05-24-2013, 01:44 PM
What I can state with absolute certainty is that in the later Byzantine years the word retained its meaning as mess/tentmates and was usually considered half a (regular) file in size, I also know that in Excerpta Polyaeni the word is used as a synonym to "syskenos", which again would be a tentmate.
edit : Steven is right. I did not make clear that I was adding to the post before mine. I meant the contubernion, which was a term used in Greek military texts. A contubernion had no universal size, it is given as an8 man and as a 5 man subunit, always half of a lochos, which at the time was almost always a "regular" file unit. A "syskenos" in Greek is (exact translation) "one who shares his tent"
edit : Steven is right. I did not make clear that I was adding to the post before mine. I meant the contubernion, which was a term used in Greek military texts. A contubernion had no universal size, it is given as an8 man and as a 5 man subunit, always half of a lochos, which at the time was almost always a "regular" file unit. A "syskenos" in Greek is (exact translation) "one who shares his tent"
