Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Torquatus

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

TORQUA'TUS (στρεπτοφόρος). Wearing a twisted collar (torquis) round the neck, as was customary with the Gauls (see the wood-cut s. COMATUS), the Persians, and other races, in the manner shown by the annexed figure (Torquatus/1.1), representing one of the Persian soldiers in the famous mosaic of Pompeii. Hence, miles torquatus amongst the Romans is a soldier who had been presented with an ornament of this description as a reward of valour (Veg. Mil. ii. 7. Compare Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 10.); which he did not wear round his neck, like the Orientals, but affixed to his breast in the same manner as a modern decoration. This is clearly demonstrated by the following example (Torquatus/1.2), which exhibits the portrait of a centurion on a sepulchral bas-relief, who wears the following decorations; — a lemniscus streaming from the back of the head, two torques on his breast, and a phalera showing under them.

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  Torquatus/1.1
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  Torquatus/1.2