The Roman Army - Legionary Optio - AD 50

The Roman Army - Legionary Optio - AD 50

MorBius
An Optio (from the Latin verb optare, 'to choose', because an Optio was chosen by his centurion) was a soldier in the Roman army who held a position similar to that of a Non-Comissioned Officer in modern armies. The main function of an Optio was as an Optio centuriae, the second-in-command of a centuria (century), although there were many other positions an Optio could hold. His main function would be to march at the rear of the century and maintain the marching order, making sure there was no breaking of the ranks. Unlike the Centurion, the uniform was not the distinguishing part of the Optio's uniform. The identifying part would be his helmet; this would have had plumes of horse hair or feathers on either side of his helmet that could be accompanied by a helmet crest. An optio's armour would be more like those of the common legionary. He could wear the lorica segmentata or a lorica hamata as well as have his gladius on the right not left side. One thing that did separate him from the common legionary was the staff (called a hastile), which was used to keep the legionaries in line. This staff would be roughly as tall of the Optio himself. Optios often carried wax tablets on which they kept the orders of the day. The soldier is based on several models by Maotri which were edited and equiped with Roman clothing and equipment. The shield is by FullOfIt . The roman road diaorama is by Emperors Champion #ancient #Armor #arms #army #auxiliary #boot #caligae #centurion #chain_mail #empire #gladius #helmet #Legionary_armor #lorica #lorica_hamata #medal #military #noncommisioned_officer #oficer #optio #Republic #road #Roman #Roman_Army #Roman_republic #roman_road #Rome #soldier #sword #war #warrior #weapon #weapons
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