Cuāuhtlahtoāni or Cuäuhtlahtoh is a titular office of governorship and political administration, used within certain city-states and provinces among the Aztecs of pre-Columbian central Mexico in the Late Postclassic period.
The office of cuauhtlatoani (a Nahuatl word meaning approximately, "the one who speaks like eagle") carried the connotation of "military ruler" or "appointed administrator".
During the rise of the Aztec Empire the title was given by the ruling Mexica-Tenochca to the governors they imposed on conquered city-states in central provinces.
The title is also used in some histories compiled in the early post-conquest era, when referring to the (semi-legendary) leaders of the Mexica (the later Aztecs) during their migrations from the north into the Valley of Mexico, before their founding of Tenochtitlan and the subsequent expansion into empire.
The early 17th-century Nahua historian Chimalpahin wrote of a succession of cuauhtlatoani office holders during this pre-foundational period:[2]