As the LSJ entry shows, this headword sti=fos has both a loose and a precise application. Under the former head (and attested in e.g. Attic tragedy and comedy; also Herodotus and Xenophon) it means an unquantified body of men in close array. (For this in the Suda, see e.g. under eta 506.) But in technical military literature, in and after the Hellenistic period, it designates 4096 light-armed men; see under tau 96.