ELi5: How did public address work before amplification? Like, Caesar addressing his troops on the field

Question

ELi5: How did public address work before amplification? Like, Caesar addressing his troops on the field

In: 23

Answer 1

Depends on the context. Troops in the field is different to speeches in venues that were designed to have speeches made (amphitheatres, cathedrals, rotundas etc) – historically, buildings were designed to have a voice carry from a specific location, so you didn’t need amplification because the architecture would carry the sound of the voice.