Chiliarch

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Chiliarch is a military rank dating back to antiquity. Originally denoting the commander of a unit of about one thousand men (a chiliarchy) in the Macedonian army, it was subsequently used as a Greek translation of a Persian officer who functioned as a kind of vizier and of the Roman army's military tribunes. It has subsequently been used for other similar ranks and positions in other armed forces.

Name

The

Greek khilíarkhos (χιλίαρχος) and khiliárkhēs (χιλιάρχης), both meaning "commander of a thousand". The name has also occasionally been written as chiliarcha, chiliarchus,[1] or chiliarchos or calqued
as thousandman.

The chiliad or chiliarchy controlled by a chiliarch derives from Latin chiliarchia, from Greek khiliarkhía (χιλιαρχία).[2]

Ancient Macedon and Persia

In the

lochoi) of 16 men each. At the same time, officers known as pentakosiarchs ("commanders of 500") are also mentioned alongside the chiliarchs under both Alexander the Great and in the Ptolemaic armies, apparently as subordinate officers.[2]

In addition, the title of chiliarch was used as the Greek equivalent of the

wuzurg framadār or prime minister.[3] From Persian, the term also passed into Armenian as hazarapet and hazarwuxt.[3]

Roman and Byzantine Empires

Later Greek authors employed the term chiliarch for the Roman military tribunes, with the tribunus laticlavius in particular rendered χ[ε]ιλίαρχος πλατύσημος (ch[e]iliarchos platysemos).[2] In the Byzantine Empire, the title was used as a more scholarly alternative to the rank of droungarios, chiefly in literary works, while in the later 10th century it became once more a technical term when Nikephoros II Phokas instituted 1,000-strong units termed chiliarchia or taxiarchia and commanded by a chiliarchos or taxiarches.[4]

Ancient Rus

Main article: Tysiatskii

A chiliarch, in Russian tysiatskii (

boyars at a veche for a period of one year. Like the posadniks in Novgorod, the office was often held by one man for several years in a row and he was often succeeded by his son or another close relative, indicating that the office was held within clans and was not fully elective.[1] In cities with no veche, chiliarchies were appointed by the knyaz
or prince from among the noble boyars and could hand down their post to their sons. In the Novgorod Republic, chiliarchs were considered representatives of ordinary ("black") people. Along with the role as military leaders, they were also supposed to supervise the city fortifications, convene veches, act as ambassadors and as judges in the commercial courts. Like the posadniks, in the 14th century the former chiliarchs maintained considerable political influence and privileges and were known as "Old Chiliarchs". The earliest documented chiliarch of Novgorod was Putyata.

Grand Prince

Vasily III of Russia
took that city.

Modern Greece

The title was once again revived during the

irregular troops of the various independent war leaders, and instituted a number of chiliarchies (χιλιαρχίες), each composed of ten centuries (εκατονταρχίες) of a hundred men under a hecatontarch (εκατόνταρχος, ekatontarchos). Each chiliarchy was commanded by a chiliarch, with a small staff comprising a deputy chiliarch (υποχιλίαρχος, ypochiliarchos), a subaltern known as taxiarchos, a physician, a surgeon, a quartermaster and a priest.[5]

In 1828, the chiliarchies were reorganized and reduced to three, each now comprising two pentakosiarchies (πεντακοσιαρχίες) of five centuries each, comprising 1120 men in total. Each chiliarch had a small staff comprising an adjutant, a secretary, a priest, a doctor, a paymaster and a quartermaster, while a flag bearer and a trumpeter were allocated to each pentakosiarchy. The 1828-model chiliarchies were abolished after the Battle of Petra in July 1829, and thirteen light infantry battalions (tagmata) formed instead.[5]

Hungary

The Hungarian rank of ezredes, literally "of a thousand", is the modern, commonly used abbreviation of the obsolete term of ezereskapitány, literally "captain of a thousand". (The term ezereskapitány was used in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), the ezredes has been used since the Revolutions of 1848.)

An ezredes is the leader of a

Hungarian Defence Force
) and police force too.

Turkey

The Turkish rank of

binbaşı, literally "head of a thousand", is equivalent to the Commonwealth and US rank of Major
.

Israel

An

general, air marshal, or admiral. There are five chiliarch ranks, constituting the five highest ranks in the IDF. The term aluf comes from a Semitic root meaning "thousand", making an aluf the one who commands a thousand people. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is an integrated force, ranks
are the same in all services.

See also

  • chiliad
    , a group of 1000 things
  • millennium, a group of 1000 years
  • Chiliast
    , an alternative name for Millenarians

References

  1. ^ "Chiliarcha", Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. II (1st ed.), Edinburgh: Colin Macfarquhar, 1771.
  2. ^
    Campanus ager
    -Claudius. pp. 2275–2276.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-939214-71-6
    .
  4. ISBN 1-85728-495-X
    .
  5. ^
    OCLC 31255024
    .

Further reading
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