Drungary of the Watch

The Drungary of the Watch (δρουγγάριος τῆς βίγλης/βίγλας, droungarios tēs viglas/viglēs) was originally a senior Byzantine military post, commanding the Vigla or "Watch", one of the elite tagmata regiments of the middle Byzantine period, and in charge of the Byzantine emperor's safety. From ca. 1030, the office was disassociated from its military origin and was transformed into a senior judicial position, thereafter usually referred to as the Grand Drungary of the Watch (μέγας δρουγγάριος τ. β., megas droungarios t. v.). The office continued to exist as a court dignity in the Palaiologan era, until the end of the Byzantine Empire.

Military office
The Drungary of the Watch was originally the commander of the Vigla ("guard watch") or Arithmos ("number"), the third of the tagmata, professional cavalry regiments headquartered in and around Constantinople, and distinct from the provincial or thematic troops.

Judging from the unit's name and the peculiar titles of its officers, it had a considerable ancestry, dating back to the East Roman army of Late Antiquity, but it is unknown exactly when it was constituted as a tagma. The office of the Drungary of the Watch at any rate is first attested ca. 791, when Alexios Mosele is recorded as spatharios and droungarios tēs viglas. In comparison to the other tagmata, the Watch and its commanders had special duties related to the safety of the emperor and the imperial palace. Within Constantinople, the Watch provided guards for the palace precinct, and kept a permanent garrison at the Covered Hippodrome (also the Drungary's seat ), which remained in the city at all times and accompanied the emperor whenever he was under way outside the palace precinct. The Drungary in particular was always in close attendance to the emperor, and went on campaign only when the emperor himself did so. Then he was entrusted with the safety of the army and the camp, including tasks such as the supervision of the night watch, the advance, rear and flank guards, as well as guarding the prisoners of war. Due to his proximity to the emperor, the Drungary had to be a person of confidence, and was often entrusted with delicate missions such as arrests or executions of high-ranking officials. On the other hand, as R. Guilland remarks, the sensitive nature of the office meant that "the merest negligence, the lightest suspicion could cause his fall", while "the first care of a new emperor ... was to elevate to the post of Drungary of the Watch one of his creatures".

As detailed in the De Ceremoniis, the Drungary always accompanied the emperor and was a frequent participant in various imperial ceremonies, often accompanied by his aide, the akolouthos. His ceremonial dress is indicated as the skaramangion tunic and a red sagion cloak, while on some occasions he bore a sword, a mace and an axe. The latter weapon was highly unusual for a Byzantine officer, and R. Guilland suggests that this was connected to his command of foreign troops via the akolouthos (who later became the commander of the axe-bearing Varangian Guard). In the 10th century, when several holders of the post were scions of the most prominent families of the military aristocracy, including Eustathios Argyros, John Kourkouas and Manuel Kourtikes, the Drungary occupied the 36th place in the imperial hierarchy and usually held the senior court dignities of anthypatos, patrikios or prōtospatharios.

List of known holders

 * Note: the list does not include holders known only through their seals but otherwise unidentified, or anonymous holders.

Judicial office
In ca. 1030, the office changed from military to purely judicial, and was further distinguished by acquiring the epithet "Grand" (megas) in the 1070s. It seems that the Drungary took over the Court of the Hippodrome, extant since the mid-9th century and so known after its location in the Covered Hippodrome (or, according to an alternative interpretation, in the substructures of the main Hippodrome of Constantinople). This was followed by the creation of new courts and the restructuring of the Byzantine judicial system, so that in the Komnenian period (1081–1185), the Court of the Hippodrome or Court of the Drungary (τὸ δρουγγαρικὸν δικαστήριον) was one of the seven superior civil courts, alongside those of the Eparch of the City, the dikaiodotēs, the koiaistōr, the epi tōn kriseōn, the prōtasēkrētis and the katholikos, who headed the court for fiscal affairs (dēmosiaka pragmata). The Drungary also served as an appellate court for the decisions of the epi tōn kriseōn. The holders of the post belonged to some of the most distinguished families of the civil aristocracy, including such men as Eustathios Rhomaios, John Skylitzes and Andronikos Kamateros.

List of known holders

 * Note: the list does not include holders known only through their seals but otherwise unidentified, or anonymous holders.

Palaiologan era
Following the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the office's continuity was broken, and when it reappears in the Palaiologan period, it has lost any judicial functions and resembles more its original military character: according to the mid-14th century work of Pseudo-Kodinos, the Grand Drungary of the Watch was a subordinate of the Grand Domestic, charged with the night watch and with supervising the army's scouts. In reality, it had become more of a sinecure and was essentially a court dignity devoid of any but ceremonial duties.

In Pseudo-Kodinos' work, the Domestic of the Schools ranks 24th in the imperial hierarchy, between the Eparch and the Grand Hetaeriarch. The Domestic's distinctive court dress, as reported by Pseudo-Kodinos, consisted of a gold-brocaded hat (skiadion), a plain silk kabbadion tunic and a staff (dikanikion) with a gilded knob on top, and covered with golden-red braid below. For ceremonies and festivities, he bore the domed skaranikon, of yellow and golden silk and decorated with gold wire embroidery, and with a portrait of the emperor seated on a throne in front and another with the emperor on horseback on the rear.

The dignity survived until the end of the Byzantine Empire, with the historian Sphrantzes equating the Ottoman post of chief of the Janissaries to the Grand Drungary of the Watch.

List of known holders

 * Note: the list does not include holders known only through their seals but otherwise unidentified, or anonymous holders.