The office of the logothetes tou dromou is explicitly attested for the first time in circa 762, but traces its origins to the officials supervising the Public Post in Late Antiquity.
[2] As a result, an official known as the curiosus cursus publici, 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 magister officiorum.
[8] Notable logothetai tou dromou who served as chief ministers include Staurakios under Empress Irene of Athens (r. 797–802), Theoktistos during the regency of Empress Theodora (842–856), Stylianos Zaoutzes in the early reign of Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912), Leo Phokas the Younger during the rule of his brother Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969), John under Constantine IX Monomachos (r. 1042–1055), and Nikephoritzes under Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071–1078).
[9] The 10th-century De Ceremoniis of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (r. 913–920, 944–959) depicts the administrative and ceremonial roles of the logothetes tou dromou: he was received in audience every morning by the Emperor in the Chrysotriklinos, he presented the senior officials at award-giving ceremonies, and had a prominent part in the reception of foreign embassies, as well as the exhibition of captives.
[10] After the reforms of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), in c. 1108 the dromos ceased to exist as a department, but the logothetes remained, now responsible for official communications and for supervising foreigners resident in Constantinople.