Centurion Position in Battle

[Bryan]

Incidentally, as I was looking up that quote I found an intriguing note in Milner (p53 n4):

Festus 216.23 L - "the optio as he is now called was once termed accensus. He was given to a centurion as an assistant by the tribune of the soldiers."

'accensi' is translated on the same page as 'extras'.

So it would appear that, during the republic at least, the optiones were indeed additional to the number of the century!

I'm far from an expert in Latin, but according to a couple different online internet translations, accensus means an attendant, follower, or orderly, as well as burning or something on fire, and a few mentions of "additional."