Logothete of the Course

The logothetēs tou dromou (Greek: λογοθέτης τοῦ δρόμου), in English usually rendered as Logothete of the Course/Drome/Dromos or Postal Logothete, was the head of the department of the Public Post (Latin: cursus publicus, Greek: δημόσιος δρόμος, dēmosios dromos, or simply ὁ δρόμος, ho dromos), and one of the most senior fiscal ministers (logothetes) of the Byzantine Empire.

The office of the logothetēs tou dromou is explicitly attested for the first time in circa 762, but traces its origins to the officials supervising the Public Post in Late Antiquity. Until the late 4th century, the administration of the Roman Empire's Public Post was a responsibility of the praetorian prefectures. Due to the abuse of the Post and its privileges by the officials of the praetorian prefecture, in the late 4th century the oversight over the Post passed to the magister officiorum, while the day-to-day administration remained in the hands of the praetorian prefecture. As a result, an official known as the curiosus cursus publici, the inspector of the Public Post, is attested in the late 4th-century Notitia Dignitatum (Pars Orientalis, XI.50) as one of the principal aides of the magister officiorum. The twin administration of the Public Post by the praetorian prefects and the magister officiorum continued into the 6th century, and it was not until ca. 680 that the Public Post is found fully under the supervision of the magister officiorum.

The office of the logothetēs tou dromou does not appear in the surviving sources until the year 762, but must have come into existence earlier, as the once-wide ranging duties of the magister officiorum were gradually removed and the office itself practically abolished during the course of the 8th century. Among the various functions of the magister officiorum, the logothetēs tou dromou assumed control not only the Public Post, but also of domestic security and the Empire's foreign affairs, handling collection of intelligence on foreign peoples, correspondence with foreign princes and the reception of ambassadors. Originally the office was simply one of the four senior fiscal ministers or logothetai, and the Klētorologion of 899 places the logothetēs tou dromou 35th in the imperial hierarchy, after the logothetēs tou genikou (33rd) and the logothetēs toū stratiōtikou (34th), but above the logothetēs tōn agelōn (40th). It rose quickly in importance, however, and came to combine, according to the French scholar Rodolphe Guilland, the functions of a modern Interior, Security and Foreign Minister, although his role in foreign affairs remained by far the most important. It is indicative of his pre-eminence that in the Byzantine sources of the 9th–10th centuries, when there is mention of "the logothetēs" without further qualification, it usually refers to the logothetēs tou dromou.

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