The atriklines (Greek: ἀτρικλίνης, plural atriklinai) was a Byzantine court official responsible for organizing feasts and banquets in the imperial palace.[1][2] Along with maintaining order at imperial banquets,[3] he was tasked with ensuring that guests were received in the correct order of precedence according to their court rank and office.[1][2] The atriklines performed and fulfilled his duties by utilizing a list known as a kletorologion (κλητορολόγιον) containing the officials, dignitaries, and ministers who possessed the right to be entertained in the palace.[1] The roster itself would undergo alterations in order to account for the establishment of new offices, the elimination of old offices, and changes made to the guest order of precedence.[4] A prominent atriklines was a certain Philotheos, who in 899 held the imperial title of protospatharios and authored the only surviving example of a kletorologion.[1][2] The office cannot be traced later than the 11th century.[5]
The term atriklines is of Latin origin, from triclinium (dining hall), but it was often distorted into artoklines or artiklines (ἀρτικλίνης) through the influence of Greek artos (bread).[5]