Dishypatos

Dishypatos, Latinized as dishypatus (Greek: δισύπατος, "twice hypatos"), was a Byzantine honorary dignity (διὰ βραβείου ἀξία, dia brabeiou axia) in the 9th–11th centuries, intended for "bearded men" (i.e. non-eunuchs). From then on, and especially during the Palaiologan period, it is attested as a family name.

The title is relatively rarely mentioned in literary sources, and few seals of dishypatoi have been found. Likely created in the 8th century, it is first attested in the early 9th century, when a certain Thomas, addressee of Theodore the Studite, held the title.^[1][2] Nevertheless, in the Kletorologion, compiled in 899 by Byzantine court official Philotheos, it ranks quite high, being placed below the protospatharios and above the spatharokandidatos. The Kletorologion also mentions that its characteristic insigne (βραβείον, brabeion) is a diploma.^[3] The title seems to have disappeared in Byzantium itself by the late 11th century, but it is still attested during the 12th century in Byzantine-influenced southern Italy.^[2] In the same period, Dishypatos begins to appear as a surname, becoming more common after the 13th century, when it also became connected with the reigning Palaiologos dynasty. Among its most notable members were the kanstresios Manuel Dishypatos and the 14th-century Palamite monk David Dishypatos.^[2]

References

1. Bury 1911, p. 27.
2. Kazhdan 1991, p. 638.
3. Bury 1911, p. 22.

Sources

• Bury, John Bagnell (1911). The Imperial Administrative System of the Ninth Century - With a Revised Text of the Kletorologion of Philotheos. London: Published for the British Academy by Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press.
• Kazhdan, Alexander P., ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.