Mk 15:39

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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.

Mark 15:44; Matt 8:5-10; Acts 10:1; Acts 27:1-3; Acts 27:43

he said.

Matt 27:43; Matt 27:54; Luke 23:47; Luke 23:48