Centurion Position in Battle

[Frank]

Do you really believe that a man fighting will have any idea at all whether it's 'his' cornu making the noise or the one to the left, or the right, or behind in one of the other lines - or even 5-10 maniples away or on the other wing.

I am afraid, every centurio having a cornicen could lead to a lot of confusion. Imagine every 30m a cornicen is trumpeting another signal.

I personally guess, that the cornicens were with the tribunes and the legate, if we look at a 1 legion army. What was the role of these 6 tribunes on the battlefield? Actually we don't know. But it is a good guess that they led units bigger than 1 cohort. I could imagine that they led the left wing, center, right wing and reserve. These alone are 4 tribunes to lead the infantry.

How should this tribune now communicate with the 12-18 centurions of his 2-3 cohorts / wing? If the centurions fought from the front, he had no chance. Between him and the centurions were 8 men fighting. And how to coordinate all these centurions all together and at the same time? Couriers do not work here. They work between legate and tribune behind the lines, but never between tribune and centurions.

But signals might work if a tribune wants to steer his entire wing. And for a centurio it should be easier to distinguish, if this signal comes from the center tribune or the left-wing tribune. As we already discussed, for a centurio a loud voice should work, for 60-80 men standing not more than 15 m away from him.

But again, this is all guesswork or logical conclusion.