Maniples? How long did they exist

[Mark Hygate]

Macedon wrote:
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.

Are you claiming a maniple is a contubernium? Or are you claiming a contubernium “retained it meaning as mess/tentmates”?

Without having yet had time to peruse that other thread - I would certainly be arguing that a contubernium was a contuberniun - the building block of a century - formed of 8 men - who shared a tent - is a basic infantry squad - all the way to even now.....