Military rank
Military ranks are a system of hierarchical relationships within armed forces, police, intelligence agencies and other institutions organized along military lines. Responsibility for personnel, equipment and missions grows with each advancement. The military rank system defines dominance, authority and responsibility within a military hierarchy. It incorporates the principles of exercising power and authority into the military chain of command—the succession of commanders superior to subordinates through which command is exercised. The military chain of command is an important component for organized collective action.
Uniforms denote the bearer's rank by particular insignia affixed to the uniforms of a number of countries. Ranking systems have been known for most of military history to be advantageous for military operations, in particular with regard to logistics, command, and coordination. As time went on and military operations became larger and more complex, more ranks were created and the systems of ranking became more complex.
Rank is not only used to designate leadership, but to establish pay-grade as well. As rank increases, pay-grade follows, but so does the amount of responsibility.
In modern armed forces, the use of ranks is almost universal. Communist states have, on several occasions, abolished the use of ranks, but they have had to re-establish them after encountering operational difficulties in command and control.
Ancient
Greek
From 501 BC, the Athenians annually elected ten individuals to the rank of strategos, one for each of the ten "tribes" that had been created with the founding of the democracy. Strategos means "army leader" and is usually translated as "general". Originally these generals worked together with the old polemarchos but over time the latter figure was absorbed into the generalship: each of the ten generals would rotate as polemarch for one day, and during this day his vote would serve as tie-breaker if necessary.As an elected official a Strategos is by definition not a military rank. Strategos is a Political Rank in a Hierarchical Position above the military, politically similar in nature to a modern-day Sheriff or Police Commissioner. This is completely different from a modern day Commissioned Military General who never stands for election at any point in their careers. Historically it is unclear whether there was any badge of office granted to a Strategos though given current customs one should suspect that there was such a badge of office.
The confusion regarding the "Ranking" of Strategos surely stems from the modern custom of granting Police Commissioners and Sheriff's, both Political Ranks, a badge-of-office that happens to be in the shape of what is commonly understood to be a very high rank within the traditional military hierarchy. This "rank-shaped" badge-of-office a formal representation of Public Civilian authority over military matters.
The ten generals were equal to one another; there was no hierarchy among them. However, a basic form of democracy was in effect: for example, at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, the generals determined the battle plan by majority vote. Particular assignments might have been given to individual generals; inevitably there was a regular division of responsibilities.
The rank that was subordinate to a top general was a taxiarchos or taxiarhos, something akin to the modern brigadier. In Sparta, however, the title was "polemarchos". Below this was the syntagmatarchis, which can be translated as "leader of a regiment" and was therefore like a modern colonel. Below him was the tagmatarches, a commanding officer of a tagma. The rank was roughly equivalent to the legatus of a Roman legion. Next was the lokhagos, an officer who led an infantry unit called a lokhos that consisted of roughly a hundred men, much the same as in a modern company led by a captain.
A Greek cavalry regiment was called a hipparchia and was commanded by an epihipparch. The unit was split into two and led by two hipparchos or hipparch, but Spartan cavalry was led by a hipparmostes. A hippotoxotès was a mounted archer. A Greek cavalry company was led by a tetrarchès or tetrarch.
The rank and file of the military in most of the Greek city states was composed of ordinary citizens. Heavily armed foot soldiers were called hoplitès or hoplites and a hoplomachos was a drill or weapons instructor.
Once Athens became a naval power, the top generals of the land armies had authority over the naval fleets as well. Under them, each warship was commanded by a trièrarchos or trierarch, a word which originally meant "trireme officer" but persisted when other types of vessels came into use. Moreover, as in modern navies, the different tasks associated with running a ship were delegated to different subordinates. Specifically, the kybernètès was the helmsman, the keleustēs managed the rowing speed, and the trièraulès was the flute player who maintained the strike rate for the oarsmen. Following further specialization, the naval strategos was replaced by a nauarchos, a sea officer equating to an admiral.
With the rise of Macedonia under Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great, the Greek military became professional, tactics became more sophisticated and additional levels of ranking developed. Foot soldiers were organized into heavy infantry phalanxes called phalangites. These were among the first troops ever to be drilled, and they fought packed in a close rectangular formation, typically eight men deep, with a leader at the head of each column and a secondary leader in the middle so that the back rows could move off to the sides if more frontage was needed.
A tetrarchia was a unit of four files and a tetrarchès or tetrarch was a commander of four files; a dilochia was a double file and a dilochitès was a double-file leader; a lochos was a single file and a lochagos was a file leader; a dimoiria was a half file and a dimoirites was a half-file leader. Another name for the half file was a hèmilochion with a hèmilochitès being a half-file leader.
Different types of units, however, were divided differently and therefore their leaders had different titles. For example, under a numbering system by tens, a dekas or dekania was a unit of ten led by a dekarchos, a hekatontarchia was a unit of one hundred led by a hekatontarchos and a khiliostys or khiliarchia was a unit of a thousand led by a khiliarchos.
The cavalry, for which Alexander became most famous, grew more varied. There were heavy cavalry and wing cavalry units, the latter commanded by an ilarchos.
Roman
The use of formalized ranks came into widespread use with the Roman legions after the reforms by Marius. Comparisons to modern ranks, however, can only be loose because the Roman army's command structure was very different from the organizational structure of its modern counterparts, which arose from the early modern, Thirty Years' War mercenary companies, rather than from the writings of fourth-century Roman writer Vegetius and Caesar's commentaries on his conquest of Gaul and the civil war.Military command properly so-called was a political office in Rome. A commander needed to be equipped with imperium, a politico-religious concept. The king who possessed it was strictly forbidden to have it to avoid a return to the monarchy. In the republic, commanding was confined to consuls or to praetors, or in cases of necessity a dictator. Proconsuls, after the establishment of the office, were used. In imperial times, each legion was commanded by the emperor, who was technically either consul or proconsul.
The commander could appoint a deputy, a so-called legate. The association of "legatus" with "legion" is folk etymology, as the meaning of legatus is "proxy" or "envoy". Legates were typically drawn from the Roman Senate for three-year terms. The political nature of high military command was even reflected here, in that legions were always subordinate to the governor, and only the second and further legions stationed in a province had their own legatus legionis. The real commanders and the legates together were, in modern terms, the general officers.
Immediately beneath the commander were six military tribunes, five of whom were young men of equestrian rank and one of whom was a nobleman who was headed for the senate. The latter is called laticlavian tribune and was second in command. If in modern divisions the deputy commander is a brigadier general, the laticlavian tribune can perhaps be translated with this rank, though he commanded no formation of his own. The other tribunes are called tribuni angusticlavii and are equivalent to staff officers in both senses of the term: of ranks major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, and with administrative duties. They did not command a formation of their own. The term military tribune is even sometimes translated into English as "colonel"—most notably by the late classicist Robert Graves in his Claudius novels and his translation of Suetonius' Twelve Caesars—to avoid confusion with the political "tribunes of the people"; in addition, they must not either be confused with the "military tribunes with consular authority", who in early republican times could replace the consuls.
The third highest officer of a legion, above the angusticlavian tribunes, was the praefectus castrorum. He, too, would have a colonel's rank in modern armies, yet he differed much from the tribunes in that his office was not part of the rather administrative cursus, but normally filled by former centurions.
The fighting men in the legion were formed into "ranks", rows of men who fought as a unit. Under Marius's new system, legions were divided into ten cohorts , each consisting of three manipula, each of them of two centuries, each consisting of between 60 and 160 men. Each century was led by a centurion, who was assisted by a number of junior officers, such as an optio. Centuries were further broken into ten contubernia of eight soldiers each. The manipula were commanded by one of their two centurions, the cohorts by one of their three manipulum's centurions; the most senior cohort-commanding centurions was called primus pilus. The ranks of centurions in the individual cohorts were, in descending order, pilus prior, pilus posterior, princeps prior, princeps posterior, hastatus prior, and hastatus posterior. Individual soldiers were referred to as soldiers or legionaries.