Tesserarius

A tesserarius (Latin: tesserārius, from tessera, a small tile or block of wood on which watchwords were written), was a watch commander in the Roman army. They organized and had command over the nightly guard assigned to keep watch over the fort when in garrison or on campaign^[1][2] and were responsible for getting the watchwords from the commander and seeing that it was kept safe. There was one tesserarius to each centuria (Wilkes, 1972). They held a position similar to that of a non-commissioned officer in modern armies and acted as seconds to the optiones.

Tesserary pay was one and a half times (sesquiplicarii) that of the standard legionary pay.

Citations

1. Caesar's Civil War, Adrian Goldsworthy, Page 20
2. http://www.legionarybooks.net/the_imperial_legions

See also

• List of Roman army unit types