CENTURION, among the Romans, an officer in the infantry, who commanded a century, or an hundred men.
The centurions held the first rank in the first cohort of a legion, and two of them the place of the two first hastati or pike-men: the first among the principes was also a centurion.
The centurion primipilus was the chief of the centurions: he was not under the command of any tribune, as all the rest were; he had four centuries under his direction, and guarded the standard and the eagle of the legion.