Anyone who saw images of Roman legionaries, especially of the period of the late republic and empire, should have noticed that they were dressed in fairly simple military equipment. Especially on the uniform of the Roman legionaries, the southern and eastern neighbors of the Phoenician and Hellenistic cultures contrast, whose soldiers regularly decorated their helmets with horsehair combs. At the same time, the Romans still wore some combs. First of all, these were the centurions and their options assistants. The question arises: why only they had such a decoration?
The centurion in the legion is an extremely important and valuable person. In a modern way, he can be safely called a representative of the junior officer corps. Since the "bearded" times of the early republic, centurions have exercised command over the smallest tactical formations: a centuria, or, in our opinion, a hundred. Thus, the management of the army on the battlefield directly depended on these people. Centurions were selected from among ordinary soldiers who had already managed to prove that they could pull such a difficult job.
In addition to direct leadership in battle, it was the centurion who replaced the legionnaires during the campaign both father and mother. The centurion had to maintain discipline in the unit: punish the innocent and reward the innocent. He was engaged in military training of subordinates, monitored the health of soldiers and morale, and without fail checked the equipment of legionnaires. At the same time, special attention was always paid to shoes, socks, as well as the condition of hiking clothes.
At the same time, the centurion himself had to be an experienced man in military affairs, who had fully mastered the art of using weapons. The ancient Roman historian Vegetius wrote that the centurions select people solid, staunch, disciplined and strong, with great physical strength. At the same time, the Romans considered the most important virtues of junior officers to be vigilance and diligence, the readiness to follow orders, and not to reason over them beyond what is necessary.
For their service, the centurions received five salaries of ordinary legionnaires. For comparison, veteran legionnaires received 1.5 salaries, and military specialists (doctors, clerks, engineers) - 2 legionnaires' salaries. The centurion was entitled to a separate mule for transporting things, and in some cases also a riding horse. During the carving of spoils of war, the centurion also received more than everyone else. At a later time, the commander could also have a personal clerk and assistant. Also, the centurions had the privilege of wearing a sword on their left side, and not on the right, as all other legionaries were supposed to wear.
The most striking feature of any centurion's equipment was, of course, the horsehair comb on the helmet.
It was installed using a special tripod and a socket. Contrary to popular stereotype, these crests were not necessarily red. Often they were also made white. They appeared in the Roman army quite obviously thanks to the Greek neighbors. However, if in Hellas such a comb could be worn by almost every hoplite infantryman, then in the Roman army they relied only on officers. This is where their purpose stems from - with such an ornament, an officer is always easily and quickly identified on the battlefield. If in Greece the combs were mostly decoration, then in Rome they began to perform a strictly utilitarian identification function.
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If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should definitely read about roman gladius: why there was no guard on the handle of the sword, but there was a large "apple".
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/280721/59941/
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