Stratopedarchēs (), sometimes Anglicized as Stratopedarch, was a Greek term used with regard to high-ranking military commanders from the 1st century BC on, becoming a proper office in the 10th-century Byzantine Empire. It continued to be employed as a designation, and a proper title, of commanders-in-chief until the 13th century, when the title of (μέγας στρατοπεδάρχης) or Grand Stratopedarch appeared. This title was awarded to senior commanders and officials, while the ordinary stratopedarchai were henceforth low-ranking military officials.
History
Origin and early use
The term first appears in the late 1st century BC in the Hellenistic Near East. Its origin is unclear, but it is used as a translation, in some inscriptions, for the contemporary Roman legionary post of (). Josephus (De Bello Judaico, VI.238) uses the term to refer to the quartermaster-general of all camps, while Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Roman Antiquities, X.36.6) used it to refer to the role of a in a legion that had lost its commander. It also occurs in the Bible (), where it has been interpreted as referring to the praetorian prefect, the commander of the camp and garrison of the Praetorian Guard in Rome, or the subordinate officials and .
From the 1st century AD, it was used (albeit infrequently) in a broader sense as a literary term to refer to generals, i.e. as a synonym of the older title . Thus in the 4th century, the bishop and historian Eusebius (Church History, IX.5.2) writes of the ", whom the Romans call ". Similarly, in the early 5th century, Ardabur was called " of both forces" by Olympiodorus of Thebes, while the acts of the Council of Chalcedon (451) refer to Zeno, " and of both forces of the East". This is an obvious translation of the Latin term , especially as the contemporary historian Eunapius records that the was "the greatest of offices". Other Greek-language authors translate Ardabur's title more commonly with or . The German historian Albert Vogt suggested that the were military intendants, responsible for army supplies and managing the fortified assembly bases, the .
However, as the Byzantinist Rodolphe Guilland commented, references to a are rare before the 10th century, and always seem to be a different way of referring—often anachronistically—to a , or later a thematic . Such references exist to emperor Jovian (), who was a general before his rise to the throne, by Theophanes the Confessor; Rusticius, a general of Leo I (), by Zonaras; Busur, an Arab commander in , by Theophanes; Krateros, a " of the East" who was sent to arrest Theodore Stoudites; Eudokimos, / of Cappadocia and Charsianon under Theophilos (); and a certain Mousilikes, subordinate of the thematic of Sicily. A Constantine, whose seal mentions him as a , cannot be further identified.
Middle Byzantine period
In the middle Byzantine period (9th–12th centuries), the term came to signify more the army on campaign, rather than the camp itself; hence the term was used more in the sense of 'commander-in-chief'. The title is first attested as a technical term in 967, when Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas () named the eunuch Peter as before sending him with an army to Cilicia. The Escorial Taktikon, written a few years later, shows the existence of two , one of the East (Anatolia) and one of the West (the Balkans). This arrangement parallels that of the two , a fact that led Nicolas Oikonomides to suggest that the post was created as a substitute of the latter office, which was barred to eunuchs until the 11th century.
The actual nature of the office is difficult to reconstruct, as it is rarely found in technical sources like the Byzantine military and court manuals, and its usage in the historical accounts is simply as another word for a high commander, in place of '' or ''. Thus it is unclear what position the occupied vis-à-vis the , or why some officers received the former rather than the latter title. The precise arrangement suggested by Oikonomides is certainly not in evidence in the 11th and 12th centuries, when the term likely signified a commander-in-chief for a field army composed of professional regiments (), rather than an institutionalized position.