According to the news by Niketas Choniates, at the time of Alexios III Angelos the sebastos title was sold at a low price to everyone who wanted to buy it. That news has been connected to the fact that at the end of the 12th and in the early 13th century there was a noticeable emergence of the local aristocracy members holding the title of sebastos. The work casts a special emphasis on the analysis of the sebastoi mentioned in the writings of Demetrios Chomatenos, the archbishop of Ohrid. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177032: Tradicija, inovacija i identitet u vizantijskom svetu]