Symponos
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The symponos (Greek: σύμπονος) was, along with the logothetes tou praitoriou, one of the two senior subalterns to the Eparch of Constantinople, the chief administrator of the capital of the Byzantine Empire.[1] His main responsibility was the supervision of the city's guilds on the Eparch's behalf.[2][3] Earlier scholars suggested that each guild had its own symponos, but this hypothesis has been rejected since.[4][5] John B. Bury identified him as the successor of the adsessor attested in the late 4th century Notitia Dignitatum, but the earliest surviving seal of a symponos dates to the 6th or 7th centuries. The office is last attested in 1023.[4][5] According to the Taktikon Uspensky, the symponos and the logothetes tou praitoriou preceded, rank-wise, the chartoularioi of the Byzantine themes and domesticates, but were beneath the rank of spatharios.[6]