Role of the Optio Tribuni

[LonginusXXI]

Thoughts and who held this rank please.

[Nathan Ross]

Thoughts and who held this rank please.

David Breeze, in his thesis The Immunes and Principales of the Roman Army (Vol II, p.132), mentions this post in connection with a single inscription:

L Campilo Paterno equit. secundo Aquae Flaviae opt. trib militum leg. VII Gem, p. fel. per Flavium Campilum Noelicum lib, f. c.  

Although Clauss-Slaby has the same inscription as L(ucio) Campilio Paterno / equiti secundae / alae Flaviae opt(ioni) / [6] / [6] / per Flavium Campilium / Nofirum lib(ertum) f(aciendum) c(uravit) - so who knows...*

* I notice that Patrick Le Roux (in, I think, L'armée romaine et l'organisation des provinces ibériques... 1982) reads the post as optioni equitum legionis!

Optiones were simply soldiers appointed or chosen for a particular job or duty - besides the usual optiones centuriae who acted as centurion's deputies, we find the optio carceris (appointed to the prison), the optio valetudinarii (of the hospital) and optio equitum (of the legion cavalry, presumably). So the optio tribuni would be a soldier appointed to the tribune's staff. Unfortunately, with only one (debatable) reference it doesn't seem possible to say how this role might have related to the better-known beneficiarius or cornicularius tribuni.

[D B Campbell]

It certainly seems that Emil Hübner (editor of CIL II) was a little over-optimistic when he read L. Campilo Paterno equit(i) secundo Aquae Flaviae, opt(ioni) trib[uni] militum leg(ionis) VII Gem(inae) p(iae) fel(icis) per Flavium Campilum No[elic]um lib(ertos) f(aciendum) c(uravit).
   
Here's what the stone looks like!
   

[Nathan Ross]

Here's what the stone looks like!

Very 'optimistic', yes! I can't see anything much there between 'OPT' and 'PER'...