Padded Armour

[Crispvs]

Jasper,

The photos I was thinking of don't seem to be in Robinson after all, apart from Gnaeus Musius. I must have them in another book. I'll have another look.
However, to quote from Robinson, on pge 164 of 'The Armour of Imperial Rome', he says:
"...the Osuna reliefs (fig 175). The left hand figure wears lorica hamata, and his companion would appear to be wearing a fabric garment over his armour."

Page 169:
"...the stele of Caius Castricius in the Aquincum museum at Budapest (plate 470)...wears a short sleeved waist length shirt without shoulder straps... The absence of shoulder straps is not very remarkable, for there are a number of auxiliary grave stelae from the first century showing loricae hamatae covered by close-fitting tunics with the edges of short sleeves and the skirt visible below. Where only such a small amount of mail could be seen the sculptors made some attempt to represent the rows of alternating crescents, which developed into wavy lines (plate 471 [Pintaius])."

Further down page 169:
"Lorica hamata worn beneath another garment but over the regular tunica is frequently shown in representations of standard bearers such as the aquilifer Musius of Legio XIV Gemina at Mainz and the signifer Pintaius of the Cohors V Asturum at Bonn. Musius wears a leather garment cut into pteruges below the waist, with the upper part crossed with straps into which are fastened a pair of torques and nine plain phalerae. On the shoulders are a series of overlapping metal plates with short pteruges over the sleeves of the lorica (plate 468)."

I am not convinced about the "overlapping metal plates" but apart from that I think Robinson's observations hold true.

Crispvs