10-22-2020, 09:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-23-2020, 07:56 AM by Dan Howard.)
What makes you think that Praetorians wore segmentata? There is no evidence that segmentata was worn by anyone except lower ranked/classed soldiers. It is exactly the same as medieval munitions plate. It was only worn by those who couldn't afford anything better. Those with the means preferred mail or scale or musculata.
You are seriously overestimating the effectiveness of blunt trauma. The only way to incapacitate someone through body armour without penetration is with firearms. Muscle-powered weapons simply can't deliver enough energy. I've personally worn mail over nothing but a regular sweater and been hit multiple times in the ribs with a baseball bat hard enough to knock me off balance and the only injury I suffered was bruising.
Once you understand that all of the different types of armour that Romans used provided similar levels of protection, armour study makes more sense. You will start to look for other reasons why they chose a particular type of armour - cost, weight, coverage, production time, comfort, prestige, fashion, donning time, transportation and storage capacity, longevity, maintenance considerations, spare parts, ease of repair, etc. Mail is superior in the vast majority of those.
Rolled metal plate is an advanced process but it drops the cost and production time considerably. The whole point of segmentata was to produce metal armour cheaper and faster than any of the alternatives. It was an ingenious solution given the technologies available to them but it was still only "peasant" armour. We actually have no direct evidence that the Romans had rolled steel but it is a possibility. Personally I think they just had hammer mills.
You are seriously overestimating the effectiveness of blunt trauma. The only way to incapacitate someone through body armour without penetration is with firearms. Muscle-powered weapons simply can't deliver enough energy. I've personally worn mail over nothing but a regular sweater and been hit multiple times in the ribs with a baseball bat hard enough to knock me off balance and the only injury I suffered was bruising.
Once you understand that all of the different types of armour that Romans used provided similar levels of protection, armour study makes more sense. You will start to look for other reasons why they chose a particular type of armour - cost, weight, coverage, production time, comfort, prestige, fashion, donning time, transportation and storage capacity, longevity, maintenance considerations, spare parts, ease of repair, etc. Mail is superior in the vast majority of those.
Rolled metal plate is an advanced process but it drops the cost and production time considerably. The whole point of segmentata was to produce metal armour cheaper and faster than any of the alternatives. It was an ingenious solution given the technologies available to them but it was still only "peasant" armour. We actually have no direct evidence that the Romans had rolled steel but it is a possibility. Personally I think they just had hammer mills.
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
