Talk:Cohort (military unit)

Why does this just redirect to "legion"? Now we can't have pages for anything about other uses of the word "cohort". Wiwaxia 17:38, 6 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Original text ; ''a sub-division of the Roman infantry. Originally it was a sub-unit of a Roman legion, consisting of 480 men, itself divided in 6 centurias commanded each by a centurion. In the Imperial Roman auxiliary forces, there were individual cohorts of 500 (quingenaria), and 1000 (miliaria), as well as mixed infantry and cavalry units (cohors equitata) that existed in parallel.''


 * I can not find any listing that a cohort is 480 men. I do that it is 600 men like in this dictionary. I have changed it. About that a cohort also can be 500 men I do not know that is true. --Walter 17:56, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * created a disambiguation page and moved Cohorts to Cohort (military unit)--Tombombadil 6 July 2005 17:45 (UTC)

" The cohort itself was divided into six centuries of 80 men" Written by a total ignoramus - a Century, as the name implies means precisely 100 men, nothing more, nothing less. His other statistics are also all ridiculously inaccurate, like the 480 man cohort. [NAME?]

I think you will find that the century as you seem to think it is (=100) is nothing to do with the military centuria. This was almost always 80 men and anyone who spends more than 10 minutes studying the Roman army would know that, rather than resorting to calling people an 'ignoramus'. A contubernium consisted of 8 men and each century consisted of 10 contubernia, so it is not possible for it to add up to more than 80. Each cohort (apart from the double strength 1st Cohort in a Legion) consisted of six centuries = 480 men at ideal strength. Andypeg123 (talk) 21:28, 7 August 2008 (UTC)


 * no necessarily. it just points out how far back in history military units have typically been under strength.Toyokuni3 (talk) 23:14, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

(LA)
i'm afraid it isn't immediately obvious what this refers to. it can't be 'latin' since all the terms are latin.Toyokuni3 (talk) 23:12, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Math
It says there are 6 centuria, 5 of them double-sized, totaling 800 men. 11x80=880, if I'm not mistaken. I didn't edit the article because I wasn't sure which, the 5 centuria or the 800 men, was wrong. --98.169.245.233 (talk) 05:52, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Comment: please read the article once more... It says that there are six centurias in each cohort, except for the first cohort which consists of five double-sized centurias. Each centura is always 80 men, so the legion is 5 x 2 x 80 + 9 x 6 x 80 men (infantry soldiers, then it would also be support like black smiths, engineers, cavalry, a small group of officer "trainees" etc).

What's your source for 5 double strength centuries and one normal. That just sounds strange. Wouldn't 6 double strength centuries be more intuitive?Tony (talk) 20:09, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

History is history. What has "intuitive" got to do with anything? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.9.176.129 (talk) 09:50, 11 September 2014 (UTC)