Navarch

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Navarch" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Navarch (Greek: ναύαρχος, návarchos) is an Anglicisation of a Greek word meaning "leader of the ships", which in some states became the title of an office equivalent to that of a modern admiral.Also this status was very valuable in Ancient Greece.

Historical usage

Not all states gave their naval commanders such a title. Athens, for instance, placed its fleet under the command of generals (strategoi) holding the same title as those who commanded its land forces. Such command structures reflected the fact that, especially early in the Classical period, fleets operated in close conjunction with land forces, and indeed, the title of navarch did not begin to appear until the time of the Peloponnesian War, when fleets began to operate more independently. This separate title was originally used in cities that lacked an established naval tradition, Sparta being the most prominent, but entered broader use later, being adopted by the navies of the Hellenistic period states such as Macedon, Syracuse, the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the Seleucid Empire, the Achaean League, and Rhodes.

At Sparta and many other city-states, the position was held for one year only (a situation that compelled the Spartans to resort to an elaborate legal fiction when they wished to reinstate Lysander for more than one year in command). Admirals of despotic or monarchic states, however, could serve for years at a time. At Sparta, the position, unlike most high-level offices, was available to men from outside the Spartiate class; Lysander, the most famous occupant of the office, was a beneficiary of this rule.

The

Modern Greece

In the modern Hellenic Navy, návarchos is the highest rank, equivalent to full admiral. All but one of the remaining flag ranks are also derivations of this word: antinávarchos (αντιναύαρχος, 'deputy-admiral') is the equivalent to vice admiral and yponávarchos (υποναύαρχος, 'under-admiral'), equivalent to rear admiral, while archiploíarchos is the equivalent of commodore. The same ranks are also used by the Hellenic Coast Guard.

The rank of full admiral is held in active service only by the Chief of the

• Polemarch – Senior military title in various ancient Greek city states

References

• Hornblower, Simon, and Anthony Spawforth ed., The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2003)
  ISBN 0-19-866172-X