The office, more fully known as the domestikos tes basilikes trapezes (δομέστικος τῆς βασιλικῆς τραπέζης, 'Domestic of the imperial table'), epi tes basilikes trapezes (ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλικῆς τραπέζης) or epi tes trapezes tou despotou (ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς τραπέζης τοῦ δεσπότου, 'the one in charge of the lord's table'), is first mentioned as extant in the mid-7th century, but the source, a hagiography of Maximus the Confessor, is of much later date.
Historical sources, however, show that some holders of the post were entrusted with leading troops or various other special assignments.
[1] There was also the epi tes trapezes tes Augoustes (ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς τραπέζης τῆς Αὐγούστης, 'in charge of the table of the Augusta'), who filled the same duties for the Byzantine empress, and in addition supervised her private barques.
[1][3] The German scholar Werner Seibt proposed that the epi tes trapezes absorbed the main functions of the kastresios, an earlier official with an apparently similar role.
In this vein, Nikephoros Gregoras reports that this dignity was allegedly conferred and made hereditary to the princes of Russia from the time of Emperor Constantine the Great (r. 306–337) on.