A polemarch was one of the magistrates of ancient Athens. Originally, the polemarch was a commander of the army, but after 487/6 BC, when the Athenian magistrates were appointed by lot, the military duties were handled by the strategoi. This office also had religious and legal functions.

Fictional uses

This position was featured in Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game. In the novel, the position of Polemarch was charged with the supreme command of humanity's space fleets. The Polemarch, along with the positions of Strategos and Hegemon, was one of the three most powerful people alive. Because of a belief in their inherent luck and brilliance, all three positions were filled with Jewish people - an American Jew as Hegemon, an Israeli Jew as Strategos, and a Russian Jew as Polemarch.