Proedros was a senior Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 court and ecclesiastic title

Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy

The Byzantine Empire had a complex system of aristocracy and bureaucracy, which was inherited from the Roman Empire. At the apex of the pyramid stood the Emperor, sole ruler and divinely ordained, but beneath him a multitude of officials and court functionaries operated the administrative...

 in the 10th to mid-12th centuries. The female form of the title is proedrissa (Greek: προέδρισσα).

Court dignity

The title was created in the 960s by Nikephoros II Phokas and was first awarded to Basil Lekapenos

Basil Lekapenos

Basil Lekapenos was the chief administrator of the Byzantine Empire from 945 until 985.An illegitimate son of the emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, he was castrated when young....

, the eunuch parakoimōmenos

Parakoimomenos

The parakoimōmenos was a Byzantine court position, usually reserved for eunuchs. Many of its holders, especially in the 9th and 10th centuries, functioned as the Byzantine Empire's chief ministers.-History and functions:...

. It was placed very high in the court hierarchy, coming immediately below the position of the zostē patrikia

Zoste patrikia

Zōstē patrikia was a Byzantine court title reserved exclusively for women. A very high title, its holder ranked as the first woman after the empress herself in the imperial court.-History and functions:...

and before the magistros, meaning that it was the most senior non-imperial title open to males. The title apparently continued to be restricted to eunuchs until the mid-11th century, when it was opened up to the wider aristocracy and extensively awarded. The holder of this dignity was also the president of the Senate

Byzantine Senate

The Byzantine Senate or Eastern Roman Senate was the continuation of the Roman Senate, established in the 4th century by Constantine I. It survived for centuries but was increasingly irrelevant until its eventual disappearance in the 13th century....

 (Greek: ), and the term proedros was often used to denote precedence in other offices, e.g. proedros of the notarioi for the prōtonotarios. The title was widely awarded in the 11th century, after it was opened up to non-eunuchs, prompting the creation of the prōtoproedros (Greek: πρωτοπρόεδρος, "first proedros") to distinguish the most senior amongst its holders. The title, along with most of the middle Byzantine court nomenclature, fell into gradual disuse in the Komnenian period, and disappeared in the latter 12th century. According to the De Ceremoniis

De Ceremoniis

De Ceremoniis is the Latin title of a description of ceremonial protocol at the court of the Eastern Roman emperor in Constantinople. It is sometimes called De ceremoniis aulae byzantinae...

of Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (r. 913–959), the garb and insignia

Insignia

Insignia or insigne pl -nia or -nias : a symbol or token of personal power, status or office, or of an official body of government or jurisdiction...

 of the proedros in the 960s were: "a rose

Rose

A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...

-colored and gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

-embroidered tunic

Tunic

A tunic is any of several types of clothing for the body, of various lengths reaching from the shoulders to somewhere between the hips and the ankles...

, a gem

Gem

Gem generally refers to a gemstone, a cut rock or mineral.Gem may also refer to:-Places:* Gem, California, a former settlement in the United States* Gem, Indiana, a small town in the United States* Gem, Kansas, a small town in the United States...

-encrusted belt, and a white chlamys

Chlamys

The chlamys was an ancient Greek piece of clothing, a type of cloak....

[cloak] trimmed with golden bands and with two gold tablia [square patches] and decoration of ivy

Ivy

Ivy, plural ivies is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan and Taiwan.-Description:On level ground they...

 leaves."

Ecclesiastic office

The term proedros was often used for a bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

, who was naturally the president of the local clergy

Clergy

Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....

, and in some rare cases for metropolitan bishops

Metropolitan bishop

In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...

. In the 13th century, however, it acquired a more specific meaning: it was given to bishops who at the same time held jurisdiction over a vacant episcopal see. As the proedros of the vacant episcopal see, that bishop ran its administration, but was differentiated from the regular bishop, since he was never officially installed into that episcopal see. As in the court, the term proedros was also used to denote precedence amongst a group of officials.