What is "centurion"

Centurion \Cen*tu"ri*on\, n. [L. centurio, fr. centuria; cf. F. centurion. See Century.] (Rom. Hist.) A military officer who commanded a minor division of the Roman army; a captain of a century.

A centurion of the hand called the Italian band.
--Acts x. 1.

late 13c., from Latin centurionem (nominative centurio), "Roman army officer, head of a centuria" (a group of one hundred); see century.

n. 1 An officer of the ancient Roman army, in command of a century of soldiers. 2 (context cricket English) A player who scores a century.

n. (ancient Rome) the leader of 100 soldiers

A centurion was a professional officer of the Roman army.

Centurion may also refer to:

• Cornelius the Centurion, a New Testament figure
• Centurion Card, American Express charge card
• Centurion (grape), a California wine grape
• Centurion (tree), tallest eucalyptus in the world, 99.6 metres high
• Statgraphics Centurion XV, statistical software
• The Centurion, a conservative magazine focused on Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
• Centurion (magazine), an English-language quarterly magazine
• Centurion, a 2013 Nerf blaster released under the N-Strike Elite Mega series

The Centurion, introduced in 1945, was the primary British main battle tank of the post-Second World War period. It is widely considered to be one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seeing combat in the front lines into the 1980s. The chassis was also adapted for several other roles, and these have remained in service to this day.

Development of the tank began in 1943 and manufacture of the Centurion began in January 1945, six prototypes arriving in Belgium less than a month after the war in Europe ended in May 1945. It first entered combat with the British Army in the Korean War in 1950, in support of the UN forces. The Centurion later served in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, where it fought against US-supplied M47 and M48 Patton tanks and it served with the Royal Australian Armoured Corps in Vietnam.

Israel used Centurions in the 1967 Six Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, and during the 1978 and 1982 invasions of Lebanon. Centurions modified as armoured personnel carriers were used in Gaza, the West Bank and on the Lebanese border. The Royal Jordanian Land Force used Centurions, first in 1970 to fend off a Syrian incursion within its borders during the Black September events and later in the Golan Heights in 1973. South Africa deployed its Centurions in Angola during the South African Border War.

It became one of the most widely used tank designs, equipping armies around the world, with some still in service until the 1990s. As recently as the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict the Israel Defense Forces employed heavily modified Centurions as armoured personnel carriers and combat engineering vehicles. The South African National Defence Force still employs over 200 Centurions, which were modernised in the 1980s and 2000s as the Olifant.

Between 1946 and 1962, 4,423 Centurions were produced, consisting of 13 basic marks and numerous variants. In British Army use it was replaced by the Chieftain.

Centurion is a historical fiction novel (ISBN 0755327764) written by Simon Scarrow, published by Headline Book Publishing in 2007. It is book 8 in the Eagle series, continuing Macro and Cato's adventures in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire that began in The Eagle in the Sand.

Centurion is a 2010 British historical action-war film directed by Neil Marshall, loosely based on the disappearance of the Roman Empire's Ninth Legion in Caledonia in the early second century AD. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, and Olga Kurylenko. It received mixed to positive reviews and performed poorly at the box office, only earning half of its $12m budget.

Centurion is an English-language quarterly lifestyle magazine published in Munich, Germany. The quarterly is one of the three magazines offered to the American Express members. Centurion is specifically for Centurion Card members.

Centurion is a metro station on the Gautrain rapid transit system in Centurion, Gauteng. The station opened in August 2011 as part of the second phase of the Gautrain project.

A centurion (; , kentyríōn, or , hekatóntarkhos) was a professional officer of the Roman army after the Marian reforms of 107 BC. Most centurions commanded groups of centuries of around 100 men but senior centurions commanded cohorts or took senior staff roles in their legion. Centurions were also found in the Roman navy. In the Byzantine Army, they are also known by the name kentarch (, kentarchos). Their symbol of office was the vine staff, with which they disciplined even Roman citizens protected from other forms of beating by the Porcian Laws.

The Brotherhood of Centurions is a club for which racewalkers are eligible who have completed a distance of 100 miles (160.9 km) in Britain within 24 hours. Its name derives from a popular title from those competitors achieving the feat in the 19th century British long-distance walking sport, called Pedestrianism.

Pedestrianism was to be a popular spectator sport during the 18th and 19th centuries, as equestrianism still is, and bicycle racing became afterwards. Among the most famous professional pedestrians of that time was Robert Barclay Allardice, who completed one mile (1.6 km) in each of 1000 sequential hours.

In 1911, the Centurion title was set up as an award for amateur racewalkers. The first number was awarded to James Edwin Fowler-Dixon for a performance in London in 1877, and who was also elected the first president. Since 1902, racewalks were performed on a regular base. Centurion qualifying races are held annually in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man, generally on roads. In addition to the British Centurions, Centurion clubs with their own qualifying races exist in the Netherlands, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia.

Centurion was a brand of bicycles created in 1969 by Mitchell (Mitch) M. Weiner and Junya (Cozy) Yamakoshi, who co-founded Western States Import Co. (WSI) in Canoga Park, California (initially Wil-Go Imports) to design, specify, distribute and market the bicycles. The bikes themselves were manufactured initially in Japan by companies including H. Tano Company of Kobe and later in Taiwan by companies including Merida. The Centurion brand was consolidated with WSI's mountain bike brand Diamond Back in 1990. WSI ceased operations in 2000.

Centurion and WSI competed in the U.S. against domestic and European bicycle manufacturers including Schwinn, Raleigh, Peugeot, Gitane and Motobecane — as well as other nascent Japanese bicycle brands including Miyata, Fuji, Bridgestone, Panasonic, Univega, Lotus and Nishiki — itself a line of Japanese-manufactured bicycles that were specified, distributed and marketed by West Coast Cycles — a U.S. company similar to WSI. Japanese-manufactured bikes succeeded in the U.S. market until currency fluctuations in the late 1980s made them less competitive, leading companies to source bicycles from Taiwan.

WSI marketed the Centurion brand of road and touring bicycles in the United States using the tag line "Where Centurion leads, others must follow" and "A Lifetime Bicycle", offering a warranty without time limit. For a brief period the bikes carried a "Centurion Bicycle Works" headbadge.

The German company Centurion, which still exists, imported Centurion bikes from Japan to Germany from 1976 on and bought the name-rights in 1990.

The Centurion is the tallest Swamp Gum (Eucalyptus) tree (Eucalyptus regnans F.Muell.) in the world, thus making Eucalyptus regnans the third tallest tree species in the world after Coast Redwood and Coast Douglas-fir and the tallest angiosperm in world. The tree is located in southern Tasmania, Australia and is 99.6 metres tall.

Discovered in August 2008 by employees of Forestry Tasmania while analysing the data collected by LiDAR system used in mapping and assessment of state forest resources. Initial announcement that the height of tree exceeded 100 metres were later proved to be erroneous by climbing and directly measuring the tree.

The diameter of Centurion is 4.05 metres, and its girth exceeds 12 metres. Its volume has been estimated at 268 cubic metres. The name "Centurion" was saved for the hundredth noble tree to be discovered by Forestry Tasmania and coincided with the height of the tree. Named after centurions (Roman officers), the root of the name contains centum, which in Latin means "one hundred". Centurion is alternately known as "the Bradman" as the height of the tree, 99.6 metres, is close to the test run average of the legendary Australian cricketer Donald Bradman.

The tree was only recently discovered because it is located in a secondary forest and survived logging and forest fires by lucky coincidence. Near Centurion grows another giant tree: the 86.5 metre tall Swamp Gum named Triarius.