CENTURY, the name for a unit (centuria) in the Roman army, originally amounting to ioo men, and for one of the divi sions into which the Roman people was separated for voting purposes (see COMITIA). The word is applied more particularly to a period of ioo years. The "century-plant" is a name given to the agave (q.v.), or American aloe, from the supposition that it flowers once only in every ioo years.