Comes Horreorum – Komēs tēs Lamias

Abstract

It is a fact that very little is known of the organisation of the storage and distribution of grain at Constantinople by the imperial government after the later sixth/early seventh century. Until this time, the supply was assured through the bureau of the praetorian prefect of the East and his subordinate, the comes horreorum, along with the latter's staff of humerarii and chartularii, who had charge of the public (state) granaries; and through an independent bureau called the sitōnikon, originally under the authority of the City Prefect, but after Justinian's time transferred to the competence of the praetorian prefect of the East. The granaries where the grain was stored are named in the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae as the horrea Troadensia, Valentiaca, Constantiaca, Alexandrina and the horreum Theodosianum – two presumably named after the sources of supply (the Troad and Egypt), three after the emperors during whose reigns they were constructed. A sixth-century ceremony preserved in the De Caerimoniis of Constantine VII records a state inspection of one of these granaries by the emperor and the praetorian prefect – where the emperor might also take along a surveyor to check the amount of grain registered by the comes, and to ensure that none had been stolen or sold illicitly.