century

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century

1. (in ancient Rome) a unit of foot soldiers, originally 100 strong, later consisting of 60 to 80 men

2. (in ancient Rome) a division of the people for purposes of voting

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Century

in ancient Rome, a military and political division of the citizenry. According to classical tradition, the Roman cavalry was divided into centuries in the regal period (eighth-sixth centuries B.C.). The reform by which the century became a general military and electoral unit is attributed to King Servius Tullius (sixth century B.C.). It divided all citizens into five property classifications; each classification supplied a fixed number of centuries and received a corresponding number of votes in the comitia centuriata (Centuriate Assembly). The initial total of 193 centuries was increased to 373 between the First and Second Punic wars. The century retained its importance as a military subdivision under the empire, when it was part of a cohort in a legion.

References in periodicals archive ?

A change in a centurylong ownership, reorganization of the newsroom, the Enquirer scandal, and the change in top editors has taken its toll.

Temptation rocks Salt Lake newsroom: one newsroom paid the price for reporter's bad decisions

The Pulliams engaged in a centurylong defense of First Amendment freedoms and fought political allies who abused them.

PEOPLE

Similarly, during the summer of 1996, a media campaign was launched in Varna against the construction of a Methodist church, a body with a centurylong presence in Bulgaria.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN BULGARIA

But Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett argue the case for the existence of a centurylong de facto cooperative arrangement between the Rockefeller empire and the most effective, ambitious and zealous of fundamentalist missionary groups.

Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil

Summary: If you want to understand events in Israel and Palestine among these two people who are locked in a centurylong battle, you have to understand the importance of generations.