But the basic commitments to obedience, duty, discipline, authority, and teamwork have not. Each legion was divided into ten cohorts, each cohort into three maniples, and each maniple into two centuries. In a legion there were thirty maniples and sixty centuries. A century always consisted of a hundred soldiers, meaning that sixty centuries formed a combined legion of six thousand troops.
In the Roman army, the office of centurion was the highest rank an ordinary soldier could achieve. The position was similar to what we know as a company commander. Sixty centurions served each legion, with rankings among those sixty. Promotion to the office of centurion was usually based on experience and knowledge, and, just as in the military today, centurions were promoted as they transferred to positions of increasing responsibility. The centurion typically earned his rank the hard way, and it was a position of prestige and honor, commanding the respect of others.
Centurions received substantial pensions at retirement and were viewed as notables in the towns where they lived.
The centurions mentioned in Luke 7 and Acts 10 were men of financial means who contributed to their communities and were respected. It was not easy to gain the strategic position of centurion. While it is true that some were able to purchase their rank and some were appointed because they were favored by higher ranking officers or Roman officials, most centurions were appointed by the tribunes over them. In combat, the centurion was responsible for implementing military strategy.
He would almost always be on point, leading the charge into battle. Away from the battlefield, the centurion administered discipline in the ranks, mediated interpersonal conflicts among his men, provided security and protection when called upon, supervised police actions in occupied areas, and, most notably for our purposes, oversaw executions.
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This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. Love God. Love Others. Sign In. The core elements of soldiering have not changed.. Facebook Twitter Email Print. A soldier could not afford to misbehave in the Roman army.
If he committed a mild offense, the centurion would beat him with a rod. If he committed a more serious offense, the centurion would impose a fine on him, get him demoted, or even transferred to another legion. If the soldier fall asleep on the guard duty in enemy territory, he would have ordered other soldiers to club him to death. Within the ranks of the centurions, too, there were divisions. The most important centurion was the primus pilus , the centurion in charge of the 1 st century of the first cohort.
Military tribunes served for only a brief period before returning to civilian life. At the head of the legion was the legatus legionis , the legionary legate. He was a high-ranking senator and would typically remain in post for three to four years. Learn more about being Roman. When the German legions mutinied in A.
Old men have been serving for 30 to 40 years, their bodies maimed by wounds. A Roman soldier had to deal with a lot of prejudice back home. It seems odd that Roman civilians should have contempt for the soldiers who guarded their empire, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that this was indeed the case.
Many soldiers took a common law wife, variously referred to as a hospita or focaria. If you rose to the rank of centurion, however, there was no such restriction and you could marry whenever you liked. If you were on the march, your wife and children would at times be able to accompany you. Though there was a prohibition against owning property in the province that you were serving in, it was not strictly enforced. Particularly in the west, veterans chose to stay in the same province after discharge, many of them no doubt settling down with a local girl.
But each new emperor gave him a donative from the Latin donativum , a monetary gift, both on his accession and by the terms of his will. Learn more about being a rich Roman. Discharge was only possible on alternate years. It was given either in the form of a grant of land or as a financial gratuity.
An auxiliary soldier was granted Roman citizenship. On discharge each soldier was presented with a bronze diploma, stating his rights. However, there was a downside to the military career. The soldiers with technical expertise in metalwork, carpentry, or medicine, joined the ranks of the immunes in the Roman army. They were exempted from some basic tasks, such as standing guard.
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