From the base of stratia and ago or hegeomai; a general, i.e. (by implication or analogy) a (military) governor (praetor), the chief (praefect) of the (Levitical) temple-wardens -- captain, magistrate.
see GREEK stratia
see GREEK ago
see GREEK hegeomai
1. the commander of an army.
2. in the N. T. a civic commander, a governor (the name of the duumviri or highest magistrates in the municipia and colonies; they had the power of administering justice in the less important cases; οἱ τῆς πόλεως στρατηγοί, Artemidorus Daldianus, oneir. 4, 49; of civil magistrates as early as Herodotus 5, 38; (see references in Meyer on Acts 16:20; Liddell and Scott, under the word, II. 2f; cf. Farrar, St. Paul, i., excurs. xvi.)): plural (R. V. magistrates (after A. V.), with marginal reading Gr. praetors), Acts 16:20, 22, 35f (38).
3. στρατηγός τοῦ ἱεροῦ, 'captain of the temple' (A. V.), i. e. the commander of the Levites who kept guard in and around the temple (Josephus, Antiquities 20, 6, 2; (B. D., under the word