The vast military of Rome was perhaps the
greatest war machine in the ancient world.
Though a Roman army’s general or emperor
was almost always the most visible figure
when victory in battle against the enemy was
achieved, the well-oiled gears of Rome’s
legions were instead the revered, illustrious,
and notorious centurions. In this video in
our Armies and Tactics series, we will examine
this most iconic figure in the history of
Rome, who the centurio were, what equipment
they used, and how they operated to craft
the legions into antiquity’s most rigorously
disciplined military force.
Shoutout to Hearts of Iron IV and Paradox
Interactive for sponsoring this video! Hearts
of Iron IV is one of our favorite strategy
games and you can try it for free for a limited
time ending on the 1st of March, so download
the game by clicking the link in the description!
This game offers a total strategic war on
land, sea, and air in the WW2 setting. Assume
control of any historical nation in a single
campaign or in both competitive and cooperative
cross-platform multiplayer for up to 32 players.
We have played quite a few Heart of Iron IV
multiplayer campaigns, and let us assure you
- they are intense! You will experience the
full history of World War 2 using the deep
political, military and diplomatic systems!
The new DLC called La Résistance adds even
more content with secret agents, espionage
missions and new options for resisting or
fomenting dissent! Support our channel and
play Hearts of Iron IV for free by clicking
the link in the description!
In the Republican period, the only qualifications
necessary for a would-be centurion were martial
- bravery, strength and leadership in battle.
Though these were still core values, centurions
of the principate increasingly had to come
with other qualities that would make them
a more well-rounded officer. A centurion had
to be in almost all respects an exemplary
soldier, possessing a formidable stature,
skill with weaponry, and strength with which
to lead from the front, inspiring the men
under his command.
Moreover, the man was expected to be temperate
and measured, vigilant, and ready to execute
any order without questions. To his troops,
the centurion needed to be a notoriously strict
disciplinarian when necessary, exercising
and drilling his centurio regularly, ensuring
that their uniforms and weaponry were in top
shape for parade and the battleground.
In the early imperial period, it was becoming
more and more crucial for the centurions to
take on some administrative functions, and
therefore literacy became a desirable skill.
This increasing requirement meant that often
centurions were recruited more and more from
the upper-tier of society, making a class
that combined military virtues and administrative
knowhow.
With these qualities, a man became a Roman
centurion through two streams - promotion
or recommendation. The former was a relatively
simple process through which a 30 plus-year-old
legionary with a long and spotless service
record was promoted to the position outright.
More fortunate, well-connected Romans could
take the other road - direct appointment to
the prestigious centurionate from civilian
life through the intervention of an influential
patron. The youngest known beneficiary of
such a display of patronage was an eighteen-year-old
equestrian candidate from a wealthy family.
How happy said centurion’s underlings must
have been about serving under him can only
be imagined. However, the fact that centurions
were all at least formally appointed by the
emperor may have shut down the discontent.
The aspiring soldier was only officially invested
with his centurion rank during a ceremony
that took place on an auspicious military
holiday. A platform would be constructed in
the principia of a legion’s fortress or
camp. In the presence of the finely-clad soldiers,
the soon-to-be centurion was presented with
a document containing an imperial edict of
appointment and with his disciplinary vine-staff.
After their elevation, centurions would gradually
rise in seniority within their cohort, commanding
centuries of troops with higher status, until
they eventually led the most senior centuria
and therefore the entire cohort. The vast
majority of centurions did not advance beyond
this point. However, those who did could be
promoted even further to the rank of primi
ordines, exercising command within the legion’s
exalted First Cohort and its double-strength
centuries, and taking up staff officer roles.
This kind of promotion initially took the
form of the hastatus posterior rank of the
First Cohort, and then after four more promotions,
an extremely well-connected, lucky, and competent
soldier might rise to the rank of primus pilus.
Through this position, a lowborn centurion
might have gained admission through hard military
service to positions and privileges normally
reserved only for members of the ruling classes.
When joining the Romans legions, a recruit
would have aspired to this rank - a gateway
to prosperity for those who had the skills
to earn it.
This was a matter of extremes that depended
on the time period. In eras of peace and stability,
many centurions could serve in the same rank
without ever being promoted, while in times
of instability and anarchy they could rise
even to the position of emperor, such as the
former primus pilus Maximinus Thrax.
Why were centurions so uniquely respected
and regarded that they could climb the social
ladder in these ways, and what duties did
the rank encompass? The primary role of a
Roman centurion in the legionary structure
was the training of recruits in their centuria,
and their subsequent drilling, supervision,
disciplining, and allocation of various duties
such as foraging or watch.
The centurion’s duty was an absolute keystone
of the Roman military, especially in the imperial
period, because enlistees could come from
diverse and lowly origins, such as a family
of cowherds or rough provincial farmers. Therefore,
almost nothing a centurion could inflict was
too brutal a disciplinary measure to forge
these disparate and often unprepared individuals
into professional soldiers capable of protecting
the empire. It was this ruthless, drill sergeant-like
duty, in addition to relatively common corruption
through bribery, which led troops to frequently
hate and fear their centurions.
On the other hand, this feeling was almost
always balanced out by the tendency of centurions
to lead from the very front, often with fanatical
bravery and terrible casualties. By doing
that, they earned admiration, respect, and
sometimes even deep devotion and loyalty from
their men. They also took this ‘lead from
the front’ mentality into the grinding drudgery
of regular life on campaign. If the troops
were assigned to dig trenches or wells, construct
camps or fortresses, centurions would directly
supervise them, and would often engage in
the process with their soldiers, in addition
to functioning as a keen-eyed overseer.
Yet, this image of the centurion as an almost
untouchable figure who solely dispensed justice
needs to be tempered. Because they were entrusted
with such power, men of the centurionate were
also punished incredibly harshly if they were
to fail in their duties, possibly even more
so than the average soldier. A stark case
of this occurred just before the imperial
period began, in 38BC. During a battle in
Hispania, a veteran primus pilus known as
Vibillius lost his nerve and fled the field.
When able, the local Roman governor made an
example of the centurion by ordering him to
be beaten to death with clubs by the men whose
lives his cowardice had endangered.
Disciplining troops was not the only matter
with which centurions were burdened. The Roman
centurion was an elite soldier was often employed
for crucial ‘commando’ and other intelligence-gathering
missions, in the field or at home. These could
include scouting an enemy force, infiltrating
hostile cities, acting as a trusted secret
courier for a high noble, or assassinating
figures who were too prominent to murder openly.
In their administrative function, centurions
were responsible for maintaining the logistical
supply chain for the army, supervising the
collection of food, armour, weaponry, and
other materiel from various contractors. Such
figures of authority also had police and sometimes
even judicial roles in keeping the peace.
Important prisoners would be escorted by centurions,
such as St Paul who was brought to the Antonia
Fortress in Jerusalem, protected from the
violent mobs of the city by a centurion.
Moreover, they commanded troops who were sent
to hunt down bandits and brigands in the countryside,
and oversaw the arrest and execution of petty
criminals. In such situations, legal authority
was delegated to the contingent’s centurio,
who would come to a verdict. A couple of legal
cases recorded on documents in Egypt also
suggest that centurions exercised informal,
but swift and effective de facto authority
on such minutiae as assaults, theft, tax collection,
and even remedying and punishing criminal
activities of other administrators. These
duties of bringing the guilty to justice,
carrying out searches, and providing protection
for litigants who might otherwise face danger
from high-status accused individuals, gave
the local centurion a military authority which
could countermand provincial government if
required.
In times of civil war, retaining the loyalty
of legionary formations was really a matter
of securing the loyalty of that particular
legion’s many centurions, especially the
primi ordines of the First Cohort. It would
often be the influence of these mid-level
officers which might tip the balance as to
which candidate the legion would grant its
swords. The emperors of Rome and their advisors
were fully aware of the influence centurions
possessed, and the good ones were always keen
to keep them happy. Augustus’ friend, the
brilliant general Agrippa, advised him to
reserve legal cases involving the possibility
of a centurion receiving severe punishment
to his own personal judgment. Such figures,
it was deemed, were too revered and important
to be left to local trial when accused of
a crime.
For taking on all of these responsibilities
and dangers, centurions were extremely well
rewarded, materially and otherwise, compared
to the vast majority of their comrades in
the legions, and even those in the infamous
Praetorian Guard. For their pay, it has been
estimated that baseline centurions received
about fifteen-times that of a regular legionary
and rather surprisingly, five times more than
one of the notoriously money-obsessed Praetorian
guardsmen.
Higher-tier centurionate officers such as
the primus pilus of a legion earned a staggering
sixty times the cash of a regular soldier,
but regular pay wasn’t the only income such
men received. Much like their enlisted brethren
but to a far more extreme degree, centurions
came to expect periodic financial bonuses
called donatives on special occasions, such
as the celebration of a great victory or the
accession of a new emperor. It was necessary
to give centurions vast amounts of money on
these occasions because their loyalty was
so valuable, and a generous gift would go
a long way towards showing the centurion where
his allegiance was best placed in a time of
struggle.
In their armour, weaponry, and clothing, centurions
were like the peacocks of Roman military power.
They naturally wanted to be well-protected
like all soldiers do, but in addition, they
sought to be a visible symbol of bravery and
stalwartness in combat to their troops. To
do that, and to perform their leadership role,
they had to be recognizable in the fog of
battle. A scared legionary in the violent
baptism of fire of his first-ever pitched
battle might look to his left, see his quasi-godlike
centurion fighting in the first rank with
all his decorative regalia, and receive a
new burst of morale. “If he is still here
- the most experienced man I know - the situation
must be fine,” such a soldier must have
thought.
First and most prominent in this recognition
was a centurion’s helmet, which was generally
still the standard galea, but with a silvered
insignia and a transverse crest or plume going
from left to right. This contrasted the crest
sometimes donned by legionaries, which went
back to front instead. Though this might have
been the ‘standard loadout’ for a centurion’s
helmet, it did vary based on the man and the
location. Some centurions detailed on Trajan’s
column wore the Imperial Gallic or Italic
style helmets without any crest, and in the
eastern provinces, it was frequently more
common to wear Hellenic-style helmets such
as the Attic-design.
On their legs, centurions were almost always
clad in metal greaves with knee protectors
which were emblazoned with details such as,
in an example we know of, Greek typology and
symbolism. A military cloak probably coloured
medium blue also made the centurion stick
out like a sore thumb on the battlefield,
and also in civilian life. Later in the empire,
these cloaks were lavishly decorated with
fine embroidery, symbols, and gilded fringes
to show wealth or status.
Lastly, we cannot go through a video on the
Roman centurion without at least mentioning
the item which was essentially synonymous
with them: the vitis, a staff or cudgel of
vine wood - the immortal mark of a centurion’s
power and authority, which remained while
many things around the empire changed.
When speaking of centurions, we naturally
gravitate towards the most notable eras of
Roman history in our popular culture: Caesar’s
years up until around the death of Commodus,
the Pax Romana, and its immediate predecessor
age, the Late Republic. Yet, we shouldn’t
let this trend keep us away from discussing
how the role of the centurion evolved, as
many other things did so drastically, in the
late Roman Empire. It is this time of progression,
change, and calamity that we shall discuss
now.
The reforms of Diocletian and Constantine,
discussed in another one of our videos, transformed
the Roman military, and consequently the position
of a centurion. It survived, but was incorporated
as just one small part of the new, complex
army structure of the late empire. Old-style
Roman legions of the Republic and principate
did survive and retained their traditional
hierarchies until the seventh-century - the
hundred-man centuriae and their centurion
along with them - but they were no longer
the core military force of the Roman Empire.
New styles of unit were created to respond
to the myriad of issues facing the late empire,
such as comitatenses, scholae, auxilia palatina
and others. Therefore, the formal role of
a centurion and their importance slowly began
to fade.
We can still see the lasting influence and
prestige of the position even after Constantine’s
time. When that great emperor split the Roman
realm between his sons, he also assigned a
personal retinue of infantry to each of them.
In these units, and the newly raised imperial
Scholae Palatinae guard, the commander of
200 men was the ducenarius, while the leader
of 100 was now known as a centenarius. This
seems to have been the case in units as different
as the scholae, comitatus contingents of the
regional duces, and in elite cavalry forces
like the empire’s cataphractarii heavy cavalry
and elite sagittarius horse archers.
Living in the late fourth-century, Hieronymus
leaves us records of the rank hierarchy of
a cavalry contingent, which goes as follows
from bottom to top: biarchus, centenarius,
ducenarius, senator and tribunus. It is clear
therefore that, by the turn of the fifth-century,
the previously august and high-status centurion
was just the title of a regular officer who
just happened to command 100 men. The pragmatist
quasi-divine rulers of Rome in the late period
seem to have seen no place for men with a
ceremonial authority which outdated even that
of the emperors. While the title survived
in the east following the collapse of the
Western Roman Empire, all of the meaning and
symbolism of the old centurion had been stripped
away, with only the memory of old glories
spurring the use of their name.
Our series on the Roman armies will continue
all the way to 1453, so make sure you are
subscribed to our channel and have pressed
the bell button. We would like to express
our gratitude to our Patreon supporters and
channel members, who make the creation of
our videos possible. Now, you can also support
us by buying our merchandise via the link
in the description. This is the Kings and
Generals channel, and we will catch you on
the next one.
