Following the creation of the tagmata in the mid-8th century, four of them, the Scholai, the Exkoubitoi, the Hikanatoi and the Noumeroi, as well as, uniquely, the thema of the Optimatoi, were led by a domestikos.
[3] The most important among them, the domestikos tōn scholōn ("Domestic of the Schools") would by the 10th century rise to be the commander-in-chief of the army after the Emperor, and the post would later in the same century be divided in two, with the domestikoi of the East (tēs anatolēs) and of the West (tēs dyseōs) commanding the military forces in Asia Minor and Europe (the Balkans) respectively.
[6] From 355, civil domestici are also attested at the head of various bureaus, and various high administrative positions remained associated with the title domestikos until the late Byzantine Empire.
[7] Some court positions were also renamed, as their departments became independent: the domestikos tēs basilikēs trapezēs ("domestic of the imperial table") attested in 680 derives from the old castrensis palatii.
[8] In an ecclesiastical context, a domestikos was the head of a group associated with church ritual, especially in reference to choir singers.