Chiliarch

Chiliarch (from Greek: χιλίαρχος, chiliarchos, sometimes χιλιάρχης, chiliarches or χειλίαρχος, cheiliarchos; meaning "commander of a thousand" and occasionally rendered "thousandman" in English) is a military rank dating back to Antiquity.

The command of an ancient Greek chiliarch was called a '"chiliarchy" (χιλιαρχία, chiliarchia).

In the Ancient Macedonian army, a chiliarch was the commander of a 1024-strong chiliarchy or taxis of the pezhetairoi and the hypaspists heavy infantry, subdivided into 64 16-men files or lochoi. 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.

In addition, the title of chiliarch was used as the Greek equivalent of the Achaemenid Persian title hazahrapatish (also transliterated in Greek as azarapateis). The Achaemenid army was organized on a decimal basis, and the hazahrapatish was the commander of the melophoroi (μηλοφόροι, "apple-bearers"), the 1,000-strong personal bodyguard of the Achaemenid kings. The latter often played a role analogous to that of a majordomo or vizier in later times. The Persian office was in turn adopted by Alexander the Great, and first awarded to Hephaestion and after Hephaestion's death to Perdiccas. Likewise, Antipater shortly before his death named Polyperchon as strategos autokrator, but then named his own son Cassander as chiliarch, and thereby "second in authority" according to Diodorus Siculus (XVIII.48.4–5). This Persian-inspired office did not survive into subsequent Hellenistic 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 under the Sasanian Empire (Middle Persian: hazārbed or hazāruft). According to the 5th-century Armenian historian Elishe, it was equivalent to wuzurg framadār or prime minister. From Persian, the term also passed into Armenian as hazarapet and hazarwuxt.

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