# Strator

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{{short description|Position in the Roman and Byzantine militaries}}
Α '''''strator''''' ({{langx|el|στράτωρ}}) was a position in the [Roman](/source/Ancient_Rome) and [Byzantine](/source/Byzantine) militaries roughly equivalent to a [groom](/source/groom_(profession)). The word is derived from Latin ''sternere'' ("to strew", i.e. hay, straw).

The ''strator'' (in Greek narrative sources often replaced with the Greek equivalent of ''hippokomos'') was typically a soldier, sometimes even a [centurion](/source/centurion), who was chosen from the ranks to act as a groom for a senior officer or civil official. His tasks included attending to and even procuring horses, and the supervision of the stable.<ref name="PW">{{cite encyclopedia | last = Lammert | first = F. |title = Strator | encyclopedia = [Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft](/source/Realencyclop%C3%A4die_der_Classischen_Altertumswissenschaft) | volume = Band IVA, Halbband 7, Stoa-Symposion | year = 1931 | page=330}}</ref><ref name="ODB">{{ODB | last = Kazhdan | first = Alexander  | authorlink = Alexander Kazhdan | title = Strator | page = 1967 }}</ref> In the [Roman Empire](/source/Roman_Empire), the ''stratores'' of the imperial court formed a distinct corps, the ''[schola](/source/schola) stratorum'', headed by the [Count of the Stable](/source/Count_of_the_Stable) (''comes stabuli''), and later, in the middle Byzantine period, the ''[protostrator](/source/protostrator)'' (πρωτοστράτωρ, "first ''strator''").<ref name="PW"/><ref name="ODB"/> In the provincial administration, senior ''stratores'' chosen among centurions etc. were typically members of the staff of [Roman governor](/source/Roman_governor)s and in turn headed other, more junior ''stratores''.<ref name="PW"/>

In the Byzantine Empire, the title was more generally used as an honorific dignity for mid-level civil and military officials from the 8th century on, which led to the actual grooms of the imperial court being distinguished as "''stratores'' of the imperial ''stratorikion''".<ref name="ODB"/> The dignity of the ''strator'' belonged to those intended for "bearded men" (i.e. non-[eunuch](/source/eunuch)s), and was conferred by the award of an insigne (''dia brabeiou axia''), in this case a jewelled gold whip. It ranked relatively low in the imperial hierarchy: in the ''[Kletorologion](/source/Kletorologion)'' of 899, it ranks sixth from the bottom, above the ''[kandidatos](/source/kandidatos)'' and below the ''[hypatos](/source/hypatos)''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bury|first=John B.|authorlink=J. B. Bury|title=The Imperial Administrative System of the Ninth Century: With a Revised Text of the Kletorologion of Philotheos|year=1911|location=London|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/imperialadminist00buryrich|page=[https://archive.org/details/imperialadminist00buryrich/page/22 22]}}</ref>

The title appears in Western Europe from the mid-8th century onwards, possibly under Byzantine influence. The variant form ''starator'' is attested in the [Kingdom of Cyprus](/source/Kingdom_of_Cyprus) in 1402.<ref name="ODB"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

Category:Byzantine court titles
Category:Horse-related professions and professionals
Category:Latin words and phrases

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Strator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strator) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strator?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.