in Roman Antiquity, the name of a part, division, or regiment, of the Roman legion, comprehending about 600 men. There were ten cohorts in a legion, the first of which exceeded the others both in dignity and in number of men. When the army was ranged in order of battle, the first cohort occupied the right of the first line, and the rest followed in their natural order; so that the third stood 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; while the five remaining cohorts formed a second line in their natural order.