The bandon (Greek: βάνδον) was the basic military unit and administrative territorial entity of the middle Byzantine Empire.
[1][2] It derived from the Gothic bandwō,[1] which is proof of foreign influence in the army at the time this type of unit evolved.
[3] Each four lochagiai formed an allagion (winglet), and around three-quarters of the men were spearmen skutaoi and one-quarter were archers.
[3] At the time the Strategikon was written, the cavalry banda were subdivided into three hekatontarchia, each commanded by a hekatontarchos with a senior second-in-command illarches.
[5] The work Praecepta Militaria by Nikephoros II Phokas (963–969) indicates that the cavalry bandon was only 50 strong.