The chartoularios or chartularius, Anglicized as chartulary, was a late Roman and Byzantine administrative official, entrusted with administrative and fiscal duties, either as a subaltern official of a department or province or at the head of various independent bureaus.
History
The title derives from Latinchartulārius from charta, a term used for official documents, and is attested from 326, when chartularii were employed in the chanceries of the senior offices of the Roman state. Originally lowly clerks, by the 6th century they had risen in importance, to the extent that Peter the Patrician, when distinguishing between civil and military officials, calls the former chartoularikoi. From the 7th century on, chartoularioi could be either employed as heads of departments within a fiscal department, as heads of independent departments, or in the thematic and tagmatic administration, although the occasional appointment of chartoularioi at the head of armies is also recorded. The ecclesiastic counterpart was called a chartophylax, and both terms were sometimes used interchangeably.
''Chartoularioi''
The chartoularioi tou dromou, subaltern officials in the department of the dromos under the logothetēs tou dromou.
The so-called chartoularioi megaloi tou sekretou, as heads of the various bureaus of the department of the genikon, and the chartoularioi tōn arklōn or exō chartoularioi as the senior treasury officials posted in the provinces.
The chartoularios tou oikistikou or simplyho oikistikos, whose precise functions are unknown, is also attested under the genikon; it did become an independent bureau by the 11th century, but disappears after that. It is recorded that he was in charge of tax exemptions, and had various juridical duties in some themata in the 11th century; the office may have been associated with the imperial domains.
The chartoularioi tou sekretou, as the senior subaltern officials of the department of the logothetēs toū stratiōtikou, who supervised the military fisc, and further chartoularioi of the individual themata and tagmata, supervisingthe financial affairs of the thematic troops and the imperial tagmata, respectively.
The chartoularios tou sakelliou, in charge of the Sakellion treasury.
The chartoularios tou vestiariou, in charge of the Vestiarion treasury.
The chartoularios tou kanikleiou, in charge of the imperial inkpot, a post given to one of the most trusted aides of the Byzantine emperor.
The chartoularios tou stablou, initially a subaltern official under the komēs tou stablou, in the 11th century the epithet megas was added and he became head of his department, supervising the imperial stud farms in the Balkans and Asia Minor and being responsible for the provisioning of the imperial baggage train. A further chartoularios, in charge of the large army encampment at Malagina, was subordinated to him.
Two chartoularioi, one for each of the two dēmoi, the Blues and Greens, of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople.
