Centurion Position in Battle

[Nathan Ross]

Are there any indications pointing toward the optios and signifer of the cohort forming their own tent parties ?

P-Hyginus (really our only source for this sort of thing) is quite clear that the century camped together with ten tents for the men and one bigger tent for the centurion. Barrack arrangements were apparently the same - if the principales of a cohort were all gathered together elsewhere they'd need their own special accommodation, which doesn't seem to have existed.

Despite the note above about the optio in the republican legion, I still think that by the empire (at least) both he and the signifer were drawn from the men in the century and messed with their usual contubernia, certainly in the field. They may plausibly have had separate rooms in the barrack, if such were available.