{{short description|Tactical subunit of the ancient and modern Greek armies}}
A '''''lochos''''', plural '''''lochoi''''' ({{langx|grc|λόχος|lokhos}}; pl. {{langx|grc|λόχοι|lokhoi|label=none}}), is 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.<ref>Asclepiodotus, ''Tactica'' 2.1</ref> Asclepiodotus offers three alternative names, namely ''stichos'' ({{lang|grc|στίχος}}), ''synomotia'' ({{lang|grc|συνωμοτία}}) and ''dekania'' ({{lang|grc|δεκανία}}). 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'' ({{lang|grc|ἡμιλόχιον}}) or ''dimoiria'' ({{lang|grc|διμοιρία}}) and a quarter-file ''enomotia'' ({{lang|grc|ἐνωμοτία}}).<ref>Asclepiodotus, ''Tactica'' 2.2</ref>
=== Spartan ''lochos'' === The Spartan ''lochos'', according to Xenophon, consisted of 640 men, composed of 4 ''pentekostyes'' (pl. of ''pentekostys'') 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 eight age classes and a full strength ''enomotiai'' consisted of five 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.<ref>{{cite book | last =Hackett | first =John | author-link =John Winthrop Hackett Junior | title =Warfare in the Ancient World | publisher =Sidgwick and Jackson ltd | year =1989 | location = | pages =255 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn =0-283-99591-2}}</ref> If only the first four, or even fewer, age classes were called up, then 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'' was used as a term for a section-sized military unit, while contubernium designated the files of a tagma. According to the ''Sylloge Tacticorum'', written in the 10th century, it was a formation of 16 men led by a ''lochagos''. Subordinate to the lochagos was the ''decurion'', who commanded a squad of 10 men; the ''pentarch'', who commanded four other men; and the ''tetrarch'', who commanded three.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chatzelis |first1=Georgios |last2=Harris |first2=Jonathan |title=A Tenth-Century Byzantine Military Manual: The Sylloge Tacticorum |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon and New York City |page=51 |isbn=978-1-317-18640-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VAcqDwAAQBAJ |access-date=14 September 2024}}</ref>
==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.
==See also== {{wiktionary|λόχος}} *Cohort, a Roman military unit of about the same size as a large lochos *Sacred Band (disambiguation) for a number of units named ''Ieros Lochos'' in Greek history *Tagma (military)
==References== {{Reflist}}
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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