The ancient Legiones Astartes were composed of tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of Space Marines. As such, each Legion required a substantial core of leaders, champions and line officers. Whether one of these officers, generally called Consuls, were actually a Captain who commanded a company composed of a thousand or more Legionaries on campaign, or a Shield-Lieutenant given charge of a boarding party in a savage void battle, to have risen through the ranks of their Legion meant that they had already demonstrated their worth in the bloody fire of conflict.