Stratēgus
（
στρατηγός). A general; an office and title most common in
the democratic States of Greece, such as Athens, Tarentum, Syracuse, Argos, and Thurii. When
the tyrants of the Ionic cities in Asia Minor were deposed by Aristagoras, he established
στρατηγοί in their places as chief magistrates. At Athens
they were instituted by Clisthenes when he remodelled the constitution (see
Clisthenes), and they assumed the duties previously
discharged by the king or the Archon Polemarchus. They were ten in number, and were chosen by
the vote (
χειροτονία) of the people, one from each tribe.
Before entering on their duties they passed an examination (
δοκιμασία) as to their character; and no one was eligible for the office unless he
had legitimate children and landed property in Attica. They had command of military
expeditions and in general the direction of all that related to the conduct of wars, including
the equipment of the forces. In levying the troops they were aided by the taxiarchs. (See
Taxiarchi.) They even collected the taxes levied for
warlike purposes and managed the funds set apart for such objects. In
lawsuits arising from these questions the strategi presided. They appointed each year the
persons who were to serve as trierarchs (see
Trierarchia); and in cases of emergency they could summon special assemblies of the
whole people. In the field it was usual for only three of them to be sent out at one time, but
at Marathon all ten of them held command in turn. With them was associated the Archon
Polemarchus (see
Archon), and in the council of war
his vote was equal to that of any of the strategi.
The name
στρατηγός was also given to the chief of the
Achaean League (see
Achaean League), and to
those of the Aetolian League (see
Aetolicum
Foedus).
See Gilbert,
Greek Constitutional Antiquities, pp. 230 foll., Eng. trans.
(1895); a paper by Droysen in
Hermes, vol. ix.
(1875); K. F. Hermaun,
Lehrbuch der griechischen
Antiquitäten, i. 123, 129, 148, 152, 166; and the article
Exercitus, p. 649.
