03-02-2011, 09:03 AM
I suspect it was probably more important for soldiers to hear the Centurion than to see him. He could be as flashy as he liked, but if you were three rows back and four files over, you'd have had a hard time seeing or hearing anything much past the guys adjacent to you when a fierce battle was raging. Nevertheless, if the Centurion shouted a command indicating an advance, hold or withdrawal, the effect of it being obeyed would probably filter along the rank and file to some degree.
Being at the front and holding a gladius and a shield, the Centurion would probably be in no position to give any sort of commands other than verbal, so it's my guess that such commands would have been conveyed to everyone else by means of the horn, which is likely to have been near the centurion. Failing that, such commands may well have been conveyed with the signifier waving a few pre-arranged signals such as side to side, up and down etc, and it was probably the Optios job to keep a lookout for such signals and reinforce the message. The notion of eighty to a hundred closely packed guys fighting a battle being able to see the Centurion clearly is just never going to have happened.
A combination of horn blasts and signals which could be seen over the heads of the soldiers would seem to be about as practical a means as any to convey commands over a noisy battle, especially to guys in the front rank, who'd be far too busy watching and engaging the enemy to be glancing over to the Centurion ever other second on the offchance he was signaling some tactic.
Al
Being at the front and holding a gladius and a shield, the Centurion would probably be in no position to give any sort of commands other than verbal, so it's my guess that such commands would have been conveyed to everyone else by means of the horn, which is likely to have been near the centurion. Failing that, such commands may well have been conveyed with the signifier waving a few pre-arranged signals such as side to side, up and down etc, and it was probably the Optios job to keep a lookout for such signals and reinforce the message. The notion of eighty to a hundred closely packed guys fighting a battle being able to see the Centurion clearly is just never going to have happened.
A combination of horn blasts and signals which could be seen over the heads of the soldiers would seem to be about as practical a means as any to convey commands over a noisy battle, especially to guys in the front rank, who'd be far too busy watching and engaging the enemy to be glancing over to the Centurion ever other second on the offchance he was signaling some tactic.
Al
Alan Bradbury
