Lochos

A file is a military term for a number of troops drawn up in line ahead, i.e. one behind the other in a column. A file of men in the Greek phalanx was called a lochos () (cf. Hebrew הָלַךְ) and usually ranged from eight to sixteen men.Duparcq, p. 16.Royal military panorama, p. 149.Asclepiodotus, Tactica 2.1 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 ().Asclepiodotus, Tactica 2.2
==See also==
==References==
Category:Military units and formations of ancient Greece
Category:Military units and formations of Greece
Category:Military units and formations by size
Category:Ancient Greek military terminology