Magister officiorum

The Roman office of magister officiorum (Latin literally "Master ( overseer ) of the Offices " ) is first detectable under Emperor Constantine I, but was perhaps already established by Diocletian.

The magister officiorum stood at the head of the court offices ( militia palatine ); him under his visit included the agentes in rebus and the public postal system and in particular the most palace officials. At each Kaiserhof there was a magister officiorum, and even after the end of the Western Roman Empire 476, the Office continued to exist in the West under Odoacer and the Ostrogoths; it disappeared here, together with the Western Roman court in the year 554 in the 6th century, it is also the court of the Merovingian Gaul testified ( the patricius Parthenius 544 is assigned as holder of the office ).

A magister officiorum had often functions and powers beyond the imperial court. He was responsible for such supervision of the imperial arms factories, and at least in Ostrom were under him since the 5th century partly the limitanei, ie, the border troops, although he does not normally commanded directly, but only supervised. He also led the command of a part of the palace guard (though not on the excubitores which were subject to its own comes, and the protectores domestici ). In exceptional cases, it was also used as a military leader, as about 504 of the magister officiorum Celer in Persian War of the Emperor Anastasius. In addition to the Praetorian Prefect, the head of the militia officialis, he was not least due to its proximity to the emperors of the most influential civilian officials in the late Roman Empire.

Over time, the Office took over the coordination of the many foreign policy (already in the late 4th century subordinate to the magister officiorum for this reason also the official translator and interpreter ); one of the major owners of the Office was Peter Patricius, who held it 539-565 and in that capacity undertook several diplomatic missions for the Emperor Justinian. In Italy, the office which was still under the Ostrogoths of great importance disappeared in the course of the Gothic wars to 550 ( 554, it was officially abolished for Italy), in Ostrom only during the upheavals of the 7th century.