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of the enlisted men. So he promised in the future to pay to centurions the furlough fees on all legionaries’ behalf from his own purse. [Ibid.] Within months, Otho was dead, but his successor as emperor, Vitellius, kept his promise to the rank and file: “He paid the furlough fees to the centurions from the imperial treasury.” [Tac., H , I , 58] “This was without doubt a salutary reform,” Tacitus observed, “and was afterward under good emperors established as a permanent rule of the service.” [Ibid., 46]
    Men on furlough often went far afield, and could not easily be recalled in emergencies. [Tac., A , XV , 10] It seems that while the men left their helmets, shields, javelins and armor back at base when they went on furlough, they habitually continued to wear their military sandals and traveled armed with their swords on sword-belts wherever they went, even in towns, where civilians were forbidden to go armed. Petronius Arbiter, in his Satyricon , written in the time of Nero, has his narrator strap on a sword-belt when staying in a seaside town in Greece. While walking through the town’s streets at night, illegally wearing his sword, he was challenged.
    “Halt! Who goes there?” a guard demanded. Seeing the sword on his hip, the guard assumed the man must be a legionary on leave, and asked, “What legion are you from? Who is your centurion?” The guard then noticed that the man waswearing Greek-style white shoes. “Since when have men in your unit gone on leave in white shoes?” In response, Petronius’ narrator lied about both centurion and legion. “But my face and my confusion proved that I had been caught in a lie,” he went on, “so he [the guard] ordered me to surrender my arms.” [Petr., 82]
    XIV. LEGION MUSICIANS
    To relay orders in camp, on the march, and in battle, unarmed musicians were attached to all legions to play the lituus, a trumpet made of wood covered with leather, and the cornu and buccina, which were horns in the shape of a “C.” Legion musicians wore leather vests over their tunics, and bearskin capes over their helmets. There is no record of them playing music on the march. Their role was exclusively that of signalers.
    XV. THE STANDARD-BEARER, TESSERARIUS AND OPTIO
    Every legion, maniple and century had a standard behind which its men marched, and it was a great honor to be the official bearer of the sacred standard. It was the greatest honor of all to be the aquilifer , the man who carried the legion’s golden eagle standard, the aquila . Ranking above ordinary legionaries, the standard-bearer had much influence with the rank and file and was sometimes involved in councils of war by their generals. Standard-bearers also managed the legion banks.
    The tesserarius was the man in each century whose task it was to circulate the tessera , a wax tablet containing the daily watchword, to sentries in camp, and to all ranks prior to battle.
    In the infantry, the optio was the deputy to a century’s centurion. In the cavalry, he was deputy to a decurion. The equivalent of a sergeant-major today, the optio was responsible for the century’s records and training, and in battle was required to keep his century in order—several trumpet calls were directed specifically at optios for this purpose. An optio was a centurion-designate, and when a vacancy arose for a new centurion, an optio would be promoted to fill it.
    XVI. THE DECURION
    With his title literally and originally relating to the command of ten men, the decurio was a junior officer, subordinate to a centurion, who commanded a troop of cavalry in both the legions and auxiliary mounted units, which in turn was commanded by a squadron’s most senior decurion. Typically, decurions of auxiliary cavalry had previously served as legionaries and were transferred to the alae.
    A second-century decurion, Titus Calidius, joined a legion at the age of 24 and rose to become a decurion with the cavalry squadron of the 15th Apollinaris