Title: Menologium Basilii II
Date: late 10th century
Shelfmark: Vat.gr.1613
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Referenced on p.33, Byzantine Imperial Guardsmen 925-1025: The Tághmata and Imperial Guard by Timothy Dawson
Martyrdom of St Porphyrius, an image of c. AD 1000. This detail shows an Imperial Strator (right) with his gilded staff (stratorikion), wearing his white phakeolion head-cloth and a colourful skaramangion coat in violet with decorative black, gold and pink-red patterns (compare with Plate B2). His attendant Guardsman (left) wears garments in yellow, gold and scarlet, typical of the magnificent appearance of the Imperial Guard at the time of Basil II. (Menologion of Basil II, folio 159, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rome)
by Giuseppe Rava
PALACE CEREMONY, 31 MAY 946
Plate B2: Strator of the Vasilikoi Anthropoi
This Imperial squire, originally from a far-flung territory, is dressed in a long and splendid skaramangion ornamented with white lions (levkoleontai). The stratorikion (staff) is a symbol of his rank, probably derived from the officer’s staves of the Late Roman Empire.
Source: pp.16-17, Byzantine Imperial Guardsmen 925-1025: The Tághmata and Imperial Guard by Timothy Dawson
