The Byzantine Empire was the heir to the Roman Empire, which for centuries united the entire Mediterranean world and many adjacent territories under one rule. Members of Byzantine society considered their state the center of the world and Constantinople the successor to Rome. In Byzantium, the Roman administrative organization was preserved. The positions of logistai existed at various levels of the Byzantine administrative structure. Logistai were administrative officials who managed departments of the administration and organizational units. They dealt with issues of finance, taxation, order and security, public works, construction projects, and supplies and procurement.
Logisticians in the imperial government
Leo III carried out a broad and profound renovation of the empire. At the head of the fiscal administration, the sekretikoi, he placed a prime minister with the title of sakellarios, to whom four logothetes reported:
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logothete ton dromon – minister of communications and also minister of foreign affairs
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logothete ton genikon – general tax collector
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logothete ton stratiotikon – general treasurer of the army
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logothete ton agelon – manager of imperial estates.
Some of these offices functioned earlier. However, Leo III created, as a logical whole, a new, perfect system of government with a transparent structure and clearly delineated competencies. The office of logothete provided control over one of the areas of administration, but their importance, like their titles, changed over time; for example, the logothete ton genikon was also the chief financial official managing the public treasury, or the logistes ton foron – an imperial commissioner and tax inspector.
Administrative authorities very early on made efforts to integrate cities and their associated areas, as well as less urbanized regions, into a more organized whole – provinces. Tax officials sent reports from the provinces to Constantinople. Reports and responses to them, for example by Emperor Alexios I, showing how taxes were recalculated in the provinces after the introduction of new currency, are presented in the treatise on taxes, Logarike.
Logisticians in cities
In the 4th century AD, magisterial offices characteristic of the Byzantine era appeared in cities, namely the exactor civitatis dealing with taxes (the successor to the strategos – the emperor’s representative) and the curator civitatis (logistes), who exercised supervision over, among other things, financial matters, order and security in the city, construction works, public works, and food supplies. The strategos, by adopting a new title, lost much of his power to the curator.
In the first half of the 5th century AD, the administration and maintenance of order, for example in Constantinople, which was divided (like Rome) into 14 districts (the city had 5 imperial and 9 princely palaces, 8 public and 153 private baths, 4 fora, 5 granaries, 2 theaters and a hippodrome, 322 streets, 4,388 residential buildings, 52 porticoes, 20 public and 120 private bakeries, 14 churches), employed, under the command of the prefect, 13 curatores (one for each district), 65 night watchmen, 560 firefighters, and others. The office of the prefect therefore had to employ about 1,000 people.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 3/2010.