Quote Originally Posted by paullus
sorry edyz, but as i'm sure you know, "hoplitai" really just means "heavily-armored soldiers." I'm not sure what in what capacity the Byzantines use "hoplitai," but they do, as well as "hoplitikon" and "hoploi bares" (is that the proper diclension on baros?) along with non-hopl-references like "stratiotai" etc.
If my knowledge holds true, hoplatia was the name denoting the hoplites, thus named because of the hoplo, the shield that the Ancient Greeks valued for their phalanx. Though the word did survive for later use in some Byzantine manuals, it does not mean "heavy soldier" but merely someone who would have participated in a phalanx formation.