Droungarios of the Watch
List of known holders

Droungarios of the Watch

Section Title: List of known holders
Table Section Text: None

Name	Tenure	Appointed by	Notes	Refs

Alexios Mosele	c. 791	Irene of Athens	Participated in a revolt against Irene, which ended her regency over Constantine VI, but was imprisoned and blinded soon after.

Ooryphas	late 820s	Michael II	Appointed admiral and sent to check the depredations of the Cretan Saracens, he instituted a new corps of marines and managed to recover several Aegean islands from the Saracens.

Petronas	c. 830s	Theophilos	The exact dates of his tenure are unknown. Under Theophilos' son and successor, Michael III, he held several senior military commands and achieved the great victory at the Battle of Lalakaon.

Aetios	c. 830s	Theophilos	Known as the strategos of the Anatolics who was captured by the Abbasids during the Sack of Amorium in 838 and became one of the 42 Martyrs of Amorium.

Constantine Baboutzikos	until 838	Theophilos	A brother-in-law of Empress Theodora, he too was captured at Amorium and became one of the 42 Martyrs of Amorium.

Ooryphas	early 840s	Theophilos	The exact date of his tenure is unknown, as is his identification with one of the other figures bearing this surname at this time.

Constantine Maniakes	842–unknown	Michael III	An Armenian who had come to the Byzantine court as a hostage, he served as droungarios in the early years of Michael III's reign, during the regency of Theodora.

John Androsalites	867–unknown	Basil I the Macedonian	Brother of the abbot Nicholas, who had sheltered the young Basil on his first arrival to Constantinople, he and his brothers were all given high offices on Basil's accession.

Leo Katakalon	c. 877	Basil I the Macedonian	Variously named Katakylas, Katakoilas and Katakalos in the sources. According to the hagiography of the Patriarch Ignatios, he was a son-in-law of Ignatios' great rival, Photios, and persecuted with brutality Ignatios' adherents at the start of Photios' second patriarchate (877–886).

John	c. 897	Leo VI the Wise	He was dismissed due to negligence in uncovering a plot against Leo, who appointed Pardos in his stead.

Pardos	c. 897–898	Leo VI the Wise	The son of the hetaeriarch Nicholas Zaoutzes, he was absolutely trusted by Leo, but was in turn arrested for the failed plot of his brother Basil and the members of the family of Stylianos Zaoutzes.

John	before 914	Leo VI the Wise	One of the brothers of Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, he is only known by a letter of his wife from 914/5.

Eustathios Argyros	c. 908–910	Leo VI the Wise	A distinguished general of aristocratic descent, he was named droungarios in late 908. He too was dismissed and sent to exile in his native Charsianon when he fell under Leo's suspicion.

Damianos	913–unknown	Constantine VII (nominally)	Appointed by Empress-regent Zoe Karbonopsina

John Kourkouas	c. 918–922	Constantine VII (nominally)	Appointed through the machinations of Romanos Lekapenos, Kourkouas supported the latter in his rise to the throne. In 922 he was rewarded with the high command in the East, which he held for 22 years in which he scored major victories against the Arabs.

Manuel Kourtikes	944/5–unknown	Constantine VII	Kourtikes was among the conspirators who overthrew Romanos Lekapenos in December 944, leading to the restoration of sole imperial power to Constantine VII a month later.

Symeon	1025–1028	Constantine VIII	Third chamberlain and one of Constantine VIII's favourite eunuchs, he was named droungarios and proedros on his becoming sole emperor. Symeon later became Domestic of the Schools before retiring as a monk.

Sentence(s)

The office of the Droungarios of the Watch is first attested in c. 791, when Alexios Mosele is recorded as "droungarios of the Watch".

final_sentence: The office of the Droungarios of the Watch is first attested in c. 791, when Alexios Mosele is recorded as "droungarios of the Watch".