Centurion Position in Battle

[Renatus]

I could, if I was really naughty, merely suggest that Vegetius has simply read the same things we can and drawn the same conclusions

Come on, Mark. You know as well as I do that Vegetius had sources lost to us, Cato and Frontinus in particular.

The centurions voice (his voice and not another's) can certainly carry as far as it needs to - so why use anything else?

I still maintain that the centurion's voice, however stentorian, is liable to be lost in the general cacophony of battle - the clash of weapons, the cries of the wounded, the battle cries of both sides, the shouts of other centurions, the blare of trumpets - and the fact that those in the front line may be too busy preventing themselves being hacked to pieces to take much notice of much else. Calls on the tuba or cornu can cut through all that and they do not need to be complicated - 'advance', 'withdraw' or 'stand firm' could be quite enough.