The (), in English usually rendered as Logothete of the Course/Drome/ or Postal Logothete, was the head of the department of the Public Post (, , or simply , ), and one of the most senior fiscal ministers (logothetes) of the Byzantine Empire. History and functions The office of the 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 , while the day-to-day administration remained in the hands of the praetorian prefecture. As a result, an official known as the , 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 . The twin administration of the Public Post by the praetorian prefects and the continued into the 6th century, and it was not until that the Public Post is found fully under the supervision of the . The office of the 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 were gradually removed and the office itself practically abolished during the course of the 8th century. Among the various functions of the , the 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 , and the Kletorologion of 899 places the 35th in the imperial hierarchy, after the (33rd) and the (34th), but above the (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 " without further qualification, it usually refers to the .