WI: Ancient Semaphore

What would change if say the Late Roman Republic, lets say that for an example Gaius Marius figures out how to use flag signals to control his armies in lack of a useful cavalry to act as battlefield messengers in some battle, from there figures out how to make Semaphore Lines? While it might need to be closer to each other due to lack of efficient telescopes/spyglass (if any type of such), it should still be technically possible
 
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Optical telegraphs are very expensive, especially for a pre-industrial state. Without telescopes, they have to be much closer, which means you have to have many more of them. Each retransmission of the message introduces the chance of error, unless your messages are all sent in the clear.

So, really, it's a lot easier to have an Imperial Post system, where post riders can carry sealed messages from any point to any other on the already existing roads. Often it won't be quite as fast, but about as often it can be faster, as the couriers are only slowed, not totally stopped, by mist, rain or other low-visibility conditions.
 
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