Roman Centurions: Sideways Crests, the Vine Staff and the Primus Pilus

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Centurions wore their helmet crests turned sideways so their own men could find them in the chaos of battle, making themselves deliberate targets. Despite the name, a centuria rarely held 100 men: early Republican units ran 30 to 60, and after the Marian reforms a standard century held about 80, with six per cohort and ten cohorts per legion. That gave each legion 60 centurions in a strict ladder, from the hastatus posterior at the bottom to the primus pilus, the first spear, who advised the legatus and ranked fourth in the legion.

Men reached the rank by rising from the legions, transferring from the auxiliaries, moving over from municipal magistracies, or, for stalled or ruined equestrians, resigning status to rebuild a reputation through military glory. Their gear signaled authority, from mail and muscled cuirasses to the red sagum, the cingulum belt and the vitis vine staff used to beat and punish soldiers. In the late empire they shifted to mass-produced mail and spangenhelm helmets, and in Luke and Acts, centurions appear repeatedly as admirable Gentile believers.

Many officers preferred lorica hamata mail because a torn section could be repaired with spare rings and pliers by the campfire.
Surviving muscled cuirasses stop high on the torso, because full-length metal abs would have kept the wearer from bending or riding.
The mural crown went to the first man over an enemy city's wall alive.
The centurions of Capernaum, the cross, Cornelius in Acts 10 and Julius in Acts 27 are all portrayed favorably.
Luke addresses his work to Theophilus, likely a Roman official, which scholars read as an argument that the new faith posed no threat to Rome.

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