Centuria
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Centuria (Latin plural Centuriae) is a Latin substantive rooting in centum 'a hundred', denoting units consisting of (originally, approximatively) a 100 men.
political
The constitutive voting unit in the centuriate comices (Latin comitia centuriata), an old popular assembly in the Roman republic, the members of which casted one collective vote.
Its origin seems to be the homonymous military unit, as citizens would serve on both untill Marius' reform shifted the main recrutement from conscription to professional contracts.
military
The centuria was the pivotal tactical Roman legion unit. It consisted of originally a hundred, later (60 to ideally) 80 men distributed along 10 contubernia (of 8 men each). Each contubernium (the minimal unit in the Roman legion) lived at the same tent. The whole centuria was commanded by a centurion who held a flag. Centurias were grouped by pairs forming maniples, which were then grouped in cohorts.
As an exception, the first cohort consisted of the bravest men from the legion and had only 5 centurias, but since these were double centurias (160 men) the size of the whole cohort remained the same. Centurions on these centuriae were called primi ordinis, except the one from the very first centuria, which was referred to as primus pilus, a proverbial hardened professional (a bit like the British regimental sergeant major).
See also
it:Centuria pl:Centuria (armia) es:Centuria
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Categories: Ancient Roman military technology | Ancient military unit types | Ancient Rome stubs | Military stubs
