Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Ancient Warfare Answers with me, Murray, your weekly fix of ancient warfare related material where I attempt to answer a question from a reader, listener or viewer.

You can ask a question, you can send us an email, you can comment on a previous video or podcast. You can send me a postcard. P.O. Box 222, Belfield, 2191, Australia. That will get to me. You can shout in the street. And this current question is from Clap Spatton Camacazzi. I hope I'm saying that right. Clapsbatten. Claps baton. Yes, I think. Clapsbatten kamikaze. Not really a question. It's a response to a previous answer I gave which simply says, now I want to know more about signaling, and I am happy to oblige. Of course, you can back us on Patreon, one of three

different levels, legionary, Optio, and Centurion. Right, much of what I'm about to say comes from

this book by DJ Wolloscroft Roman military signaling. Okay, so there's several things. Now,

often when we're talking about military signaling, it's sort of tied up with the idea of encryption, and we've got lots of examples, ciphers and things like that in evidence from Herodotus onwards and Julius Caesar and things like that. And there's been articles in the magazine about ciphers and encryption in code messages and things like that, and there's been articles in the magazine about ciphers and encryption

in code messages and things like that.

And there is indeed encryption all the way through.

There's a fabulous example of quite complex encryption going on by the besieged in

359 AD with Amiens gives this fabulous discussion of them decoding the message,

but then the message is written allegorically and they have to work out what the allegories mean as well as,

you know, so it's layers of encryption.

So if you think of about, you know, two-party encryption, it's not new. It goes back to the

Roman Empire. Anyway, Roman signaling is tied up with encryption, but generally speaking, our evidence of it is not,

and I'll get to that. So there's two major forms of signaling that we get. One is flag signaling,

and the second is fire signaling. Put those to one side. The other thing

that we have mentioned, and again, Amiensis Marcellinus comes in and some other sources,

talk about signaling with a hand signal or signaling with a wave of the cloak,

which is fascinating, but they don't give us any more information.

Ammianus, for instance, talks about the usual signal.

And at various points, we get the usual signal.

And of course, in Roman armies you have orders,

and they are given by signals, usually the instruments that accompany the army.

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