Chiliarch is a military rank dating back to

antiquity Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to: Historical objects or periods Artifacts *Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures Eras Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...

. 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 military tribunes. It has subsequently been used for other similar ranks and positions in other

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

Name

The English term ''chiliarch'' was borrowed from Latin , a

transcription Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...

of Greek ''khilíarkhos'' () and ''khiliárkhēs'' (), both meaning "commander of a thousand". The name has also occasionally been written as chiliarcha, chiliarchus,. or chiliarchos or calqued as thousandman. The chiliad or chiliarchy controlled by a chiliarch derives from Latin , from Greek ''khiliarkhía'' ().

Ancient Macedon and Persia

In the Ancient Macedonian army, a chiliarch was the commander of a 1024-strong chiliarchy or of the and the hypaspists heavy infantry, subdivided into 64 files () of 16 men each. At the same time, officers known as

pentakosiarch Pentakosiarch ( gr, πεντακοσιάρχης, pentakosiarches; in Modern Greek usually πεντακοσίαρχος, ''pentakosiarchos''), meaning "commander of 500". is a Greek military rank. Antiquity It was first adopted in the infantry of t ...

s ("commanders of 500") are also mentioned alongside the chiliarchs under both Alexander the Great and in the

Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty * Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter * Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining ...

armies, apparently as subordinate officers. In addition, the title of chiliarch was used as the Greek equivalent of the Achaemenid Persian title (also transliterated ). The Achaemenid army was organized on a decimal basis, and the was the commander of the (, "apple-bearers"), the 1,000-strong personal bodyguard of the Achaemenid kings. The latter often played a role analogous to that of a

majordomo A majordomo is a person who speaks, makes arrangements, or takes charge for another. Typically, this is the highest (''major'') person of a household (''domūs'' or ''domicile'') staff, a head servant who acts on behalf of the owner of a large ...

or vizier in later times. The Persian office was in turn adopted by Alexander the Great, and first awarded to

Hephaestion Hephaestion ( grc, Ἡφαιστίων ''Hephaistíon''; c. 356 BC – October 324 BC), son of Amyntor, was an ancient Macedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was "by far the dearest of all the ...

and after Hephaestion's death to Perdiccas. Likewise,

Antipater Antipater (; grc, , translit=Antipatros, lit=like the father; c. 400 BC319 BC) was a Macedonian general and statesman under the subsequent kingships of Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great. In the wake of the collaps ...

shortly before his death named Polyperchon as , but then named his own son Cassander as chiliarch, and thereby "second in authority" according to

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...

(XVIII.48.4–5). This Persian-inspired office did not survive into subsequent

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

practice. However, it was revived by later Iranian dynasties: while its existence in the Parthian Empire is unclear, it was certainly in existence in the 3rd

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

under the

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

( Middle Persian: or ). According to the 5th-century Armenian historian Elishe, it was equivalent to or prime minister. From Persian, the term also passed into Armenian as and .

Roman and Byzantine Empires

Later Greek authors employed the term chiliarch for the Roman military tribunes, with the in particular rendered (). In the Byzantine Empire, the title was used as a more scholarly alternative to the rank of , 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 or and commanded by a or .

Ancient Rus

A chiliarch, in Russian (тысяцкий), was a military leader in Ancient Rus, who commanded a people's volunteer army called тысяча (, or a thousand). In the Novgorod Republic, the chiliarch evolved into a judicial or commercial official and was elected from 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. In cities with no veche, chiliarchies were appointed by the

knyaz , or ( Old Church Slavonic: Кнѧзь) is a historical Slavic title, used both as a royal and noble title in different times of history and different ancient Slavic lands. It is usually translated into English as prince or duke, dependi ...

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 Dmitry Donskoy, after the death of Vassily Vassilyevich Velyaminov in 1374, abolished the post, replacing it with

voyevoda Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the m ...

s and namestniks. The chiliarch in Novgorod was abolished when Grand Prince Ivan III of Russia conquered the city in 1478. It was abolished in Pskov in 1510 when Vasily III of Russia took that city.

Modern Greece

The title was once again revived during the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...

. In January 1822, the

First National Assembly at Epidaurus The First National Assembly of Epidaurus (, 1821–1822) was the first meeting of the Greek National Assembly, a national representative political gathering of the Greek revolutionaries. History The assembly opened in December 1821 at Piada (to ...

decided to create an organizational framework for the

irregular troops Irregular military is any non-standard military component that is distinct from a country's national armed forces. Being defined by exclusion, there is significant variance in what comes under the term. It can refer to the type of military orga ...

of the various independent war leaders, and instituted a number of chiliarchies (), each composed of ten centuries () of a hundred men under a

hecatontarch A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 le ...

(, ). Each chiliarchy was commanded by a chiliarch, with a small staff comprising a deputy chiliarch (, ), a subaltern known as , a physician, a surgeon, a quartermaster and a priest. In 1828, the chiliarchies were reorganized and reduced to three, each now comprising two pentakosiarchies () 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 The Battle of Petra was the final battle fought in the Greek War of Independence. Background By the summer of 1829, the Peloponnese, parts of Central Greece and several islands had been liberated by Greek revolutionary forces. A peace treaty ...

in July 1829, and thirteen light infantry battalions () formed instead.

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 regiment (about 1000-1500 men in Hungary) and this rank is equivalent to the rank of Colonel or

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

. The term ''ezredes'' is used by the Hungarian army (officially the Hungarian Defence Force) and police force too.

Turkey

The Turkish rank of ''

binbaşı A ''binbashi'', alternatively ''bimbashi'', (from tr, Binbaşı, "chief of a thousand", "chiliarch") is a major in the Turkish army, of which term originated in the Ottoman army. The title was also used for a major in the Khedivial Egyptian a ...

'', literally "head of a thousand", is equivalent to the Commonwealth and US rank of

Israel

Chiliarch, in Hebrew Aluf ( he, אלוף), is the term used in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

(IDF) for officers who in other countries would have the rank of general, air marshal, or

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

. 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 ''’allūp̄'' the one who commands a thousand people. The

(IDF) is an integrated force, ranks are the same in all services. *Chief chiliarch, ''Rav aluf'' ( he, רב-אלוף): the highest rank in

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

*Chiliarch, ''Aluf'' *Sub-chilairch, Tat aluf'' ( he, תת-אלוף) *Secondary chiliarch, ''Aluf mishne'' ( he, אלוף-משנה) *Deputy chilairch, ''Sgan aluf'' ( he, סגן-אלוף)