Exarch

In the Byzantine Empire, an exarch was an essentially military viceroy who governed a part of the empire at some remove from the central (oriental) authorities, the Emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Related Topics:
Byzantine Empire - Patriarch of Constantinople

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In the ecclesiastical organization of the Empire of the East, the exarch of the political division called a "diocese" was in the 4th and 5th centuries the same as a "primate," a dignity that was intermediate between a patriarch and the metropolitan bishops, the term "patriarch" being formally restricted after 451 CE to the chief bishops of the most important cities (The Oecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antiochia, in that order).

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