ἀζαραπατεῖς <Iranian; Early Byzantine>
👉 ἀζαραπατεῖς (pl.) m. – ‘ushers or announcers (an office in Persia)’ (Hsch. α 1441).
⚠ Hsch. α 1441: ἀζαραπατεῖς· οἱ εἰσαγγελεῖς παρὰ Πέρσαις – “azarapateis: ushers among the Persians“; note that the term εἰσαγγελεύς means first of all a Persian office in the Greek sources (Hdt. 3.84; D.S. 16.47.3).
🅔 Old Iranian word – the title, reconstructed as Median *hazārapati- (< *hazāhrapati-) ‘chiliarch’, is attested in Middle Iranian languages: Middle Persian hzʾlwpt and Parthian hzrwpt ‘first minister’, probably pronounced as hazāruft (according to another view: hazārpat); for more see ἀζαβαρίτης and αζαροπτ(ου). The plural form in -εῖς indicates that the Iranian term was adjusted to the Greek nouns in -εύς (especially, βασιλεύς ‘king’). Cf. a quite unlikely hypothesis that ἀζαραπατεῖς goes back to Old Iranian *āžara-pat- ‘lord of announcement’ (*āžara- would be a noun related to Young Avestan āγar- ‘to greet’) or ‘lord of admissions (into the royal presence)’ (with the assumption that there is a root *gar-/*ǰar- ‘to move’ in Iranian); such a term does not exist in any sources.
📖 Data: GIPP: 24 and 54. Ref.: Brust 2008: 49-52; EIr: s.v. Chiliarch; Hinz 1975: 120; cf. Szemerényi 1975: 354-392.