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Thevestiaritai (Byzantine Greek:βεστιαρῖται,romanized: bestiarîtai,pronounced[ve.sti.aˈri.te];sg.βεστιαρίτης,bestiarítēs,[ve.sti.aˈri.tis]) were a corps of imperial bodyguards and fiscal officials in theByzantine Empire, attested from the 11th to the 15th centuries.
Thevestiaritai appear in the mid-11th century, with the first knownvestiarites, John Iberitzes, attested in 1049.[1] As their name indicates, they had a connection to the imperial wardrobe and treasury, thevestiarion, probably initially raised as a guard detachment for it. From circa 1080 on, they were formally distinguished into two groups: the "inner" or "household"vestiaritai (eso oroikeioi vestiaritai), attached to the emperor's private treasury (theeso oroikeiakon vestiarion) under amegas primikerios, and the "outer" (exo vestiaritai) under aprimikerios, who were probably under the public or state treasury (basilikon vestiarion).[2] Gradually, they replaced various other groups of armed guards that the Byzantine emperors had employed insideConstantinople itself, such as themanglabitai or thepantheotai, and became the exclusive corps of the emperor's confidential agents.[3] As the princess and historianAnna Komnene writes, they were the courtiers "closest" to the emperor.[1] With the military crisis of the 1070s, they were also formed into a regular palace guard regiment, serving alongside theVarangian Guard in theKomnenian-era army.[4][5]
Thevestiaritai are attested as late as 1387, and likely continued to exist after.[1] 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 thedomestikos of thethemes of the East.[1][6] The chief of thevestiaritai was calledprotovestiarites (πρωτοβεστιαρίτης) in the 13th and 14th centuries (not to be confused with the much older and more important office ofprotovestiarios). The title is attested as late as 1451, when it was held by the historianGeorge Sphrantzes.[7][8] In the mid-14th centuryBook of Offices ofPseudo-Kodinos, it ranks nineteenth in the order of precedence, following thelogothetes tou genikou.[9] According to the same work, its insignia were: a wooden staff (dikanikion) with gold and red-gold knobs, askiadion hat withembroidery of theklapoton type, another type of hat calledskaranikon of white and goldsilk with gold-wire embroidery and images of the emperor in the front and back, and a silk robe of office orkabbadion.[10]