Centurion - his role in the early empire

[Nathan Ross]

What about the office or rank of centurio regionarius

Yes, that's from the Vindolanda letter I mentioned above (full text) [* - just realised I didn't mention it here - it was in a different thread!... :wink: ]

Annius Equester seems to have been in charge of some aspect of administration in the Carlisle district - maybe recruitment. It's interesting, though, that we don't know what post 'Brigonius' was supposedly applying for, nor why he needed the recommendation of two cohort prefects (presumably) to get it! He may just have been a local man who wanted to be a soldier, or perhaps he was trying for a post in some local office and Equester was the man to talk to.

Centurions do seem to have been detached from the army for various duties like this. There were supernumerary centurions, presumably attached to the legion or cohort but without a field command role. Alternatively (bearing in mind the often-depleted state of units in the field, as shown by the strength report from Vindolanda) some units may just have had more centurions than they needed!

And also, I'm very much interested in the rank of the Cornicularius - is it the same as that of Cornicen - the hornblower, or an entirely different one?

Cornicens were hornblowers. Cornicularii were chief secretaries, or the heads of offices, to military and civil officers from cohort prefects up to provincial governors. They would have had various administrative duties, were recruited from the army, and ranked depending on the seniority of the office or unit to which they belonged. There's a theory that they wore a horn-shaped emblem (cornu) somewhere or other, but there's no real evidence for that beyond conjecture!