(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: Keos], 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 Poieessa, 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"). Th