The bandon was the basic military and territorial administrative unit of the middle Byzantine Empire. Its name, like the Latin bandus and bandum ("ensign, banner"), had a Germanic origin. It derived from the Gothic bandwo, which is the witness of foreign influence in the army at the time this type of unit evolved. The term was used already in the 6th century, mentioned by Procopius, as a term for a battle standard, and soon came to be applied to the unit bearing such a standard itself. Since the time of ruling Nikephoros I (802–811) it was the name for a subdistrict of the Byzantine thema.