Epi tou eidikou

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History and functions[edit]

The origin of the office is disputed: the department is first attested in the reign of Emperor Theophilos (r. 829–842), but some scholars (e.g. Rodolphe Guilland) derive the etymology of the eidikon department from the word idikos, "private", indicating a continuation of the Late Roman office of comes rerum privatarum.[1][3][5] This view is rejected by others, notably J. B. Bury, who see it as a wholly separate institution, juxtaposing the "special" department of the eidikon with the "general" department or genikon, and consider it as originating in the military departments of the Late Roman praetorian prefectures.[6] Ernst Stein, on the other hand, connected it to the word eidos (meaning "ware"), and regarded the eidikon as the treasury for revenue paid in kind rather than coin.[3][7]


The department is still attested as late as 1081, but was probably abolished some time after; Rodolphe Guilland suggested that the logothesion of the oikeiakoi ("household men") took over its functions (cf. logothetes ton oikeiakon).[3][10]


As with all Byzantine department heads, the eidikos had a number of subordinate officials:

  • The basilikoi notarioi (βασιλικοί νοτάριοι, "imperial notaries"), as in all fiscal departments, usually of spatharios rank or lower; a protonotarios ("first notary") is attested in the Komnenian period (1081–1185).[11][12]
  • The hebdomadarioi tou eidikou (ἑβδομαδάριοι τοῦ εἰδικοῦ), palace servants.[11][14]



  1. ^ a b Bury 1911, p. 98.
  2. ^ a b Louth 2005, p. 305.
  4. ^ Guilland 1971, pp. 85–95.
  6. ^ Bury 1911, pp. 98–99.
  7. ^ Guilland 1971, p. 89.
  8. ^ a b Bury 1911, p. 99.
  9. ^ Guilland 1971, p. 91.
  10. ^ Guilland 1971, pp. 95–96.
  12. ^ Guilland 1971, p. 94.
  13. ^ Kazhdan 1991, pp. 160–161.