Protostrator

The protostrator combined practical duties with a defined place in the hierarchy of the court. The name was borrowed from Byzantine Greek and was formed from strator, a court servant associated with the ruler’s horses; its original sense was approximately “first among the stratores.” In Bulgaria the dignity is known only from George Pachymeres’ account of the events surrounding Ivaylo’s uprising in 1277–1280. No Bulgarian charters, seals, coins, or descriptions of the protostrator’s insignia survive.

In Byzantium the office can be traced back to the eighth century, during the reign of Constantine V. The protostrator belonged to the secular palace personnel around the emperor and, unlike many personal attendants, was not a eunuch. He headed a department that included stratores, keepers of military equipment, and stable officials. He rode beside the basileus, the Byzantine emperor, and in certain ceremonies could usher foreign envoys into the imperial presence in place of the protospatharios, another senior court dignitary.

The protostrator did not yet hold a particularly elevated position in Philotheos’ order of precedence, but the dignity rose in importance during the following centuries. Proximity to the emperor contributed more to its advancement than the office’s original duties. Niketas Choniates compared the protostrator to the marshals of the Franks, while the late Byzantine ceremonial manual known under the name of Pseudo-Kodinos depicts him carrying the ruler’s sword and leading his horse. These ceremonial acts accompanied considerable military powers: a protostrator could command light cavalry, the vanguard, and reconnaissance troops, and could sometimes lead an entire army or naval force. In late Byzantium he ranked among the highest dignitaries.

Comparisons with other Balkan states provide no secure model for the Bulgarian office. A protostrator is not directly attested in medieval Serbia, and the proposed identification with the tepčija rests on insufficient evidence. The Romanian stratornic, also called the postelnic, had no common institutional origin with the protostrator: he was an officer in the voivode’s personal household. The lack of a clear equivalent in neighbouring states strengthens doubts that the protostrator was permanently established in Bulgaria, but does not by itself disprove its existence there.

Pachymeres reports that Kasimbek, a baptized Tatar, received the dignity from Michael VIII Palaiologos. This may be understood as part of the Byzantine practice of attracting foreign leaders by granting them honorary ranks. The same account, however, also calls him the “protostrator of Lachanas,” Lachanas being the Byzantine designation for Ivaylo. This wording connects Kasimbek directly with the Bulgarian ruler’s court and allows him to be regarded as a Bulgarian dignitary, even though his title had been conferred by the Byzantine emperor.

It cannot be established whether Kasimbek actually exercised the complete range of a protostrator’s duties or merely held an honorary rank. The proposal that the Bulgarian protostrator was identical to the grand voivode also remains unproven. Both offices had a military character, but their names are unrelated, and there is no basis for treating one as an exact translation of the other. If the protostrator was indeed part of the Bulgarian hierarchy, he probably combined high court standing with military command. Unlike the firmly established Byzantine institution, the Bulgarian dignity may have been short-lived.

Kasimbek was evidently an influential figure in the Bulgarian lands. Michael VIII granted him the title in an effort to draw him to the side of the Byzantine-backed Ivan Asen III. The attempt to secure his allegiance indicates that he was not merely a foreign outsider but possessed political or military weight among the Bulgarian magnates. Kasimbek later joined Ivaylo. His subsequent activities are unknown, but he was eventually killed together with Ivaylo at a banquet on the orders of Nogai Khan.

In Pachymeres’ account of the reign of Andronikos II Palaiologos, another man appears with a similar Tatar name. The different spelling and later chronology rule out identifying him with Ivaylo’s protostrator. The later man’s name is explained as meaning “first among the hieronitai,” which may also indicate the meaning of Kasimbek’s name, although this cannot be demonstrated. No further Bulgarian protostrators are recorded after Kasimbek’s death.