Strategos
[3] Agos (ἀγός)[4] means 'leader', from agein (ἄγειν), 'to lead',[5] from the pelasgic root *ag-, 'to drive, draw out or forth, move'.
[7] At the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC (according to Herodotus) they decided strategy by majority vote, and each held the presidency in daily rotation.
In the Roman Imperial period, the strategos epi ta hopla (στρατηγὸς ἐπὶ τὰ ὅπλα) became the most prominent magistrate in Athens.
Like other magistrates, at the end of their term of office they were subject to euthyna and in addition there was a vote in the ekklesia during every prytany on the question whether they were performing their duties well.
The title of strategos appears for a number of other Greek states in the Classical period, but it is often unclear whether this refers to an actual office, or is used as a generic term for military commander.
In the Hellenistic empires of the Diadochi, notably Lagid Egypt, for which most details are known, strategos became a gubernatorial office combining civil with military duties.
Quickly, they assumed a role in the administration alongside the nomarches, the governor of each of the country's nomes, and the oikonomos, in charge of fiscal affairs.
Already by the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (r. 283–246 BC), the strategos was the head of the provincial administration, while conversely his military role declined, as the klerouchoi were progressively demilitarized.
The latter had become solely civilian officials, combining the role of the nomarches and the oikonomos, while the epistrategos retained powers of military command.
[8] The Ptolemaic administrative system survived into the Roman period, where the epistrategos was subdivided in three to four smaller offices, and the procurator ad epistrategiam was placed in charge of the strategoi.
[8] The Odrysian kingdom of Thrace was also divided into strategiai ('generalships'), each headed by a strategos, based on the various Thracian tribes and subtribes.
Initially, the term was used along with stratelates and, less often, stratopedarches, to render the supreme military office of magister militum (the general in command of a field army), but could also be employed for the regional duces.
[10] Throughout the middle Byzantine period (7th–12th centuries), the strategos of the Anatolic theme enjoyed precedence over the others and constituted one of the highest offices of the state, and one of the few from which eunuchs were specifically barred.
This distinction was especially marked in the pay of their presiding strategoi: while those of the Eastern themes received their salary directly from the state treasury, their counterparts in the West had to raise their—markedly lower—pay from the proceeds of their provinces.
Senior military leadership also devolved on the hands of a new class of officers titled doukes or katepano, who were placed in control of regional commands combining several themes.
