{{short description|Senior military title in various ancient Greek city states}} {{About||the Athenian philosopher|Polemarchus|the racehorse|Polemarch (horse)}} [[File:Datis fighting Kallimachos at the Battle of Marathon in the Stoa Poikile (reconstitution).jpg|thumb|Datis fighting the ''polemarch'' of Athens Kallimachos at the Battle of Marathon, in the Stoa Poikile (reconstitution).]] A '''polemarch''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ɒ|l|ə|ˌ|m|ɑr|k}}, from {{Langx|grc|πολέμαρχος}}, ''polémarchos'') was a senior military title in various ancient Greek city states (''poleis''). The title is derived from the words ''polemos'' ('war') and ''archon'' ('ruler, leader') and translates as 'warleader' or 'warlord'. The name indicates that the polemarch's original function was to command the army; presumably the office was created to take over this function from the king. The title held a high position in Athenian society, alongside the ''archon eponymos'' and the ''archon basileus''. In Athens the polemarch was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the city-state.
==Ancient Greece==
===Athens=== In Athens, the ''polemarchos'' was one of nine annually appointed ''archontes'' ({{lang|grc|ἄρχοντες}}) and functioned as the commander of the military, though to what extent is debated among historians.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IidfC0UMHdYC&q=history+of+polemarch+in+athens&pg=PA281|title=Historical Dictionary of Ancient Greek Warfare|last=Spence|first=Iain|date=2002-05-07|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810866126|pages=281|language=en}}</ref>
At the Battle of Marathon Herodotus described the vote of the ''polemarchos'', Callimachus, as the deciding factor during debate over engagement in battle; it is disputed whether this vote implies that the position of ''polemarchos'' was an equal to a ''strategos'' or that of a commander-in-chief.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.%206.109&lang=original|title=Herodotus, The Histories|last=Godley|first=A.D.|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=2017-10-24}}</ref><ref>E.Badian, ''Antichthon'', 1971, 1-34</ref><ref>N. G. L. Hammond, Studies in Greek History, (1973), 346-364</ref> The ''polemarchos'<nowiki/>'' military responsibilities continued until 487 BC, when a new procedure was adopted and magistrates were then appointed by lot.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5LwoAAAAYAAJ&q=polemarch+role+in+sparta&pg=PA153|title=The Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens|last=Gilbert|first=Gustav|date=1895|publisher=S. Sonnenschein & Company|pages=153|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDTCbh7wmr0C&q=polemarch+in+athens+role&pg=PA79|title=Athenian Generals: Military Authority in the Classical Period|last=Hamel|first=Debra|date=1998|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9004109005|pages=79, 80|language=en}}</ref> Following this reform, the military duties were handled by the ''strategos.'' By the mid-5th Century BC, the ''polemarchos''' role was reduced to ceremonial and judicial functions, and primarily presided over preliminary trials involving metics' family, inheritance, and status cases.<ref name=":0" /> After the preliminary stage the cases would either continue under the judgement of the ''polemarchos'', or be remitted to tribal or municipal judges.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8v5cAAAAIAAJ&q=role+of+polemarch+in+athens&pg=PA115|title=Aristotle on the Constitution of Athens|last=Aristotle|date=1892|publisher=Macmillan|pages=115|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NOfDkPDPvpoC&q=polemarch+in+athens+role&pg=PA10|title=The Law of Athens|last=Harrison|first=Alick Robin Walsham|date=1998|publisher=Hackett Publishing|isbn=087220412X|pages=9–11|language=en}}</ref> The ''polemarchos'' also conducted certain religious sacrificial offerings and arranged the funeral ceremonies for men killed in war.<ref name=":1" /><ref>D. M. MacDowell, The Law in Classical Athens, (1978), 221-4</ref>
===Sparta=== In the new structure of the Spartan Army, introduced sometime during the Peloponnesian War, a ''polemarchos'' was the commander of a ''mora'' of 576 men, one of six in the Spartan army on campaign.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTW4E0Ti0_MC&q=Xenophon%2C+Constitution+of+the+Lacedaemonians+mora+polemarch&pg=PA226|title=Military Theory and Practice in the Age of Xenophon|last=Anderson|first=John Kinloch|date=1970|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520015647|pages=225–226|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_H7EMX0hMiMC&q=Xenophon%2C+Constitution+of+the+Lacedaemonians+mora+polemarch&pg=PA151|title=Spartans: A New History|last=Kennell|first=Nigel M.|date=2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9781405129992|pages=151|language=en}}</ref> On occasion however they were appointed to head armies. They were part of the royal army council and the royal escort ({{lang|grc|δαμοσία}}) and were supported or represented by officers (σ{{lang|grc|υμφορεῖς}}). The ''polemarchoi'' were also responsible for public meals, since, by the laws of Lycurgus, the Lacedaemonians would eat and fight in the same group.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/aristotlexenopho00ernm|url-access=registration|quote=lycurgus eat and fight in same group.|title=Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy|last=Moore|first=John Michael|date=1975|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520029095|pages=[https://archive.org/details/aristotlexenopho00ernm/page/81 81]|language=en}}</ref> Next to their military and connected responsibilities, the ''polemarchoi'' were responsible for some civil and juridical tasks (not unlike the ''archōn polemarchos'' in Athens).
===Boeotia=== In the early 4th century BC several Boeotian ''poleis'' instituted the position of ''polemarchos'', though there was no unified policy. Of the surviving accounts, Plutarch and Xenophon describe three ''polemarchoi'' as executive officials of Thebes during this period.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bn5Nz5yjGUIC&q=thebes+polemarchos&pg=PA88|title=Central Greece and the Politics of Power in the Fourth Century BC|last1=Buckler|first1=John|last2=Beck|first2=Hans|date=2008-04-24|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521837057|pages=88–90|language=en}}</ref>
==Other uses== In modern use, the Greek Letter fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi titles their fraternity leaders as Polemarchs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kappaalphapsi1911.com/?page=history|title=A Brief History - Kappa Alpha Psi® Fraternity, Inc.|website=www.kappaalphapsi1911.com|access-date=2017-10-25}}</ref>
==Fictional use== This position was featured in Orson Scott Card's novel ''Ender's Game''. In the novel, the position of polemarch was charged with the supreme command of humanity's space fleets, the International Fleet. The Polemarch, along with the positions of Strategos and Hegemon, was one of the three most powerful people alive.
This title was also given to the DC Comics character Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, an Amazon in the ''Wonder Woman'' comic books. For a period Artemis served as Paradise Island's co-ruler alongside fellow Amazon Philippus. Whereas Philippus oversaw the day-to-day rule of the island, Artemis oversaw its military aspects.<ref>''Wonder Woman'' (vol. 2) #208</ref>
The title was used to signify soldiers who commanded fortifications and other camps in the 2018 Ubisoft video game ''Assassin's Creed Odyssey''. They were the strongest regular enemies in the game and killing them would lower the "nation power" of a particular state in Greece substantially. Additionally, in 2 of the game's quests, you have to kill 3 polemarchs that are present in either Athenian or Spartan forts across Greece, collect their seals, and bring them to either General Lysander of Sparta or Demosthenes in Athens.
== See also == * {{annotated link|Navarch}}
==References== {{reflist|2}}
{{Highest Military Ranks}}
Category:Ancient Greek military terminology Category:Ancient Greek titles Category:Military ranks of ancient Greece Category:Warlords Category:Archons