Bothros (Byzantium)

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A Bothros ( Middle Greek βόθρος , literally "pit", plural Bothroi ) was an official in the Byzantine Constantinople who was responsible for the sale of animals.

The name comes from the activity of disposing of dead animals in pits ( Bothroi ). The term is only mentioned in the Eparchen book. The Bothroi worked at the Forum Amastrianum in Constantinople, where the horse and animal market was located. Their task was to examine the health of the animals up for sale, for which they received one ceration per animal as payment . After the market closed, they bought the remaining animals.

literature

  • Albert Stöckle: Late Roman and Byzantine guilds. Investigations on the so-called eparchikon biblion of Leos the Wise . Dietrich, Leipzig 1911, pp. 51-54.
  • Johannes Koder : "Whoever digs a pit ...". The term bothros in the Eparchikon Biblion. In: Günter Prinzing (Ed.): Festival and everyday life in Byzantium . Beck, Munich 1990, pp. 71-76 and 194-197.
  • Alexander Kazhdan : Bothros . In: Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Vol. 1. Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 1991, p. 315.