# Whats he saying?



## Aidan of the tavern (Feb 5, 2012)

Well we've all seen films that have those scenes, when an important person stands up to survey their thousands of followers and delivers a fine old speech.  Then suddenly it clicked for me.  Even if they are shouting, how on earth are people meant to here them?  While it works fine without explanation in film, in real life people like the Romans used to give huge public speeches.  Did they have some ancestor of the microphone?  Or were speeches delivered in some sort of "echo" room?


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## JCFarnham (Feb 5, 2012)

Amphitheatres. Natural amplification thanks to the acoustics. 

Either that or they REALLY had some lungs on them haha


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## Graham Irwin (Feb 5, 2012)

Amphitheater, certainly. 

I watched a program that went to some of the natural amphitheater where Jesus Christ could have made his speeches. They were usually a large embankment by a river, as the sound would travel up from the basin to the crowd, and bounce off the bank on the other side of the river. For all those pre-electric Metallica concerts.


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## Devor (Feb 5, 2012)

Aidan of the tavern said:


> Well we've all seen films that have those scenes, when an important person stands up to survey their thousands of followers and delivers a fine old speech.  Then suddenly it clicked for me.  Even if they are shouting, how on earth are people meant to here them?  While it works fine without explanation in film, in real life people like the Romans used to give huge public speeches.  Did they have some ancestor of the microphone?  Or were speeches delivered in some sort of "echo" room?



With a bit of practice voices can carry quite a bit farther than might be expected, even without an ampitheater.

For reference, though, I remember reading once that the Roman Centurian was in charge of around 80 men because that's about how many could hear him shout orders.


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## San Cidolfus (Feb 5, 2012)

It was also expected of an orator in Ancient Rome to practice their voice.  I'd read that when Cicero was young, he used to practice his oratory by some Grecian seaside cliffs so he could train his voice to carry louder than the crashing waves.


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