Strator
The strator was a lower-ranking provincial official or military officer in the Second Bulgarian Empire, attested in the Virgino, Rila, and Vitosha charters. He was probably responsible for cavalry within a territorial district, although the limited evidence does not prove this. The institution illustrates how an old Byzantine court title could be transformed into an office of Bulgarian provincial government.
The Middle Bulgarian title appears as “страторь”, with the plural forms “стратори” and “страторѣ”. The word is of Greek origin and belongs to military and equestrian terminology. In Bulgarian sources, the strator occurs only in the protective clauses of three royal charters—lists of officials forbidden to infringe the rights and property granted by the ruler. The office stands ninth in the Virgino Charter, fourteenth in the Rila Charter, and fifteenth in the Vitosha Charter. No individual holder is named.
The Byzantine predecessor is well attested in earlier lists of offices and court ranks, including the Uspensky Taktikon and the treatise of Philotheos. The stratores originally formed the emperor’s mounted escort and were organized as a court schola, or official corps, headed by the protostrator. The office later became predominantly honorary and occupied the thirteenth position in the relevant hierarchy. The last Byzantine references to these stratores date from the late tenth and early eleventh centuries.
The title survived longer in some Balkan states. In King Milutin’s charter of 1300 for the monastery of St George Gorgos near Skopje, the Serbian strator stands sixth among the listed officials. The document, however, does not explain his duties. Serbian usage in the recently annexed Macedonian territories may have been influenced by Bulgarian practice. North of the Danube, the similar title “stratornic” is also found, but it denoted a different institution: a court office equivalent to the postelnic, originating in personal service to the ruler and gradually developing into a largely titular dignity.
The Bulgarian strator cannot be directly identified with his Byzantine counterpart. The Constantinopolitan office belonged to the imperial court and became increasingly honorary, whereas the Bulgarian charters present the strator as a low-ranking provincial official. The Greek origin of the title and its probable connection with Byzantine tradition are clear, but institutional continuity cannot be demonstrated. It is not known whether the court at Tarnovo included a separate corps of stratores comparable to that of the Byzantine emperor. A palace office may conceivably have had provincial counterparts, but this remains conjectural.
The most likely interpretation is that the Bulgarian strator was a junior military official concerned with the organization or command of cavalry within a particular territorial district. This conclusion rests chiefly on the meaning and history of the title rather than on any direct description of his duties. His position near the bottom of the lists in all three charters confirms his relatively low rank. The surviving evidence records no insignia, seals, or coins associated with stratores and does not establish when the office was introduced or when it disappeared.