STRATEGUS, στρατηγός, in antiquity, an officer among the Athenians, whereof there were two chosen yearly, to command the troops of the state.
Plutarch says, there was one chosen from out of each tribe; but Pollux seems to say they were chosen indifferently out of the people. The people themselves made the choice on the last day of the year, in a place called Pnyx. The two strategi did not command together, but took their turns day by day; as we find from Herodotus and Cornelius Nepos. Constantine the Great, besides many other privileges granted to the
city of Athens, honoured its chief magistrate with the Strategus title of Μῆτις Στρατηγός, Magnus Dux.