Roman Horsehair Crests

[Crispvs]

Indications of rank are much theorised over. Some things we know. Other things are hopeful assumptions.
We know that centuriones in Polybios's time could be distinguished by tinned or silvered helmets. We do not know if that still applied a century and a half later, by which time we know that a centurio could be distinguished by a transverse crest, greaves and vitis. As far as I know we do not know if these elements applied in the first century BC or not. Neither do we know if they persisted into the second century AD.
We also know that in the first century AD an optio could be distinguished by his knob ended staff and ring. What we do not know is whether or not there were other disinguishing features such as particular coloured cloaks, tunics or crests. It is tempting to try and assign particular colours to particular ranks but at the and of the day, any colour choice is going to be an assumption rather than something based on evidence. It is true that there are a number of contemporary coloured representations of Roman soldiers, but these are shown in tunics of a variety of colours and shades and there is little to indicate any sort of rank-colour correllation. The only literary references indicating special colours for particular ranks, as far as I know, are a reference to a military parade before the emperor Vitellius where the tribunes and senior centuriones were dressed in white (no mention of the other centuriones or soldiers wearing any particular colour) and an application to the emperor Septimius Severus over a century later when a group of officers requested the right to wear white tunics. Again there is nothing in that reference to indicate other ranks being concerned about colours. Other than that, I am not aware of any references to colour and rank. Therefore, any matching of crest colour to rank (as many re-enactment groups, my own included, do) is purely supposition.

I hope this helps in some way.


Crispvs