11-24-2016, 02:24 PM
(11-24-2016, 12:01 PM)Robert Vermaat Wrote: Sorry but two misconceptions here I think.
One, the role of a modern sergeant controlling his unit through information is totally different from that of a centurio. The speed and amount of information gathering during battle would be incomparable (meaning the centurio would hardly gather any by comparison).
Also, the chaos of battle would make the amount of control very difficult if a centurio was in the rear and would have to direct from there. The officer stood in front, next to the standard/cornicen, the troops watched these and acted accordingly.
Centurios stood in the front line, or maybe behind a line of antesignani, and had NCOs controlling the rear in case of defectors or a change of front.
Two,
I think people greatly over estimate the amount of situational awareness that someone in the front rank has. Your entire focus is on the people directly in front of you who are trying to hurt or kill you. If you were more than two files down from the Centurion you would have no idea what he was doing or saying, if he was at the front right of the Century as I have seen suggested then to the soldier eight files away he may as well have been on a different planet.
This video will give you an idea of how much someone in the front rank can actually see in a battle that involves over 500 people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78509ehnnnM
Adam
No man resisted or offered to stand up in his defence, save one only, a centurion, Sempronius Densus, the single man among so many thousands that the sun beheld that day act worthily of the Roman empire.
No man resisted or offered to stand up in his defence, save one only, a centurion, Sempronius Densus, the single man among so many thousands that the sun beheld that day act worthily of the Roman empire.
