Paharnic
The Paharnic (plural: Paharnici; also known as Păharnic, Paharnec, or Păharnec; Moldavian dialect: ceașnic,[1] Greek: παχάρνικος, pakharnikos,[2] Russian: пахарник, paharnik) was a historical Romanian rank, one of the non-hereditary positions ascribed to the boyar aristocracy in Moldavia and Wallachia (the Danubian Principalities).
[3] Dimitrie Cantemir, the intellectual Prince of Moldavia, was the first to note that the institution was copied from the old Serbian nomenclature, as opposed to other boyar titles, which were originally Byzantine or (in one case) Hungarian.
Paharnici fell into a third category of offices, deemed "courtly" (de curte)—alongside Cluceri, Jitniceri, Medelniceri, Pitari, Postelnici, Slugeri, and Stolnici.
"[17] From the beginning, these attributes alternated with the business of state: in October 1407, Paharnic Iliaș "Dumitrovscio" was present on the Moldavian delegation which swore fealty to the Kingdom of Poland, and consequently fought at Grunwald.
[29] The Paharnici were nevertheless entirely subject to the Prince's expedient justice, as already shown in the 1480s, when Stephen the Great ordered the execution of his Paharnic Negrilă, for reasons unrecorded.
[35] The first Craiovești Prince, Neagoe Basarab (reigned 1512–1521), assigned the office of Paharnic to a more distant relative, Drăghici Florescu, to whom he also gave ownership of Tismana.
[41] At around the same time, Moldavia's Petru Rareș was facing boyar rebellions in Cârligătura County, confiscating a village from Paharnic Ștefan Mânjea and donating another to the loyalist replacement, Nicoară.
[42] The 1570s witnessed one of several wars between the two principalities, with Moldavia's John III occupying Bucharest, allowing Radu Paisie's putative grandson, Vintilă, to take over as Prince of Wallachia.
The uprooted Movilești regime of Moldavia continued to exist in exile, receiving crucial backing from the loyalist Paharnic and diplomat, Ion Caraiman.
[57] A decade later, under Leon Tomșa, the office of Paharnic was held by a Greek, Balasache Muselim, whose tenure sparked another revolt, which peaked at Bucharest and had Matei Basarab among its leaders.
[62] Both countries' Paharnici were soon outranked by the Stolnici and Comiși; in Wallachia, however, they continued to command the Păhărnicei, and were also placed in charge of a new cavalry force, the Roșii ("Redcoats").
[26] This practice is attested in Moldavia, where, following the drought of September 1663, Princess Ecaterina Dabija warned Feciori not to collect the tithe from Armenians and Jews, as this would have exhausted the supply.
"[71] Brâncoveanu's reign was overall marked by a steady increase in taxation, but the Păhărnicei were explicitly excluded from some of the new duties, including a levy on vacated villages (siliști).
[80] Brăiloiu returned as Paharnic under the last Cantacuzino Prince, Ștefan, with increased powers that allowed him to set an arbitrary vinărici and "collect wine as he pleases".
It came shortly after Dumitrașcu Cantacuzino abdicated, and targeted his courtiers, notably the Paharnic Mavrodin, who was paraded on a donkey and made to speak shibboleth phrases in Romanian.
[88] Brâncoveanu's contemporary Dimitrie Cantemir, a native boyar and Enlightened absolutist, strove to reform the old order, appointing distinguished soldiers, such as Adam Luca, as his Paharnici.
[26] Overtures were made to tone down conflicts between the Romanians and the Greeks in Moldavia, such as when Grigore II Ghica refused to prosecute a treasonous Paharnic Gavriil.
[103] Reduced to the role of rural legatees of the urban Paharnic, the Păhărnicei of both countries were then stripped of all their remaining tax privileges under Constantine Mavrocordatos; the Paharnici themselves were required to pay for any military levy.
[105] A Western visitor, Friedrich Wilhelm von Bauer, assessed that Mavrocordatos' intervention had only left 100 Păhărnicei throughout Wallachia, with 12 more performing service for the Prince as Mazili.
[106] Shortly after Mavrocordatos' death in the Russian occupation of 1769, the chronicler Franz Sulzer noted that the function of Moldavia's great Paharnic was to reside in Cotnari and collect revenue for Princess-dowager Ecaterina.
[109] Paharnici and Păhărnicei also had a decorative function at the ceremonies in honor of Wallachia's Phanariote Princes, notably at the coronations of Alexander Ypsilantis (1775) and Nicholas Mavrogenes (1786), and the wedding of Princess Zamfira, daughter of John Caradja (1782).
In Oltenia, Romanian or Greek schools were founded by local Paharnici, including Fota Vlădoianu (Craiova, 1777), Stan Jianu (Preajba, 1783), and Alexandru Farfara (Cerneți, 1793).
[112] By 1806, Toma Carra, the Moldavian Paharnic, was helping to draft a set of modernizing Pandects, to be used by Prince Alexander Mourouzis in reforming the justice system.
[129] Under late Phanariotes such as Wallachia's Caradja, the rank of a lesser Paharnic was openly trafficked: Hagi Ianuș, a merchant from Craiova, offered to purchase it at 400 ducats in 1816.
[131] According to a note by visiting bureaucrat Ignaty Yakovenko, the number of scutelnici had increased, with each of these Paharnici commanding the allegiance of 25 clients; the Păhărnicei's Vătafi had three scultenici of their own.
[132] The rise of Wallachian clienteles was again curbed in 1821 by an anti-boyar uprising, under Tudor Vladimirescu; having a peasant base, this insurgency was probably led by disgruntled third-class boyars.
Second-class boyars played significant parts: according to Eliade, a Spatharios and a Paharnic traveled from one Moldavian town to another, replacing Ypsilantis' men with friendly locals.
This moment showed the tensions between the two aristocratic systems, as Sturdza began handing out titles to commoners, and allegedly created a house servant as Paharnic.
[141] The Russian-appointed Moldavian Prince, Mihail Sturdza, replicated the policy of inducting new boyars, and, in 1835, raised most civil servants into the aristocracy: 140 Paharnici and 352 Serdari were counted in the census of 1849.
"[156] Before the Wallachian Revolution of 1848, which sought to outlaw boyar ranks, the father of revolutionary Gheorghe Magheru also served as Paharnic and administrator of Romanați County.
