07-11-2015, 03:12 AM
The thing is that a heavily Graecisized Eastern Empire undoubtedly used its acquired Latin terminology in a Greek fashion, in Greek letters and for a population that used the Greek language over Latin. The fact that we have many later texts written by common soldiers/officers/administrators using the word centurion in Greek letters (fully transliterated) is for me strong evidence that the term was still alive (I do not say predominantly so, there are other words too used for the same office, some completely Greek and others also of Latin source). I doubt that the Greek speaking soldiery would call someone a centurion if the term was not alive in Latin too, even if other terms might co-exist for the same office.