![]() The Principes, Hastati, and Triarii, each elect ten Election of Centurions. Military experience and a reputation for personal bravery are cited by ancient authors as the primary factors in the selection of centurions in the Republican period. The latter three classes each elected twenty centurions, each pair of whom led maniples of 60 to 120 men, while the most prestigious of all centurions, the primuspilus, joined the commander’s body of advisors (officium). The military tribunes would assign soldiers according to their four classes of age and wealth (velites, hastati, principes, triarii). Vegetius. De Re Militari, II, 14ĭuring the mid-late Republic, centurions were not appointed as permanent officers, but were chosen together with their soldiers for Rome’s army through the annual levy (dilectus). He is to be vigilant, temperate, active and readier to execute the orders he receives than to talk Strict in exercising and keeping up proper discipline among his soldiers, in obliging them to appear clean and well-dressed and to have their arms constantly rubbed and bright. The centurion in the infantry is chosen for his size, strength and dexterity in throwing his missile weapons and for his skill in the use of his sword and shield in short for his expertness in all the exercises. ![]() We know that there was such a thing that the order in which these officers advanced from the least honourable to the most honourable of their charges was governed by fixed rules, but we do not know what these rules were. But one thing we do not know, either for Caesar’s army or for that of the early Empire, and that is the way they were promoted-what might be called their cursus honorum. For the army in the generations immediately after Caesar, we have inscriptions in such great quantities that a complete examination of them is hardly a feasible undertaking. We know the names of many of them-Baculus, Pulio, Vorenus, Scaeva. We know that they were the most experienced and, in Caesar’s often implied opinion, the most efficient and reliable officers in the army. ![]() We know of the centurions of the Roman army a number of important and interesting things. ![]()
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