Asekretis

The term asekretis (Greek: ἀσηκρῆτις, romanized: asēkrētis, invariable form) designated a senior class of secretaries in the Byzantine imperial court in the 6th–12th centuries. The term is derived from the Latin a secretis, and in its full form was "asekretis of the court" (ἀσηκρῆτις τῆς αὐλῆς, asēkrētis tēs aulēs). It seems to be an innovation of the 6th century, as the contemporary historian Procopius of Caesarea found it necessary to explain it to his readers. Modern scholars have sometimes assumed that it dates to the 4th century, but the only reference to it, in the acts of the Council of Chalcedon, actually dates from a 6th-century translation of the document. The asekretis succeeded the referendarii as the senior-most members of the imperial secretariat, above the notarii. Some of t...