: centuriae) is a Latin term (from the stem centum meaning one hundred) denoting military units originally consisting of 100 men.
Also, each century provided a buccinator, who played a buccina, a kind of horn used to transmit acoustic orders.
The centuria consisted of a hundred soldiers: 80 combat legionaries, with 20 support staff making up the remainder of the 100 men.
Each contubernium (the minimal unit in the Roman legion) consisted of ten soldiers who lived in the same tent while on campaign or the same bunk room in barracks.
The term centuria was later used during the Spanish Civil War to describe the informal bands of local militiamen and international volunteers that sprang up in Catalonia and Aragon in October–November 1936.