COHORT. – Group of soldiers (about 600), forming one tenth of a Roman legion.
In the New Testament the term (σπείρα, cohors) is not always used in a strictly technical sense. Jesus is captured by a c., according to Io, 18:3: this is to be understood as a small contingent of the garrison (likewise in Mt. 27:27; Mc. 15:6). In Act. 10:1 the c. of which the centurion Cornelius was a member is mentioned; in Act. 27:1, the augusta c. The former seems to have been the II italica c., whose presence in Syria is attested by other sources (cf. Pauly-Wissowa, IV, col. 304). The latter too must have been stationed in Syria, as attested by an inscription from Batanea and by the relationship of its commander with the famous P. Sulpicio Quirinio.