* 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
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