The Timing and Development of the Ouragos

[Sean Manning]

One thing which this touches is on Connolly's idea of the archaic lochos. There are signs that Greek organization was based around 50s (6 x 8, 4 x 12, 2 x 25), but there are also signs that most classical Greek armies had no formal internal organization beyond "contingent - taxis - lochos" at all and that files etc. were created ad hoc (similarly, its pretty clear that the groups which shared a fire in the Ten Thousand were the most important groups for solving everyday problems, and had no connection whatsoever to the tactical and administrative arrangements of the army- see John Lee's book for details).

Obviously, as soon as they started lining up in ranks and files (5th century? late 6th?) there was a guy at the back who was really important when the guys in the middle started to get weak in the knees, but giving people a formal title and authority to punish made Greek amateur soldiers very uncomfortable.

This is why Thucydides goes to so much trouble to explain a chain of command with small steps and how it works to his readers, and Xenophon has to go to such pains describing the Spartan drill in the Constitution of the Laconians. We take it for granted that each group in an army needs a formal leader with a title and authority who is combined with 2-5 similar groups under their own leader (2 fire teams make a section, 3 sections make a platoon, 5 platoons make a company ...), to the Classical Greeks that was one a big step on the road to slavery.