Different Trumpets for Different Troops

To add to the confusion the sound of a trumpet was heard from the theatre. It was a Roman trumpet which the conspirators had procured for the purpose, and being blown by a Greek who did not know how to use it, no one could make out who gave the signal or for whom it was intended.

I’d like to read up one day on the use of musical instruments in warfare and variations among different ancient peoples.  And I just find this bit of Livy (25.10) describing Hannibal’s taking of Tarentum rather amusing.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s