12-11-2013, 02:43 PM
There are certainly a few sculptures which show an Optio in 'undress uniform' with his knobbed staff and wax tablet case. As far as I know there are none which show an Optio in battledress, either with or without the accessories, so it is hard to say for certain if they carried the staff into battle too.
I think the idea that the staff was used to push and keep soldiers in line during the march or in battle may have developed from the use of staffs by sergeants in eighteenth century armies who used a staff called a spontoon for such purposes, as well as it being a badge of office. I have not heard of any reference to an Optio doing that in Roman times.
The Optio wearing a mail shirt with shoulder doubling worn over a brown leather arming doublet, a black and white helmet crest, carrying a staff with a silvered knob and a satchel for the wax tablets, was an impression created within The Ermine Street Guard in the late nineties. It was quickly adopted by other societies and if you Google 'Roman Optio' it has also clearly become the standard appearance of the Roman Optio amongst model makers!
However as has already been pointed out apart from the staff and a single example of a silvered ring bearing the title 'optio ', there is precious little evidence for a specific Optio's uniform.
Graham.
I think the idea that the staff was used to push and keep soldiers in line during the march or in battle may have developed from the use of staffs by sergeants in eighteenth century armies who used a staff called a spontoon for such purposes, as well as it being a badge of office. I have not heard of any reference to an Optio doing that in Roman times.
The Optio wearing a mail shirt with shoulder doubling worn over a brown leather arming doublet, a black and white helmet crest, carrying a staff with a silvered knob and a satchel for the wax tablets, was an impression created within The Ermine Street Guard in the late nineties. It was quickly adopted by other societies and if you Google 'Roman Optio' it has also clearly become the standard appearance of the Roman Optio amongst model makers!
However as has already been pointed out apart from the staff and a single example of a silvered ring bearing the title 'optio ', there is precious little evidence for a specific Optio's uniform.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
