Everything about Strategoi totally explained
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For the board game, see Stratego.
The term
strategos (plural
strategoi;
Greek στρατηγός) (literally meaning "army leader") is used in
Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and
Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor. In the modern
Hellenic Army, it's the highest officer rank.
The office of Strategos in other Classical Greek states
Other Greek states also possessed the office of
Strategos. Notable among these was the
Achaean League, whose most famous
strategoi were
Aratus of Sicyon and
Philopoemon.
Hellenistic and later use
In the Hellenistic empires of the
Diadochi, notably Lagid Egypt, Strategos became a gubernatorial office.
This use was continued in the Byzantine empire (see
Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy).
Modern use
In the modern
Hellenic Army, a
stratigós (the spelling remains
στρατηγός) is the highest officer rank. It is held by the Chief of the
General Staff of National Defence, when he's an Army officer. Officers holding this rank are addressed as "
stratigé" (Στρατηγέ) (stressed on the last syllable). All but one of the other Greek general officer ranks are derivations of this word:
antistrátigos and
ypostrátigos, for
Lieutenant General and
Major General, respectively; a
Brigadier General however is called
taxíarkhos, after a
táxis (in modern usage
taxiarkhía), which means brigade.
Non-military usage
Stratégòs is also the name of a social network of business strategists.
Fictional uses
This position was featured in
Orson Scott Card's novel
Ender's Game. In the novel, the position of Strategos was charged with overall command of solar system defense. The Strategos, along with the positions of
Polemarch (responsible for the International Fleet of space warships), and the Hegemon (the political leader of Earth, rather like a stronger version of the
Secretary-General of the United Nations), was one of the three most powerful people alive. Because of a belief in their inherent luck and brilliance--specifically, that no Jewish general had ever lost a war--all three positions were filled with
Jewish people - an
American Jew as
Hegemon, an
Israeli Jew as Strategos, and a
Russian
Jew as
Polemarch. The defeat of the
Formics by half-
Māori Mazer Rackham changed this position.
Bean was given the title of Strategos by
Peter Wiggin after he assumed the role of Hegemon.
The dystopian slave-empire of the
Draka, in the series of books by
S. M. Stirling, also uses "Strategos" together with many other military ranks and terms drawn from
Classical Antiquity - though often with only the most loose resemblance to what they originally meant.
The position of 'Strategos' was also featured in the English language version of the
Sunrise anime
The Vision of Escaflowne; the character Folken occupied the position when he served the Zaibach empire.
The oldest use of the term "strategos" in fiction may be found in the "
Callirhoe" of Chariton of Aphrodisias which is dated in the first century A.D. There, Hermocrates is the "strategos" of Syracuse and the father of Callirhoe, living in the 5th century B.C. In fact, he was a historical person, the victor over the Athenians in 413 B.C., an event which stopped Athenian expansion to the West. His role as a character in the novel is rather limited. Although his position in Syracuse gives Callirhoe a background, and he gives consent to her marriage and fulfills a few official duties, his legal or constitutional position isn't very clear.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Strategoi'.
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