The headword is the masculine nominative (and vocative) plural of the noun parasta/ths, one who stands by; see generally LSJ s.v. It derives from the verb parastate/w (I stand alongside); see LSJ s.v.
[1] Quoted closely from Asclepiodotus, Tactica 2.4. The Onomasticon Tacticon at the end of the Suda repeats the passage; cf. Kochly and Rustow, pp. 220-1 and Aelian, Tactica 6.2.
[2] The Suda incorrectly locates the quotation in Aristophanes' Wealth; as Adler notes, the quoted passage is from Thesmophoriazusae 369-371 (web address 1), with scholion.
[3] Arrian, Indica 24.6 (Roos, p. 43). The passage describes the amphibious attack-strategy orchestrated by Nearchus (OCD(4) s.v., nu 117), under Alexander the Great (alpha 1121 and OCD(4) s.v.), against native defenders at the mouth of the Tomerus River (probably the R. Hingol in present-day Pakistan). When the warriors assembling in shallow water were able to form three-deep phalanxes, they charged the shore and overwhelmed the defenders; cf. Arrian, Indica 24.6-8 (Roos, pp. 43-4).
[4] Eunapius fr.51 FHG (4.36); Blockley, Eunapius fr. 45.1.
[5] Diodorus Siculus 20.11.5 (illustrating a comparative adjective cognate with the headword).
[6] Quotation unidentifiable. para/stasin is the accusative singular of the feminine noun para/stasis (a putting aside, banishing), and, unlike the headword, it derives from pari/sthmi; see LSJ s.v.
[7] For o(rmh/n, accusative singular of o(rmh/, cf. pi 442.
[8] Diodorus Siculus 32.6.3; cf. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Excerpta de legationibus 404.31-2.
[9] Polybius fr. 98 Büttner-Wobst; cf. alpha 1082. Büttner-Wobst notes that this fragment was attributed to Polybius by Casaubon, accepted by Ursinus, but deemed atypical of Polybian style by Dindorf (p. 528).