[Hellenistic Armies] What were the ranks?

[QuintusSertorius]

Something I've not really been able to gather through the easy sources, what were the ranks from the lowliest footslogger all the way up to strategos?

I know of the strategos (equivalent to a general), hipparchos (basically commander of cavalry) and chiliarch (sort of sub-general or brigade commander). Does anyone have a full list?

How easy was it to get promotion? Could someone feasibly work their way up from ranker to officer, or did you need wealth and influence for the higher echelons (as it has been throughout history)?

[Arjos]

Each polis had its own, more or less, iirc...
And was something usually class or birth related...
I remember few names like Taxiarchos, Lochagos, Polemarchos...

[Ludens]

In the appendix of "Greek Warfare: Myths and Realities" Hans van Wees discusses the ranks within Athenian and Spartan armies. I am not sure if there is substantial information available on the ranks of other poleis. The book's thesis is that hoplite warfare was not a static method of war, but changed over time as cities grew more powerful and warfare became more intensive. In this vein, van Wees argues that the confusion over the Spartan military hierarchy is due to organisational changes reflecting Sparta's military fortunes.

Of course the militaries of Alexander's successors may have been based on a very different system; and there too we cannot assume it stayed constant over time and space.

[QuintusSertorius]

To add them into a ladder, I think it goes something thus (from highest to lowest):

Polemarchos
Strategos
Taxiarchos
Chiliarch/Epihipparch
Hipparchos?
Lochagos

That goes from top down to mid-level officer.

[stratigos vasilios]

Aww man, now I need to change my name...

[Arjos]

Just remembered about "promotion", which is more by battlefield, veterans gained the first or last row positions...

[Lysimachos]

Some assorted military ranks:

Chiliarchès (GR): ‘commander of thousand’; officer.
Dekarchos (GR): ‘leader of ten’; junior officer; squad leader.
Dilochitès (GR): double-file leader; junior officer.
Dimoirites (GR): half-file leader; NCO.
Enoomotarchès (GR): commander of an enoomotia (GR); junior officer.
Eparchos (GR): officer.
Epimelètès (GR): officer.
Hèmilochitès (GR): half-file-leader; NCO.
Hekatontarchès (GR): ‘commander of hundred’; officer.
Hyparchos (GR): officer.
Hypèretès (GR): officer.
Ilarchès (GR): ‘wing commander’; cavalry officer.
Keleusthès (GR): naval officer responsible for setting and maintaining the rowing speed.
Lochagos (GR): (1) unit commander; (2) file leader.
Nauarchos (GR): admiral.
Polemarchos (GR): senior officer.
Taxiarchès (GR): officer.
Taxiarchos (GR): officer.
Tetrarchès (GR): commander of four files.
Trièrarchos (GR): (1) captain commanding a trireme; (2) wealthy citizen providing a trireme at his cost.
Zooiarchos (GR): elephant commander.

If you ask nicely, I'll even reveal my source :-)

[anubis88]

Of course, keep in mind that Polemarchos was used very differently between polis. He could be a low officer, and he could be i think even the most important one, depending on the timeframe and the polis itself...

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

What - like a Colonel in the Luxembourg Army is 'slightly different' from a Colonel in the US Army? (The entire Luxembourg Army consists of only 4 companies, two of which are training units.) ;)

[QuintusSertorius]

But surely when the major powers gathered armies they used some commonality of ranks? At least so their swathes of mercenaries knew who was supposed to be commanded by whom.

[anubis88]

What - like a Colonel in the Luxembourg Army is 'slightly different' from a Colonel in the US Army? (The entire Luxembourg Army consists of only 4 companies, two of which are training units.) ;)

Haha, no... Not like that. I think i read somewhere that a polemarch of a polis was a leader of a small contigent of army, while somwhere alse he would be the supreme commander... I can't remember exactly which polises tough.

[Arjos]

But surely when the major powers gathered armies they used some commonality of ranks? At least so their swathes of mercenaries knew who was supposed to be commanded by whom.

I'm pretty sure mercenaries had their own commanders and responded only to the Hegemon or the paying master...

[Ludens]

Haha, no... Not like that. I think i read somewhere that a polemarch of a polis was a leader of a small contigent of army, while somwhere alse he would be the supreme commander... I can't remember exactly which polises tough.

In Sparta the Polemarch commanded the largest subdivision of the Spartan army, called Lochos by Thucydides and Mora by Xenophon. The supreme commander would have been one of Sparta's two kings (Hegemon). The problem is that Xenophon later says that the Lochos is a subdivision of the Mora. Van Wees explains this by proposing an organizational reform in the Spartan army.

In Athens, the Polemarchs were indeed the supreme commanders, although later they were replaced by elected generals (Strategos).


But surely when the major powers gathered armies they used some commonality of ranks? At least so their swathes of mercenaries knew who was supposed to be commanded by whom.

I don't think the military hierarchy is there for the convenience of the lower ranks.

The organizational needs of the citizen armies of the Greek poleis were fairly simple, so they could make due with a rudimentary hierarchy. However, this wouldn't have been sufficient for the combined-arms forces of Macedon. Because the successor states derived from the same army we can assume that they initially used the same system. However, I doubt it stayed constant over time and space: the eastern reaches of the Seleucid empire had different organizational and strategic requirements, and obviously the Seleucid army under Antiochus V would have been very different from that of Seleucus II.

In other words: extensive military organization was something new. They were still experimenting with it. And because there wasn't a centralizing force (like today's NATO and yesterday's Warsaw Pact) there was no universal template.

[anubis88]

Like you said Ludens, the problem with the Polemarchos in my case came when i had to do a paper on a chapter of Xenophont's Hellenika... The Polemarchos came up, i think in the battle of Leuktra, so i had to look up what was the case with the Polemarchoi... I look in a few books, and got different answers :(, hence the confusion... You cleared it up a bit.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.

Some assorted military ranks:

Chiliarchès (GR): ‘commander of thousand’; officer.
Dekarchos (GR): ‘leader of ten’; junior officer; squad leader.
Dilochitès (GR): double-file leader; junior officer.
Dimoirites (GR): half-file leader; NCO.
Enoomotarchès (GR): commander of an enoomotia (GR); junior officer.
Eparchos (GR): officer.
Epimelètès (GR): officer.
Hèmilochitès (GR): half-file-leader; NCO.
Hekatontarchès (GR): ‘commander of hundred’; officer.
Hyparchos (GR): officer.
Hypèretès (GR): officer.
Ilarchès (GR): ‘wing commander’; cavalry officer.
Keleusthès (GR): naval officer responsible for setting and maintaining the rowing speed.
Lochagos (GR): (1) unit commander; (2) file leader.
Nauarchos (GR): admiral.
Polemarchos (GR): senior officer.
Taxiarchès (GR): officer.
Taxiarchos (GR): officer.
Tetrarchès (GR): commander of four files.
Trièrarchos (GR): (1) captain commanding a trireme; (2) wealthy citizen providing a trireme at his cost.
Zooiarchos (GR): elephant commander.

If you ask nicely, I'll even reveal my source :-)

Please! :bow:
.

[Lysimachos]

.
Please! :bow:
.

That's nice enough. :-) Here (http://s_van_dorst.tripod.com/Ancient_Warfare/Greece/greek_glossary.html) it is.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.

That's nice enough. :-) Here (http://s_van_dorst.tripod.com/Ancient_Warfare/Greece/greek_glossary.html) it is.
Χαριστώ. :bow:
.

[Atraphoenix]

Where were you when I released my Extended offices Mod and asked people to help me with the offices?

[FriendlyFire]

"Warfare in the Classical World", by John Warry, includes a few mentions of this (but only in the "illustrated encyclopedia" edition, as far as I can tell).

For example, he explains ranks in the basic 16x16 Macedonian syntagma phalanx unit, as cited by Asclepiodotus in the 1st century BC:

Standard file leader was a lochagos, every second file was led by a dilochites, every fourth by a tetrarch, every eighth by a taxiarch, and all sixteen by the syntagmatarch (so across the front of the phalanx you have a total of 1 syntagmatarch, 1 taxiarch, 2 tetrach, 4 dilochites, and 8 lochargos)
Within a single file of sixteen men, the second-in-command (ouragos) is at the rear. There's a hemilochites halfway back, and two enomotarchs one-quarter and three-quarters of the way back.


According to Warry, exact details of ranks in the Spartan army change depending on whether you believe Thucydides or Xenophon. Thucydides said 4 files of 8 men are an enomotia commanded by an enomotarch, four enomotiai are a pentekostys commanded by a pentekonter, four pentekostyes are a lochos commanded by a lochagos, and seven lochoi are an army. Xenophon said there are two only enomotiai per pentekostys, two pentekosytes per lochos, four lochoi make a mora commanded by a polemarch, and six morae in the army.

[Atraphoenix]

OMG I have to patch my EOM intensively to add them all :dizzy2:

[Molinaargh]

Woah this thread is really useful for my AAR, thanks! :2thumbsup:

[QuintusSertorius]

"Warfare in the Classical World", by John Warry, includes a few mentions of this (but only in the "illustrated encyclopedia" edition, as far as I can tell).

For example, he explains ranks in the basic 16x16 Macedonian syntagma phalanx unit, as cited by Asclepiodotus in the 1st century BC:

Standard file leader was a lochagos, every second file was led by a dilochites, every fourth by a tetrarch, every eighth by a taxiarch, and all sixteen by the syntagmatarch (so across the front of the phalanx you have a total of 1 syntagmatarch, 1 taxiarch, 2 tetrach, 4 dilochites, and 8 lochargos)
Within a single file of sixteen men, the second-in-command (ouragos) is at the rear. There's a hemilochites halfway back, and two enomotarchs one-quarter and three-quarters of the way back.



Given most armies were modelled on the Macedonian model, this is very useful, thanks.