside Constantinople itself, such as the {{Transliteration|el|manglabitai}} or the {{Transliteration|el|pantheotai}}, and became the exclusive corps of the emperor's confidential agents.{{sfn|Oikonomides|1976|p=129}} As the princess and historian Anna Komnene writes, they were the courtiers "closest" to the emperor. With the military crisis of the 1070s, they were also formed into a regular palace guard regiment, serving alongside the Varangian Guard in the Komnenian-era army.{{sfn|Bartusis|1997|p=271}}{{sfn|Oikonomides|1976|pp=129–130}}

The {{Transliteration|el|vestiaritai}} are attested as late as 1387, and likely continued to exist after. In the 13th and 14th centuries, however, their role was chiefly fiscal: they were responsible for levying soldiers and wagons from the provinces, under the control of the {{Transliteration|el|domestikos}} of the themes of the East.{{sfn|Guilland|1967|loc=Tome I, p. 589}} The chief of the {{Transliteration|el|vestiaritai}} was called {{Transliteration|el|protovestiarites}} (πρωτοβεστιαρίτης) in the 13th and 14th centuries (not to be confused with the much older and more important office of {{Transliteration|el|protovestiarios}}). The title is attested as late as 1451, when it was held by the historian George Sphrantzes.{{Sfn|ODB|pp=1750, 2163}}{{sfn|Guilland|1967|loc=Tome II, pp. 203–209}} In the mid-14th century Book of Offices of Pseudo-Kodinos, it ranks nineteenth in the order of precedence, following the {{Transliteration|el|logothetes tou genikou}}.{{sfn|Verpeaux|1966|p=137}} According to the same work, its insignia were: a wooden staff ({{Transliteration|el|dikanikion}}) with gold and red-gold knobs, a {{Transliteration|el|skiadion}} hat with embroidery of the {{Transliteration|el|klapoton}} type, another type of hat called {{Transliteration|el|skaranikon}} of white and gold silk with gold-wire embroidery and images of the emperor in the front and back, and a silk robe of office or {{Transliteration|el|kabbadion}}.{{sfn|Verpeaux|1966|p=157}}

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• {{cite book|last=Bartusis|first=Mark C.|title=The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society 1204–1453 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=1997|isbn=0-8122-1620-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUs-hHd89xAC}}
• {{Recherches sur les institutions byzantines}}
• {{Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|ref={{harvid|ODB}}}}
• {{cite book|last=Oikonomides|first=Nicolas|author-link=Nikolaos Oikonomides|title=Travaux et Mémoires 6 |location=Paris|publisher=E. de Boccard|year=1976|language=fr}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Verpeaux|editor-first=Jean|title=Pseudo-Kodinos, Traité des Offices|location=Paris |publisher=Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique|year=1966|language=fr |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=910QAQAAIAAJ}}

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{{Byzantine offices after pseudo-Kodinos}}

Category:Guards units of the Byzantine Empire

Category:Byzantine fiscal offices