in Roman antiquity, the name of part of the the Roman legion, comprehending about six hundred men. There were ten cohorts in a legion, the first of which exceeded all the rest, both in dignity and number of men. When the army was ranged in order of battle, the first cohort took up the right of the first line, the rest followed in their natural order, so that the third was in the centre of the first line of the legion, and the fifth on the left, the second between the first and third, and the fourth between the third and fifth: the five remaining cohorts formed a second line, in their natural order.