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.