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STRATEGUS (oTparfyos)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 986 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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STRATEGUS (oTparfyos) , strictly the See also:Greek word for a See also:general, or officer in command of an See also:army, but frequently the name of a See also:state officer with much wider functions. Such an officer is found in many Greek states, the best known being the Athenian strategus, originally a military See also:official, whose functions gradually See also:developed until, in the latter See also:half of the 5th See also:century B.C., he became the most important See also:magistrate in the state. According to See also:Aristotle's Constitution of See also:Athens iv., the See also:office existed in the See also:time of See also:Draco and the qualification was See also:property to the value of roo minae (i.e. ten times as high as that for the archonship) ; but it is certain that until the end of the 6th century the See also:archon (q.v.) was the most important state official. If, as is probable, the See also:chapter in the Constitution is a See also:forgery (see DRACO), we may conclude that the Strategia (See also:board of ten generals) was a result of the tribal See also:system of See also:Cleisthenes, and that the See also:college is to be ascribed to the See also:year 501 B.C. Some maintain that Cleisthenes himself created it, but the See also:evidence (See also:Ath. Pol. xxii.) is against this. At all events, as See also:late as the See also:battle of See also:Marathon the See also:head of the army was the Polemarch (see ARCHON). It follows that the strategus was, until 487 B.c., subordinate to the Polemarch. The tribal unit was represented in the army by the taxis, and each taxis was led by a strategus. After the See also:Persian See also:Wars the command of the taxis passed to See also:officers called taxiarchs, who acted as colonels under the strategi. If See also:Herodotus may be trusted, the command of the army, at the time of the battle of Marathon, passed to the strategi in turn from See also:day to day. No trace of this system, however, is to be found in the subsequent See also:history.

It was the customary practice in the 5th century to appoint a certain number of the generals, usually three or five, for a particular See also:

field of operations, and to assign the See also:chief command to one of them. Exceptions to this See also:rule are found in the well-known instances of the Sicilian expedition(when the three commanders, See also:Nicias, See also:Alcibiades and Lamachus were given co-See also:ordinate See also:powers), and of the battle of Arginusae, when the command was divided among the whole board. In crises such as the Samian revolt, the outbreak of the Peloponnesian See also:War or that which led to the recall of Alcibiades, we find the whole board subordinated 'to a single member (e.g. See also:Pericles or Alcibiades). Originally each strategus was elected by and out of the tribe he commanded (Ath. Pol. lxi.), and it may probably be inferred from See also:Plutarch (See also:Cimon, viii.) that this system prevailed as late as the archonship of Apsephion (46g B.c.). In the 4th century, however, the strategi were elected out of all the See also:citizen See also:body irrespective of tribes; the See also:change must have occurred between 470 and 440 B.C., because in the latter year, and again in 433, one of Pericles' colleagues was Diotimus, a member of his own tribe (cf. Alcibiades and Adeimantus in 408 B.c.). But from See also:Xenophon (Memorab. iii. 4) we learn that one strategus was still elected by each tribe, i.e. each strategus represented a tribe, though he might not be a member of it. Though the strategi were the nominal heads of the army, it is important to See also:notice that they had no See also:power to choose their taxiarchs, who, like the strategi, were elected by the tribes they were to command. It was only as See also:low as the lochogi (commanders of Xo ot, companies) that the See also:Ecclesia allowed them to select.

From the Constitution (lxi. 3), however, it appears that in the 4th century, at any See also:

rate, the lochagi were appointed by the taxiarchs, not the strategi. By a See also:gradual See also:process in the course of the 5th century, the regimental command was transferred to the taxiarchs, the strategi thus becoming general officers in command, while they at the same time acquired important See also:political functions (see below). On the other See also:hand the strategi commanded by both See also:land and See also:sea, and thus held the power divided at See also:Sparta between the See also:kings and the nauarchus (See also:admiral). In the course of the 5th century the powers of the strategia were increased by important political functions, especially In See also:foreign affairs; hence the office, unlike that of the archon (q.v.), remained on in its See also:original elective See also:character and was held by the most important men (e.g. Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades). Owing to the' fact that the See also:Boule was the chief administrative body, it was necessary to bring the strategi into See also:close connexion with it; it was, therefore, provided that they, though not members, should be allowed to attend its meetings and to bring motions before it. As the Boule of. one year rarely contained members of the previous Boule, the strategi acquired See also:great power from the fact that they were frequently re-elected for many years together, and so had greater experience and continuity of policy. Secondly, in the Ecclesia, the strategus had the See also:advantage over the See also:ordinary citizen that his business took See also:precedence (the meetings always discussed first the question of See also:national See also:defence) and that he could in cases of emergency convene a See also:special See also:meeting (cf. Thuc. ii. 59 and iv. 1i8).

Many historians in dealing with the strategia have been misled by See also:

modern analogies. The strategia was, for example, by no means analogous to the-See also:British See also:cabinet, which (I) has collective responsibility and (2) is executive in the sense that its members are heads of state departments. The strategi had no such characteristics; their influeace over the Ecclesia in voting was merely that of a private citizen; there was no collective responsibility, no unanimous policy. Nor was the strategia a foreign office, though it clearly performed' a ministerial See also:act in attaching its See also:signature to See also:treaties. In general it had no powers of originating negotiation, but merely carried out the psephism of the Ecclesia. It was their relation to the See also:empire which gave the strategi their authority. It was they who took the See also:oath on behalf of Athens when an See also:alliance was concluded, and their See also:advice would have special See also:weight in settling the terms of the treaty and the amount of See also:tribute to be paid. They were not, indeed, compelled to submit a See also:budget, nor did an adverse See also:vote by the Ecclesia involve their resignation. On the authority of Plutarch it has been asserted that there was always a See also:president of the strategic college, and this may well have been the See also:case during the Persian Wars (See also:Themistocles, 48o; See also:Aristides, 478). The three alleged occasions in the later years of the 5th century when a single.strategus was in See also:absolute authority (see above) were all See also:critical occasions and in no way represent the normal See also:condition of affairs. It is abundantly clear that Pericles owed his See also:long ascendancy to his See also:personal force, not to the constitutional authority of his office. Though at first the strategi acted as a single body, in the 4th century and, later special duties were assigned to particular members of the board.

Thus we hear of strategi robs brXtras, Sri rite x pav, fr% nihv aerie, Er% Tits gels/sepias, and See also:

inscriptions of the 3rd century refer to others. Under the See also:Roman domination the strategus eri ra 6rXa was the chief state officer. The See also:law of the See also:emperor See also:Hadrian regarding the export of oil to Athens speaks of him as managing the See also:corn See also:supply and presiding over the See also:education of the See also:Ephebi. In general, their See also:duty was still mainly the foreign policy, offensive and defensive, of Athens; they nominated trierarchs, and, if any nominee refused to serve, brought him before the Heliaea to defend his case. They had powers of See also:life and See also:death over the army in the field—even a trierarch might be put in irons by a strategus. They presided over certain religious festivals and processions, and appear to have been responsible for the See also:protection of the corn supply. AUTHORITIES:'—A. H. J. Greenidge Handbook of Greek See also:Con, stitutional History (See also:London, 1896), especially on the question of the See also:presidency, p. 253; See also:Gilbert, Greek Constitutional antiquities (Eng. trans., 1895) ; Hauvette-Besnault, See also:Les Stratbges atheniens (See also:Paris, 1885); Beloch, D. att. Politik seit Perikles, pp.

276, 277; See also:

Paulus, Frogs: v. hfaulbronn (1883, 34 seq.) ; Aristotle's Constitution of Athens passim, but especially iv., xxii., ltd.; the general histories of See also:Greece —Busolt, See also:Meyer, See also:Bury, See also:Grote (ed. 1907). (J. M. M.) 1 All See also:works written See also:prior to 1891 must be read in the See also:light of the Constitution of Athens.

End of Article: STRATEGUS (oTparfyos)

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