[1] Mommsen (_Staatsrecht_, i³. 275, n. 4, ii³. 231, n. 1, 590 f.)
believed that the _Centumviri_ were instituted about 150 B.C.
CENTURION (Lat. _centurio_), in the ancient Roman army, an officer in
command of a _centuria_, originally a body of a hundred infantry, later
the sixtieth part of the normal legion. There were therefore in the
legion sixty centurions, who, though theoretically subordinate to the
six military tribunes, were the actual working officers of the legion.
For the most part the centurions were promoted from the ranks: they were
arranged in a complicated order of seniority; the senior centurion of
the legion (_primus pilus_) was an officer of very high importance.
Besides commanding the centuries of the legion, centurions were
"seconded" for various kinds of special service, e.g. for staff
employment, the command of auxiliaries. See further ROMAN ARMY.
CENTURIPE (formerly CENTORBI, anc. [Greek: Kentoripa] or _Centuripae_),
a town of Sicily, in the province of Catania, situated 2380 ft. above
sea-level in a commanding situation, 7 m. N. of the railway station of
Catenanuova-Centuripe, which is 28 m. W. from Catania. Pop. (1901)
11,311. Thucydides mentions it as a city of the Sicels. It became an
ally of the Athenians at the time of their expedition against Syracuse,
and maintained its independence almost uninterruptedly (though it fell
under the power of Agathocles) until the First Punic War. Cicero
describes it, perhaps with some exaggeration, as being far the largest
and richest city of Sicily, and as having a population of 10,000,
engaged in the cultivation of an extensive territory. It was granted
Latin rights before the rest of Sicily. It appears to have suffered much
in the war against Sextus Pompeius, and not to have regained its former
prosperity under the empire. Frederick II. entirely destroyed it in
1233, but it was soon rebuilt. Considerable remains of the ancient city
walls and of buildings, mostly of the Roman period, still exist, and
numerous antiquities, including some fine Hellenistic _terra-cottas_,
have been discovered in casual excavations.
See F. Ansaldi, _I Monumenti dell' antica Centuripi_ (Catania, 1851);
P. Orsi in _Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche_
(Rome, 1904), v. 177. (T. As.)
CENTURY (from Lat. _centuria_, a division of a hundred men), the name
for a unit in the Roman army, originally amounting to one hundred men,
and for one of the divisions into which the Roman people was separated
for voting purposes (see COMITIA). The word is applied to any group of
one hundred, and more particularly to a period of a hundred years, and
to the successive periods of a hundred years, dating before or after the
birth of Christ. The "Century-plant" is a name given to the Agave
(q.v.), or American aloe, from the supposition that it flowered once
only in every hundred years.
CEOS (Gr. [Greek: Keôs], mod. _Zea_ or _Tzia_), an island in the Aegean
Sea, belonging to the group of the Cyclades and the eparchy of Syra, 14
m. off the coast of Attica. Its greatest length is about 15 m. and its
breadth about 8 m. It rises gradually towards the centre, where it
culminates in Mount Elias, 1864 ft. high. Among its natural productions
are lemons, citrons, olives, wine and honey; it also exports a
considerable quantity of valonia. There were formerly four towns of some
importance in the island:--Iulis, about 3 m. from the north-west shore;
Coressia, the harbour of Iulis, with a temple of Apollo Smintheus in the
neighbourhood; Carthaea, in the south-east, with a temple of Apollo;
and Poieëssa, in the south-west. Of these Iulis is represented by the
town of Zea, and Carthaea by the village of 'S tais Polais; traces of
the other two can still be made out. Iulis was the birthplace of the
lyric poets Simonides and Bacchylides, the philosophers Prodicus and
Ariston, and the physician Erasistratus; the excellence of its laws was
so generally recognized that the title of Cean Laws passed into a
proverb. One of them forbade a citizen to protract his life beyond sixty
years. The people of Ceos fought on the Greek side at Artemisium and
Salamis; they joined the Delian League and also the later Athenian
alliance in 377 B.C. They revolted in 363-362, but were reduced again,
and the Athenians established a monopoly of the ruddle, or red earth,
which was one of the most valuable products of the island. In A.D. 1207
it was divided between four Italian adventurers; after forming part of
the duchy of Naxos in 1537, it passed under Turkish rule in 1566. Silver
coins of Carthaea and Coressia have been found dating from the 6th
century B.C. (see NUMISMATICS: _Greek_, "Cyclades and Sporades"). The
present population of the island is about 4000, of which the capital has
about 2000.