Centuria is a term that derives from Latin roots, specifically from the entry "centurĭa", composed of the contraction of "centum" equivalent to "hundred" and "viria" which means "group of men" which then according to its etymology the word centuria it means "unit of one hundred men. " In the RAE there are two possible meanings for the word where one of them manifests that period of one hundred (100) years, that is, a century. On the other hand century was in Ancient Rome, the army company that consisted of a total of one hundred soldiers.
This group of men, which was called the century, was led by the centurion, whose assistant was a lieutenant or optio, and also by a security noncommissioned officer or tesserarius. They carried with them a banner which they called signum, but who carried it was the signifer who was the non-commissioned officer in charge of this. For their part, the centuries had a buccinator, which was in charge of playing this instrument, which was a kind of horn used to give acoustic orders by way of touches called buccina.
Administratively, these groups were grouped in pairs, composing handcuffs of 160 infants, and in turn operating in sections of three, forming a cohort of 480 legionaries. In other words, despite their name, these organizations called centuries were almost never made up of 100 men. On the other hand, the groups of 60 centuries were called legion, which was commanded by a legate who had at his command 6 tributes who had dominion over the centurions.
