Padded Armour

[Marcus Mummius]

Hi Graham,

I hadn't thought about tunic sized mailcoats





The problem with a baggy tunic under a lorica hamata is that most of the fabric gathers at the waist where the blousing takes place. If the amount of wool was distributed more evenly over the body it would make for great padding and a subarmalis should be unnecesarry. The way it is however the shoulders and the upper chest get very little padding (mostly only one layer of wool) while all the fabric is bunching up at the waist. I do not think a wider hamata would solve this problem. The one I used wasn't that narrow, it did have small sleeves(10cm). I'll get rid of those as apparently hamatas in the first century AD were sleeveles.

Now I'm thinking that maybe tunics worn under a hamata at least (I have no problem wearing this kind of tunic under a segmentata) were perhaps narrower than the tunic for unarmoured wear.

Or perhaps even a better solution: a tunic that is wide, like the originals but that is short enough to be worn unbelted. This way you can still have the 'sleeve-forming' effect with a sleeveles tunic and you have enough room for leg action BUT you don't have the bulk of the blousing fabric under your mail. What do you think?

Kind regards,