Punic Military Ranks

**Magister Militum Titus Pullo** · 08-11-2011, 23:54

I understand that "Rb Mhnt" means general of the army, but I can't find any
reference to the "Mepaqed". Is it a Semitic term or a native Libyan title?

Also, is there any indication what names Phoenicians or Carthaginians used for middle-ranking
officers?

**gamegeek2** · 08-12-2011, 04:57

IIRC it's a Hebrew word used as a substitute. That's my guess, since IIRC Mepaked means "General" in Hebrew. But the two are quite closely related, to be fair.

**vartan** · 08-12-2011, 09:09

Sounds like high time to go back to the Punic dictionary, hmm?

**Magister Militum Titus Pullo** · 08-12-2011, 17:54

Originally Posted by gamegeek2

IIRC it's a Hebrew word used as a substitute. That's my guess, since IIRC Mepaked means "General" in Hebrew. But the two are quite closely related, to be fair.

I thought "Aluf" was Hebrew for general, or is that a modern Hebrew word?

**vartan** · 08-13-2011, 03:22

I cannot find Mepaqed in the Punic. Perhaps it is of foreign origin. But that would be odd, if it indeed was used by the Carthaginians to mean general. Then, if it was indeed used by them, it would show up in the Punic. I'm interested to know why the EB team chose to go with Mepaqed for general (otherwise all of the Punic names in EB check out as far as I've checked). The Punic for general is RB. I'll go over a few of these terms now.

rb general (also can be short for rb mḥnt; also governor)
rb 'rṣ regional governor
rb mḥnt head of the army
rb tḥt rb mḥnt head (of the army) acting for the head of the army (basically, proconsul)
rb šny (or rb sn') adjutant general (literally, second general)
rb šlšy (or rb sls') co-adjutant general (literally, third general)
rb m't military title designating the head of one hundred man unit (of course m't meaning one hundred, m'tm two hundred, and so on)

tm' military commander
tm' drkm infantry commander
tm' mḥnt commander of the army

**Magister Militum Titus Pullo** · 08-13-2011, 14:34

Originally Posted by vartan

I cannot find Mepaqed in the Punic. Perhaps it is of foreign origin. But that would be odd, if it indeed was used by the Carthaginians to mean general. Then, if it was indeed used by them, it would show up in the Punic. I'm interested to know why the EB team chose to go with Mepaqed for general (otherwise all of the Punic names in EB check out as far as I've checked). The Punic for general is RB. I'll go over a few of these terms now.

rb general (also can be short for rb mḥnt; also governor)
rb 'rṣ regional governor
rb mḥnt head of the army
rb tḥt rb mḥnt head (of the army) acting for the head of the army (basically, proconsul)
rb šny (or rb sn') adjutant general (literally, second general)
rb šlšy (or rb sls') co-adjutant general (literally, third general)
rb m't military title designating the head of one hundred man unit (of course m't meaning one hundred, m'tm two hundred, and so on)

tm' military commander
tm' drkm infantry commander
tm' mḥnt commander of the army

Interesting list. How are most of these pronounced, though. I know Rab-Mahant, Rab-Miat, and I presume drkm is dorkim (darak is also translated in the Phoenician dictionary as infantry). How does the rest of it go?

**vartan** · 08-13-2011, 17:33

Originally Posted by Magister Militum Titus Pullo

Interesting list. How are most of these pronounced, though. I know Rab-Mahant, Rab-Miat, and I presume drkm is dorkim (darak is also translated in the Phoenician dictionary as infantry). How does the rest of it go?

Drkm is dorkim, infantry, yes. Drk (Hebrew: derek) surely means road, and could mean journey, voyage. Its second meaning is problematic, as indicated by Krahmalkov, and he indicates that drk (Hebrew dōrek) can mean foot soldier, infantryman.

The reason we have these different meanings sometimes is because these words are best interpreted in context. These words are also written in Standard Phoenician "conservative (historical), consonantal orthography". Since I have not studied Phoenician, I cannot tell you which vowels you need for the various cases in the grammar (I'm not looking at the grammar today).

**bobbin** · 08-13-2011, 19:50

Originally Posted by vartan

I cannot find Mepaqed in the Punic. Perhaps it is of foreign origin. But that would be odd, if it indeed was used by the Carthaginians to mean general. Then, if it was indeed used by them, it would show up in the Punic. I'm interested to know why the EB team chose to go with Mepaqed for general (otherwise all of the Punic names in EB check out as far as I've checked).

Try googling it without vowels, it turns up a few times, it may be that a mistake was made with the name though, so you will have to wait and see if Tanit can comment on this.

**vartan** · 08-13-2011, 20:25

Originally Posted by bobbin

Try googling it without vowels, it turns up a few times, it may be that a mistake was made with the name though, so you will have to wait and see if Tanit can comment on this.

Yes, I hope Tanit can comment sometime on this. In the contexts it seems rb would mean governor/general and tm' would refer to military commanders specifically (though not entailing a "general" specifically, unlike rb). I don't know. Where is you Tanit? We need you!

**Adonybal Barca** · 06-11-2019, 20:29

I found "Mpqd" when translating. מפקד המחנה is Mpqd Hmnh, which should be equivalent to the Roman Praefectus Castrorum. Type in "Camp Prefect" in English to Hebrew then look up Romanization of Hebrew and click on the mylanguages website link and paste the Hebrew in the left.