How did ancient officers fight?
I'm curious about how ancient Roman and Greek commanders went about commanding their troops in battle.
We know leaders engaged in personal combat. Some notable examples are Marcus Licinius Crassus earning the spolia opima in single combat against an enemy chieftain and Brasidas being one of the few Spartan casualties at Amphipolis.
I assume they wore more or less the same armor as the rest of the army. After all, Pericles is depicted wearing a Corinthian helmet (although this is likely to hide his unusually shaped head).
However, I'm having a hard time imagining them in formation, since there's no way they could reasonably command anything from inside a melee. On the other hand, staying out of formation would probably make t easy targets for enemy cavalry and light troops. Did they carry a shield and standard infantry equipment? Or were they mounted and surrounded by a bodyguard like Alexander the Great?