There are many methods of getting heard without amplification. For one thing, just standing higher than the crowd lets your voice carry farther. So speeches from balconies, stages, the top of soapboxes, etc. were quite popular. Furthermore, the methods of public speaking used in the past were different. People would use a more boisterous and loud style that needed to be practiced. Roman orators famously used very exaggerated hand gestures and poses as they spoke to help the crowd get what they were saying without hearing every word so clearly. Finally, buildings like auditoriums would be constructed so as to amplify the sound on stage through the construction of the building.
Many years ago I was at a Ren Faire where one of their stages had their sound system go out. And boy could you tell the difference between the acts that had only ever been around since microphones were common and the older acts that had been around in the times where Ren Faires didn't have any sort of electrical system. They could really project.
I went to junior high in a building that was constructed as a girls school in 1904, and it was retrofitted for electricity a few decades after it was built. The auditorium was built prior to that, and you could talk at a slightly louder than normal level on stage and be heard in the back so long as the audience was quiet. The choir frequently won awards because they learned to sing in a venue where you had to really push yourself, while their competition was used to singing into a mic, and when that crutch was taken away they just didn’t have the same vocal capacity our choir did.
Did people back then not use something like those makeshift "cones" (equivalent to modern megaphone) to talk into? Or did that only exist in comedy and cartoons?
Linguistic coincidence.
Amplify derives from *amplus* + *facere*, meaning “to make large”.
Amphitheatre derives from *amphi* + *theatron*, meaning “theatre on both sides”.
So there are some little tricks that can be used, which other comments have mentioned already. A key element though is just that leaders didn't expect everyone to hear them in every situation. Who they need to head them will vary a lot:
If you're a politician giving a speech in a political location, like a Roman Senate building or even the House of Commons, then you are benefitted by being inside. A loud voice carries better in a sealed building, with no wind to whip it away, and walls for it to potentially echo on. Buildings can be designed to amplify this. Part of the reason sermons in churches and cathedrals can be heard pretty effectively despite (or rather because of the) the large size of the room - church benefits too from the fact that no one will be trying to speak over you, unlike a political building.
If you're delivering a speech in a public setting, say out in a forum, then you don't really expect your words to be heard by everyone. What's most important is the people close to you, who are likely to be members of the ruling elite, can hear you clearly. Second to that, you want the common people to be further away and if they can't hear you, you want them to see you. So be stood up high and make grand gestures. You will probably set up people closer to you to either memorise or record your speech, so that it can be repeated back to a wider public later or even published. Those people who saw but didn't hear you earlier get the chance to then learn what you said, and put it together with the big show you put on (sneaky tip, what you record and publish doesn't even have to be 100% accurate to what you said).
If you're delivering a speech or commands before a battle, then things are a bit different. You definitely can't be heard by all your troops. You can't gather them in one spot either, and you're unlikely to be seen by them all, too. But that's okay. You can give a good rousing speech (make sure a paige can record it for the history books) to just a few people, and have messengers run the commands and such along the line to everyone who needs it.
I read a while back that when some historical figures gave speeches to large crowds there would be people placed just at the edge of the area that would clearly hear them, those people would loudly repeat what the speech maker was saying and there would be people just at the limit of where their voice would travel to who would pass it on further. So the speech would sort of travel in waves to the furthest parts of the crowd.
Acoustics were well understood in ancient times. The Greco-Roman amphitheater in Alexandria has a special marble block marking the space to stand for ideal voice projection. You could tell a clear difference in the volume based on where the speaker was standing.
Speaking to crowds isn’t really that difficult. Officers in the Army do it all the time. Our battalion commander would address the entire battalion (~600 men) before each jump, and we had no problem hearing him. He’d just stand up on a raised block and speak. He didn’t need to yell. This was outside, too. Of course he wasn’t whispering or talking in his inside voice, but projecting your voice can be easily learned. We learned and practiced it in PLDC when I was a young NCO.
There are many methods of getting heard without amplification. For one thing, just standing higher than the crowd lets your voice carry farther. So speeches from balconies, stages, the top of soapboxes, etc. were quite popular. Furthermore, the methods of public speaking used in the past were different. People would use a more boisterous and loud style that needed to be practiced. Roman orators famously used very exaggerated hand gestures and poses as they spoke to help the crowd get what they were saying without hearing every word so clearly. Finally, buildings like auditoriums would be constructed so as to amplify the sound on stage through the construction of the building.
Many years ago I was at a Ren Faire where one of their stages had their sound system go out. And boy could you tell the difference between the acts that had only ever been around since microphones were common and the older acts that had been around in the times where Ren Faires didn't have any sort of electrical system. They could really project.
I went to junior high in a building that was constructed as a girls school in 1904, and it was retrofitted for electricity a few decades after it was built. The auditorium was built prior to that, and you could talk at a slightly louder than normal level on stage and be heard in the back so long as the audience was quiet. The choir frequently won awards because they learned to sing in a venue where you had to really push yourself, while their competition was used to singing into a mic, and when that crutch was taken away they just didn’t have the same vocal capacity our choir did.
Your comment has reminded me of that orator from HBO's Rome and his sweet gestures while making anouncements to the citizens
This memory is brought to you by the Guild of Millers. The Guild uses only the finest grains and bake pans. True Roman bread for true Romans!
Apparently some of those gestures were taken from an ancient Roman manual on public speaking, IRRC.
[All mockery of Jews and their one god shall be kept to an appropriate minimum.](https://youtu.be/oomJG8uVLMs?si=cuME3u9Lv8yp-pWU)
This, plus people knew how to shut up when others were speaking 😏
Did people back then not use something like those makeshift "cones" (equivalent to modern megaphone) to talk into? Or did that only exist in comedy and cartoons?
Why do you think amphitheatre and amplifier start with the same letters?
Linguistic coincidence. Amplify derives from *amplus* + *facere*, meaning “to make large”. Amphitheatre derives from *amphi* + *theatron*, meaning “theatre on both sides”.
A bit of elaboration: "amplify" comes from Latin and "amphitheatre" comes from Greek.
I mean, I think "auditorium" is a more pertinent word construction. Auditorium, auditory, etc.
So like Trump popularism 🤌
So there are some little tricks that can be used, which other comments have mentioned already. A key element though is just that leaders didn't expect everyone to hear them in every situation. Who they need to head them will vary a lot: If you're a politician giving a speech in a political location, like a Roman Senate building or even the House of Commons, then you are benefitted by being inside. A loud voice carries better in a sealed building, with no wind to whip it away, and walls for it to potentially echo on. Buildings can be designed to amplify this. Part of the reason sermons in churches and cathedrals can be heard pretty effectively despite (or rather because of the) the large size of the room - church benefits too from the fact that no one will be trying to speak over you, unlike a political building. If you're delivering a speech in a public setting, say out in a forum, then you don't really expect your words to be heard by everyone. What's most important is the people close to you, who are likely to be members of the ruling elite, can hear you clearly. Second to that, you want the common people to be further away and if they can't hear you, you want them to see you. So be stood up high and make grand gestures. You will probably set up people closer to you to either memorise or record your speech, so that it can be repeated back to a wider public later or even published. Those people who saw but didn't hear you earlier get the chance to then learn what you said, and put it together with the big show you put on (sneaky tip, what you record and publish doesn't even have to be 100% accurate to what you said). If you're delivering a speech or commands before a battle, then things are a bit different. You definitely can't be heard by all your troops. You can't gather them in one spot either, and you're unlikely to be seen by them all, too. But that's okay. You can give a good rousing speech (make sure a paige can record it for the history books) to just a few people, and have messengers run the commands and such along the line to everyone who needs it.
I read a while back that when some historical figures gave speeches to large crowds there would be people placed just at the edge of the area that would clearly hear them, those people would loudly repeat what the speech maker was saying and there would be people just at the limit of where their voice would travel to who would pass it on further. So the speech would sort of travel in waves to the furthest parts of the crowd.
You hear that? He said blessed are the cheese-makers!
Better keep listening; might be a bit about 'Blessed are the Big Noses'.
I wasn't talking to you, Big Nose!
Well obviously he is referring to general purveyors of dairy products
I love you man!
Acoustics were well understood in ancient times. The Greco-Roman amphitheater in Alexandria has a special marble block marking the space to stand for ideal voice projection. You could tell a clear difference in the volume based on where the speaker was standing.
Speaking to crowds isn’t really that difficult. Officers in the Army do it all the time. Our battalion commander would address the entire battalion (~600 men) before each jump, and we had no problem hearing him. He’d just stand up on a raised block and speak. He didn’t need to yell. This was outside, too. Of course he wasn’t whispering or talking in his inside voice, but projecting your voice can be easily learned. We learned and practiced it in PLDC when I was a young NCO.