* the centurion.
   The centurion was a military captain, and commander of a
   century, or 100; men.  In order to have a proper notion of his
   office, it may be desirable to explain the construction and
   array of the Roman legion.  Each legion was divided into ten
   cohorts, each cohort into three maniples, and each maniple
   into two centuries; so that there were thirty maniples, and
   sixty centuries in a legion, which, if the century had always,
   as the word imports, consisted of 100; soldiers, would have
   formed a combined phalanx of 6,000; men.  The number in a
   legion, however, varied at different periods; in the time of
   Polybius it was 4,200.  The order of battle was that of three
   lines; the hastati, or spearmen, occupied the front; the
   principes, the second line; the {triarii,} (also called
   {pilani,} from their weapon, the {pilam,}) the third.  The
   centurions were appointed by the tribunes, and generally
   selected from the common soldiers according to their merit;
   although the office was sometimes obtained for money, or
   through the favour of the consuls.  Their badge was a vine
   rod, or sapling.

  44  Mt 8:5-10  Ac 10:1  27:1-3,43 
 * he said.
  Mt 27:43,54  Lu 23:47,48