Strategus

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Strategus

 

(1) In Greek city-states from the late sixth to mid-first centuries B.C., a military commander invested with broad military and political powers. Athens had a college of ten strate-gi: one to command the hoplites, one to oversee naval supplies, one to oversee defense, two to protect Piraeus, and five (taking turns) to command troops in campaigns. The Assembly elected one strategus from each phyle for a one-year term. Repeated election was permitted; Pericles, for example, served 15 years. The post of strategus was unpaid. Strategi headed Greek military and political alliances, including the Achaean and Aetolian leagues. In modern Russian, the word strateg is used to designate a commander of large-scale military operations.

(2) In Byzantium, beginning in the seventh century, a governor with military and civil authority over a theme (a Byzantine military and administrative district). In the 11th century the civil functions of strategi passed to judges or praetors, and military functions to duces who headed enlarged themes. The strategus later became the commander of a town or fortress garrison. The term “strategus,” in this sense, went out of use in the 12th century.and

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.