The Kamateros or Camaterus were a Byzantine

Byzantine

Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

 family of functionaries from Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 that became prominent in the 10th–12th centuries. Several family members were scholars and literary patrons. The feminine form of the name is Kamatera .

The first attested member of the family was the spatharokandidatos

Spatharokandidatos

Spatharokandidatos , Latinized as spatharocandidatus, was a mid-ranking Byzantine court dignity used in the 7th–11th centuries.-History:...

Petronas Kamateros, who in ca. 883 supervised the construction of the Sarkel

Sarkel

Sarkel was a large limestone-and-brick fortress built by the Khazars with Byzantine assistance in the 830s. It was named white-house because of the white limestone bricks they have used to build Sarkel...

 fortress for the Khazars

Khazars

The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...

 and later became governor of Cherson. Several members of the family are attested in the 10th and 11th centuries as fiscal or judicial officials, and Gregory Kamateros became protasekretis

Protasekretis

The prōtasēkrētis , also found as prōtoasēkrētis and latinized as protasecretis or protoasecretis, was a senior official in the Byzantine bureaucracy. The title means "first asēkrētis", illustrating his position as the head of the order of the asēkrētai, the senior class of imperial notaries.The...

and later logothetes ton sekreton to Emperor Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power. The title 'Nobilissimus' was given to senior army commanders,...

.

The family reached its peak in the 12th century, under Manuel I Komnenos

Manuel I Komnenos

Manuel I Komnenos was a Byzantine Emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean....

 and the Angeloi. The sebastos

Sebastos

Sebastos was an honorific used by the ancient Greeks to render the Roman imperial title of Augustus. From the late 11th century on, during the Komnenian period, it and variants derived from it formed the basis of a new system of court titles for the Byzantine Empire. The female form of the title...

John Kamateros enjoyed the favour of Manuel I and was logothetes tou dromou

Logothetes tou dromou

The logothetēs tou dromou , in English usually rendered as Logothete of the Course/Drome/Dromos or Postal Logothete, was the head of the department of the Dromos, the Public Post , and one of the most senior ministers of the Byzantine Empire.- History and functions :The exact origin and date of...

in the late 1150s. The sebastos Andronikos Kamateros

Andronikos Kamateros

Andronikos Kamateros , Latinized as Andronicus Camaterus, was Eparch of Constantinople about 1156, and a relative of the Emperor Manuel I Komnenos , who raised him to the rank of sebastos and made him megas droungarios of the Vigla, one of the highest judicial offices in the Empire.Joannes Veccus,...

 became Eparch of Constantinople and droungarios of the Vigla, and also a theologian of note. His son Basil Kamateros was logothetes tou dromou

Logothetes tou dromou

The logothetēs tou dromou , in English usually rendered as Logothete of the Course/Drome/Dromos or Postal Logothete, was the head of the department of the Dromos, the Public Post , and one of the most senior ministers of the Byzantine Empire.- History and functions :The exact origin and date of...

under Isaac II Angelos

Isaac II Angelos

Isaac II Angelos was Byzantine emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204....

, while his daughter Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera

Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera

Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina or better Kamatera was the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos.Euphrosyne was the daughter of Andronikos Doukas Kamateros, a high-ranking official who held the titles of megas droungarios and pansebastos . She was related to the Emperor Constantine X...

 married emperor Alexios III Angelos

Alexios III Angelos

Alexios III Angelos was Byzantine Emperor from 1195 to 1203.- Early life:Alexios III Angelos was the second son of Andronikos Angelos and Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa. Andronicus was himself a son of Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. Thus...

.

The family also produced two patriarchs of Constantinople, Basil II (1183–1186) and John X (1198–1206). Another John was archbishop of Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

after 1186.