Promachos

In ancient Greece and during the Byzantine era, the Promachoi (singular: Promachos; Greek: πρόμαχος) were the men fighting in the first rank of the phalanx. The word can also be used as an adjective as in "promachos line", the first line of battle or Athena Promachos, the famous bronze statue made by Pheidias.

The first use of the word is recorded in Homer's Iliad and since then it has been used all through antiquity, the Byzantine years up to the modern times.