strategikos

Strategikos is a Greek adjective meaning strategic or pertaining to a general. The term derives from strategos, the ancient Greek title for a military commander, which itself comes from words meaning to lead an army. The suffix -ikos yields the sense of belonging to or connected with.

In classical Athens, strategos (plural strategoi) referred to a high-ranking military governor. Ten strategoi were elected annually and served as chief generals, directing campaigns, commanding troops, and advising the Assembly. The role could vary in influence and responsibilities across different periods of Athenian history.

In late antiquity and the Byzantine era, strategos was also used for a provincial military governor within the theme system, combining civil and military authority in a region. The adjective strategikos was used in Greek to describe strategic or military matters. The term appears in well-known works of military doctrine, such as the Strategikon, a late antique manual on warfare traditionally attributed to Emperor Maurice.

In modern Greek, strategikos means strategic or strategic-related and is used across contexts such as business, defense, and politics. The word has been borrowed into other languages, where it is typically rendered as “strategic” rather than as a direct noun form. In scholarly and historical writing, strategikos often appears in transliterations of ancient terms or in compound phrases describing strategy or military affairs.