σπεῖρα

spei'ra spei'ra (on the accent cf. Buttmann, 11; Chandler sec. 161; Tdf. Proleg., p. 102),
hJ, genitive
speivrh" (; ; ; see (Tdf. Proleg., p. 117; WH's Appendix, p. 156; and)
mavcaira, at the beginning) (cognate with
spuriv" (which see)); a. Latin spira; anything rolled into a circle or ball, anything wound, rolled up, folded together. b. a military cohort (Polybius 11, 23, 1
trei'"
speivra".
tou'to
dev
kalei'tai
tov
suvntagma
tw'n
pezw'n
parav
@Rwmaivoi"
kwrti"), i. e. the tenth part of a legion (i. e. about 600 men (i. e. legionaries), or if auxilialies either 500 or 1,000; cf. Marquardt, R?misch. Alterth. III. ii., p. 371. But surely
tou'to
tov
suvntagma in the quotation comprehends the
trei'"
spei'ra; hence, Polybius here makes a
spei'ra equal to a maniple, cf. 2, 3, 2; 6, 24, 5; cf. Zonaras, Lex., p. 1664,
spei'ra
suvntagma
diakosivwn
ajndrw'n. On the other hand, "the later Greek writings almost uniformly employ
spei'ra as the representative of cohors" (Smith, Dict. of Antiq., edition 2, under the word exercitus, p. 500); and the rise of
cilivarco" (which was the equivalent of tribunus, the commander of a cohort) in connection with it (; ), together with the uniform rendering of the word by cohors in the Latin versions, warrants the margin cohort uniformly added in R. V. to the rendering band): ; ; ; ; , and often in Josephus; a maniple, or the thirtieth part of a legion, often so in Polybius ((see above)); any band, company, or detachment, of soldiers (; ): ,.*