Lochos A lochos , plural lochoi ( , pl . ) , was a tactical sub unit of Classical Greece and of the modern Greek army . The term derived from the ancient Greek for ambush and the men carrying out the ambush , but in practice , its meaning was essentially that of " war - band " , a body of armed men . This translation has been used traditionally , e . g . for the Sacred Band of Thebes . Size and organisation . Evolving as it did with ancient Greek warfare from that of tribal Greece to that of the Greek city - states , the " lochos " varied in size and organisation over time and from city state to city state , ranging in size from a single file to about 640 men . The best surviving description of the " lochos " is that by Xenophon in his " Anabasis " , however this must be taken as being illustrative of a particular time and place , that of 5th century BC Sparta , rather than being truly representative . Aelian and Arrian use the terms lochos as file and lochagos as file leader . " Lochos " as file . A lochos comprised an inconsistent number of men that could range from 8 to 16 men . Asclepiodotus offers three alternative names , namely stichos ( ) , synomotia ( ) and dekania ( ) . The file leader was called a lochagos and the file closer an ouragos . The men in the uneven rows were called protostates , among which the lochagos , and the men in the even rows epistates . Should the line perform a pyknosis , that is close its ranks by placement of half the lochos in the interval between the original lochoi , then the epistates of the lochagos would become the promachos protostates of the newly employed file . A half - file was called hemilochion ( ) or dimoiria ( ) and a quarter - file enomotia ( ) . Spartan " lochos " . The Spartan " lochos " , according to Xenophon , consisted of 640 men , composed of 4 " pentekostyes " of 160 men , with the " pentekostyes " in turn being composed of 4 " enomotiai " of about 40 men each . The " lochos " in turn formed half of a " mora " there being 6 " morai " in the Spartan Army . The " morai " would normally be commanded by a Polemarch , and the " lochos " by a " lochagos " . However the actual numbers would vary depending on the needs of a campaign . Spartan military organisation relied on dividing its citizen army into 8 age classes and full strength " enomotiai " consisted of 5 men from each of the age classes . However , it was unusual to draw men from the older age classes , so on campaign an " enomotia " would consist of 30 to 35 men with the " lokhos " and " mora " being correspondingly smaller . If only the first 4 or even fewer age classes were called up , than the " short " organisational " lochos " would be grouped together to form a full strength tactical " lochos " . Whatever the theoretical size of the " lochos " , units of about 300 men appear frequently in the classical Greek records , this being the number of the Sacred Band of Thebes , the Spartans at Thermopylae , and the number on each side of the " Battle of the Champions " fought between Argos and Sparta in 546 BC . This number would give a frontage of about 40 shields given the traditional eight - deep phalanx , and probably represents the smallest number needed to form a usable phalanx . Byzantine use . In the Byzantine army , the " lochos " continued being used as a term for the file . It was the basic infantry unit of usually 8 men , composed of the file leader ( " lochagos " ) and seven soldiers . In the tradition of the Roman " contubernium " , this unit slept and ate together in a single tent , and had a permanently attached servant . Alternative names were " dekarchion " and " dekarchos " for the file leader , meaning " leader of ten " . Modern use . The term " lochos " , along with the associated rank of " lochagos " and its derivatives , has been revived in the modern Greek military for a company - sized command .