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Originally Posted by RustyBattleship
If I read question 1 of page 1 of this thread correctly, I believe it was asked if a Lieutenant or a Captain is a COMPANY commander.
In some outfits, companies are also called troops and battalions are called squadrons. I often saw rotations of company commanders where one year it was a Lieutenant and the next year a Captain.
Traditionally, a Captain would command a company if its size is 100 or more soldiers. The word "Captain" comes from ancient Roman "Centurian" of which the prefix denoted he was in charge of 100 men. Too often the movies show a Centurian as a solitary elite soldier or with some sort of political influence. In reality, a Centurian was merely a company commander. He still had to report to Legion (Battalion) commander.
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No, the question is more about differences of having a Captain or a Major as a company commander. Implicitly traditional infantry - no troops, squadrons etc.
An LT commanding a company is usually a sign of officer shortage/unavilability; I know of an instance of a Major commanding a brigade in WWII!
A centurion usually commanded only 80 legionaires, as incidentally did captains during Napoleonic Wars. Movies would somewhat be correct in showing a centurion as a solitary elite soldier because a legionaire rose to rank of a centurion through exceptional, personal bravery in the two ranks in between (optio tempore, optio). Romans believed that leadership is leading from the front - atleast for the lower-classes, who were always a bit semi-tribal. A centurion, because of his extensive experience prior to command, would probably identify himself with Indian JCOs or Western WOs (who have command responsibilities) than with comissioned officers.
The centurions who went up with influential legates and tribunes, no doubt had the enormous political influence - especially when the legions were doing the politics. You need only to look at Third World military dictatorships born just after end of colonial empires to see how much political influence senior NCOs and WOs could pick up (Idi Amin, anyone?).