Optionibus, assistants, underlings. In the mss., it is written, but incorrectly, optionibus; for Varro, Isidorus, and others think the optiones were so called ab optando, as being doubtless chosen as assistants to the decuriones and military adjutants. They were also attached to various offices: and hence there were artisan optiones, and those belonging to official or prison life, in which last signification they are used here; as also in Ambrose’s works (Commentary on the Ephesians, chap. 4) in these words: “Nor did Paul and Silas delay to baptize the jailor (optionem carceris).”