Quote Originally Posted by Szun
in a battle line they had the best men in the 1st and 11th cohort, on each side of the line then moveing inward, haveing the newest troops in the center.
in other words 1st+11th = elite
2nd+10th= vets
3rd,4th, 9th, 8th= regulars
5th,6th, 7th = regular to green

they put the best on the flanks for obvious reason ...
There were only 10 cohorts in a legion Szun (not counting auxillia). Every thing else is almost right. When it deployed in a battle line the legions heavy infantry was in 2 lines with the first cohort on the right front row. Like this,

1st Line – Cohors - 5th – 4th – 3rd – 2nd – 1st
2nd Line – Cohors - 10th – 9th – 8th – 7th - 6th
2nd, 4th, 7th, 9th were the weak cohorts also the 7th and 9th was where you would find trainees and green troops
3rd and 5th had no special designation
6th had the most able young men
8th had selected troops
10th had the good troops
1st double sized and elite commanded by the prime pilus the highest ranking centurion. A centurions rank depended on the century he commanded there were 6 centuries in every cohort so commanding the 6 century of the 10th cohort was the lowest, and the Prime pilus (first file) was the commander of the 1st century of the 1st cohort.