When the dissolute Roman legions encountered the robust Gothic armies, they found that they were accompanied by their families, who stood on the sidelines screaming and shouting, to exhort their fathers to feats of valor and fearlessness.
This became the basis for what was to become, in the “dark ages”, the feudal culture of honor and bravery.
Also during that time it was considered ‘bad form’ to attack civilians. So families and squawkers could come out to watch the fighting. Sherman’s March through the South ended that sanity forever.