LEGION
Main body of the Roman army (Wars 3:4, 2). At first, the legion was made up of 3,000 infantry and horsemen. From the year 100 B.C. Until the fall of the empire, it had between 5,000 and 6,200 soldiers.
At this time the legion was composed of 10 cohorts, and each of them was made up of three maniples; Each maniple was made up of two centuries (cf. Mt. 27:27).
They were commanded by tribunes and centurions (Wars 3:5, 3; Acts 21:31, 32; 23:23). Under the empire there were six tribunes and sixty centurions per legion.
The term legion is sometimes a term that designates a large number (Mt. 25:53; Mark 5:9). The insignia of the legion originally represented the eagle and four other animals. From the year 104 B.C. only the eagle remained (Pliny, Hist. Nat. 10:4).
The first centurion was its bearer. The emblem usually also carried a small image of the emperor. Pontius Pilate introduced these images into Jerusalem, thereby provoking an uprising among the Jews (Ant. 18:3, 1; Wars 2:9, 2).
The eagle was the ensign of the legion as a whole, but the cohorts and centuries each had their own ensign, smaller and of varying shape.