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Centuria (Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 plural centuriae) is a Latin substantive from the stem centum (a hundred), denoting units consisting of (originally only approximately) 100 men. It also denotes a Roman unit of land area: 1 centuria = 100 heredia
Jugerum

' or ' was a Roman unit of measurement of area, in length and 120 in breadth, containing therefore 28,800 square feet .It was the double of the , and from this circumstance, according to some writers, it derived its name ....
. It is sometimes anglicized as century
Century (disambiguation)

Century may refer to, or be used, in the following ways:...
.

he political context the centuria was the constituent voting unit in the centuriate comices (Latin comitia centuriata), an old form of popular assembly in the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
, the members of which cast one collective vote.

Its origin seems to be the homonymous military unit, as citizens could serve in both until Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius was a Roman Republic general and politician elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic Marian Reforms of Roman legion, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens and reorganizing the structure of the legions into separate Cohort ....
' reform shifted the main form of military recruitment from conscription to professional contracts.

centuria was the pivotal tactical Roman legion
Roman legion

The Roman Legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire....
 unit after the Marian reforms
Marian reforms

The Marian reforms of 107 BC were a group of military reforms initiated by Gaius Marius, a statesman and general of the Roman republic....
 of 107 BC.






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Centuria (Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 plural centuriae) is a Latin substantive from the stem centum (a hundred), denoting units consisting of (originally only approximately) 100 men. It also denotes a Roman unit of land area: 1 centuria = 100 heredia
Jugerum

' or ' was a Roman unit of measurement of area, in length and 120 in breadth, containing therefore 28,800 square feet .It was the double of the , and from this circumstance, according to some writers, it derived its name ....
. It is sometimes anglicized as century
Century (disambiguation)

Century may refer to, or be used, in the following ways:...
.

Political

In the political context the centuria was the constituent voting unit in the centuriate comices (Latin comitia centuriata), an old form of popular assembly in the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
, the members of which cast one collective vote.

Its origin seems to be the homonymous military unit, as citizens could serve in both until Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius was a Roman Republic general and politician elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic Marian Reforms of Roman legion, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens and reorganizing the structure of the legions into separate Cohort ....
' reform shifted the main form of military recruitment from conscription to professional contracts.

Military

The centuria was the pivotal tactical Roman legion
Roman legion

The Roman Legion is a term that can apply both as a translation of legio to the entire Roman army and also, more narrowly , to the heavy infantry that was the basic military unit of the Roman army in the period of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire....
 unit after the Marian reforms
Marian reforms

The Marian reforms of 107 BC were a group of military reforms initiated by Gaius Marius, a statesman and general of the Roman republic....
 of 107 BC. It originally consisted of a hundred soldiers; later 60 to (ideally) 80 men distributed among 10 contubernia (of 8 men each). The remaining number of men required for a full count of one hundred was taken up by various noncombatants attached for administrative, logistical or other purposes within the legion. Each contubernium
Contubernium

The contubernium was the smallest organized unit of soldiers in the Military history of ancient Rome and was comprised of eight legionaries, comparable to the modern squad, known as an octet....
 (the minimal unit in the Roman legion) lived in the same tent while on campaign or the same bunk room in barracks. The whole centuria was commanded by a centurion
Centurion

Centurion may refer to:...
. Centuriae were grouped by pairs forming maniples
Maniple (military unit)

Maniple was a tactical unit of the Roman legion adopted from the Samnites during the Samnite Wars. It was also the name of the military insignia carried by such unit....
, which were then grouped in cohorts
Cohort (military unit)

A cohort is a fairly large military unit, generally consisting of one type of soldier....
.

As an exception, the first cohort consisted of the bravest men from the legion and had the same number of 6 centuriae, but since these were double centuriae (160 men) the size of the whole cohort totalled 960 men. Centurions of these centuriae were called primi ordinis, except the one from the very first centuria, who was referred to as primus pilus
Primus Pilus

The Primus Pilus was a member of a Roman legion.In the late Roman republic, the cohort of which there were six to ten, became the basic tactical unit of the legions....
, or "first file".

(The term "centuria" was later used during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted coup d'?tat by a group of Spanish Army generals, supported by the conservative Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right , Carlist groups and the fascistic Falange, against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of pr...
 to describe the informal bands of local militiamen and international volunteers that sprang up in Catalonia and Aragon in October/November 1936.)

See also

  • Roman military history
  • Roman empire
    Roman Empire

    The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
  • Tactics of the Roman century in combat