Definition of Roman Cohort

The concept of the Roman cohort must be understood in the context of the army of Ancient Rome, comprising six hundred organized combatants.

Command structure of the Roman legions

The expansion territorial of the old civilization Roman was due, in large measure, to the effectiveness of the legion. With a few exceptions, no army in the world could surpass the Roman legion.

Regarding its military structure, the hierarchical command was held by the emperor as boss supreme. Then came the prime ministers, what was then known as the praetorian prefects, who made up the military high command. Each legion was led by a general and he was responsible for giving the command orders (the general could be a praetor or a consul). In a lower echelon was the legacy or commander and under his command had several units or legions.

These posts responsibility military were associated with the responsibility administrative. At an intermediate level of command were the officers (normally each legion had seven officers, one the prefect and the other six the tribunes) and the centurions, who were the key piece of the Roman legion, since they infused

discipline in the troops.

The distribution of the soldiers

The centurion was the head of a hundred soldiers, that is, a century. If there were two centuries, it was a manipulation and if there were a total of six centuries a cohort was formed. In this way, a cohort consisted of 600 soldiers and a legion consisted of 6000 soldiers, that is, ten cohorts. However, not all the cohorts were the same, since the first was made up of the best legionaries, the sixth by the younger soldiers, the eighth were elite troops and the less experienced cohorts were the second, fourth, seventh and ninth.

Other cohort modalities

To the margin of the cohorts as a structure of the legion, there were other modalities. In this sense, the emperor's personal guard was known as the Praetorian cohort.

The soldiers in charge of protecting the cities were called the urban cohort and their members were not part of the military expeditions to other territories. The soldiers who acted as night watchmen in the town they were the lowest ranked and were part of the well-known cohorts of vigiles.

Photos: Fotolia - ashva73 / funway5400

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