POLEMARCHUS
POLEMARCHUS (
πολέμαρχος). There
is probably no official title which was more widely diffused in Greece than
that of Polemarchus. It is known at Athens as the name of the third archon
[
ARCHON], among the Dorians
of Sparta, the Aeolian peoples of Thessaly and Boeotia, in Aetolia, Arcadia,
and Euboea. It does not appear to have existed (at least, we have no
evidence as yet) in any of the cities of Magna Graecia on the one hand, or
in those of Asia Minor on the other; in other words, the title does not seem
to have struck root in colonies. As its name implies, it originally meant a
leader in war (cf.
πολέμαρχος Ἀχαιῶν
Aesch.
Cho. 1072); and, as we shall see, probably was an
offshoot of the office of the king in his capacity of commander-in-chief of
the forces of the state. Everywhere alike we see its original military
character continuing to attach itself to the office, for we find the
polemarchs either holding actual commands in war, or superintending the
military organisation and defence of the state in time of peace. As the
polemarch at Athens was the survival of the military side of the ancient
kingly office, so we find at Sparta the polemarchs playing an important part
in its organisation. When we first hear of them, they appear as forming the
immediate military staff of the king. They have no particular body of men
under them; for the
λόχος is under its
λοχαγός. But in cases where a force
took the field, of which the king in person did not hold the command, one of
the polemarchs was appointed to lead it in his place. Thus the Spartan force
sent to Tempe before the advance of Xerxes was commanded by Evaenetus, one
of the polemarchs (
ἐστρατήγει δὲ τῶν
Λακεδαιμονίων Εὐαίνετος ὁ Καρήνου, ἐκ τῶν πολεμάρχων
ἀραιρημένος, γένεος μέντοι ἐὼν οὐ τοῦ βασιληΐου,
Hdt. 7.173). From this passage we may likewise
infer that it was not usual to appoint any of the polemarchs to such a
command unless they were of the blood royal, and at the same time that,
whilst the polemarchs were usually members of the kingly house, they were
not necessarily so. It was natural that, when the duties of the kings as
commanders-in-chief increased, they would find it necessary to have
lieutenants or adjutants to aid in organising the forces, and for such
important duties they would naturally employ persons connected with
themselves by the close tie of clanship. The polemarchs continued in this
position until the reorganisation of the Spartan army into six
morae in 404 B.C. Thus Thucydides (
5.66), when describing the organisation of the
Spartan army when in the field, says that the supreme command was vested in
the kino if he was with the troops; the king gave the necessary orders to
the polemarchs, and they in turn gave them to the
lochagi. Thus they evidently came next to the king, and were
superior to the
lochagi, over whom they were placed
to command
lochi on important occasions. Thus, at
the battle of Mantinea (418 B.C.), we find two polemarchs in command of two
lochi, doubtless detailed by king Agis for this
special occasion (
Thuc. 5.71). From this
occasional supersession of the
λοχαγοὶ by
the polemarchs, the change to the new organisation (in 404 B.C.) is the
natural step, when the polemarchs are now made the regular commanders of the
new
morae (six in number), each
mora containing two
lochi
under
lochagi. Thus we find the polemarch Praxitas
with his
mora garrisoning Sicyon (
Xen. Hell. 4.4,
7). Xenophon (
Resp. Lac. 12, 6) speaks of a
πρῶτος πολέμαρχος, who may possibly be the same
officer whom he calls (
op. cit. 13, 7)
πρεσβύτατος τῶν περὶ δαμοσίαν. That they
formed part of the damosia, or king's body-guard, we may perhaps infer from
Xen. Hell. 6.4,
14.
The polemarch was assisted by officers called
συμφορεῖς (Xen.
l.c.) When not in
active service, the polemarchs had to superintend the Phiditia or public
messes at home. We infer from Xenophon (
Resp. Lac. 13, 6)
that they were six in number under the organisation which existed in his
time, as there was one for each
mora. As the
Spartans of the same
lochi messed together, we may
infer that the polemarch exercised a general control over the commissariat
of the men who formed his own
mora. In the
various cities of Boeotia the office of polemarch was universal. There were
usually three in number, though in some cases two only appear. For instance,
at Thebes, at the time when Phoebidas the Spartan general got possession of
the Cadmeia (482 B.C.) by the aid of Leontiades, one of the polemarchs,
Xenophon speaks as if there were only two (
πολεμαρχοῦντες μὲν ἐτύγχανον Ἰσμηνίας τε καὶ Λεοντιάδης,
διάφοροι δὲ ἀλλήλοις καὶ ἀρχηγὸς ἑκάτερος τῶν ἑπαιριῶν,
Hell. 5.2, 25).
We can infer from Xenophon (
Xenoph. Hell.
5.4,
30) that the polemarchs had the
control of the military organisation, having under them the
λοχαγοί, who commanded the
λόχοι, into which, as we know from Thucydides (iv, 91), the
army was divided. The
πολέμαρχος had a
secretary (
γραμματεύς, ὁ γραμματίδδων,
Xen. Hell. 5.4,
2;
Plut. Pel. 7; Larfeld,
ινσξριπτ. 169). At Thebes the polemarchs had the
power of arresting any one who had done an act worthy of death (
Xen. Hell. 5.2,
30). We know of the existence of
πολέμαρχοι at Thespiae from Plutarch (
Plut. Demetr. 39), and from an inscription
(
Bullet. 8.413). At Acraephium there were three
πολεμαρχίοντες and their
γραμματίδδων (Larfeld, 184), and a similar board at Hyettus
(Id. 144); at Copae (Id. 170), where there were only two in number; at
Orchomenus (Id. 13, 17, 18, 21, 22); aid at Chaeronea
(
Mittheil. 8.355). They seemed to have had certain financial
duties at Orchomenus, and to have presided in the popular assembly. They
commanded the contingents from their several towns, being under the control
of the boeotarchs, who were the highest officers of the League.
[p. 2.442]
There were also polemarchs at Aegisthena and Megara, at the latter place
probably representing the
στραταγοὶ of an
earlier date. We likewise find three
πολέμαρχοι at Eretria in Euboea (
C. I. G. 2144).
In Thessaly the League (
τὸ κοινὸν τῶν
Θετταλῶν) consisted of four ancient divisions called
τετράδες. Each
τετρὰς had its polemarch, who with the
πέζαρχοι under him commanded the contingent of infantry
which his
τετρὰς contributed to the army of
the League. We may infer the existence of the office of polemarch (or
polemarchs) at Phlius from the existence in that city of a
πολεμάρχειος στοά (Müller,
Fragm. H. G. 3.133). The office also existed at Phigalia
(
τὸ πολεμάρχειον,
Plb. 4.79), at Mantinea (
Thuc. 5.47), and at Cynaetha, where their functions were
described by Polybius (
4.189):
κλείειν τὰς πύλας καὶ τὸν μεταξὺ χρόνον κυριεύειν
τῶν κλείδων, ποιεῖσθαι δὲ καὶ τὸ καθ̓ ἡμέραν τὴν δίαιταν ἐπὶ
τῶν πυλώνων). In the days of the Achaean League there were
still
πολέμαρχοι at Dyme, whilst there is
also evidence for the office at Thuria in Messenia. That there was a
polemarch in the island of Paros, we know from inscriptions (
C. I.
G. 2374, 2379).
Finally, the office seems to have existed both in Ambracia (
C. I.
G. 1797) and in Aetolia (
Plb. 4.79). As
in many of these places above specified we find mention likewise of an
archon, we may, on the whole, infer that the duties of the polemarchi
corresponded very closely to those of the strategi at Athens, and, in fact,
we saw that at Megara they were called
στραταγοὶ an earlier period.
[
W.RI]