promachos

noun ! Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). More about promachos at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

1. A deity who fights in front of, or champions, some person or state.
2. In Ancient Greece and during the Byzantine era, a soldier who fought in the first rank of the phalanx. An obsolete English literal translation of such a promachos is a 'forefighter'.