I'm watching Troy right now, how do the soldiers of that time know if they're actually attacking the enemy?

by qaasq

And throughout history, in times of big melee battles, how often was "friendly fire" an issue? Most battles (like the ones in the most recent Moses/Prince of Egypt movie) look like large confusing clusterfucks. How did soldiers know who the enemy was?

Dashukta

Here's a link to the FAQ where this has been asked before But in short:

  1. friendly fire did happen on occasion, but
  2. battles didn't really look much like we see in the movies.
illseeyoudrum

Followup question, does Illiad have a good representation of the warfare at that time? I don't mean heroes, rather good soldiers initiating the war but others are defending, and a lot of fraternity or emnity on both sides.

Uniform764

In a lecture at Leeds Royal Armouries on the English Civil War I was told the only difference between uniforms, especially for the infantry was often a coloured sash, which is somewhat confusing. Especially as people who weren't particularly bothered who won could just remove their sash if they were losing.