segmentata

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

"Next, it's a little misleading to call the arrow "high velocity". You can see it in flight, like a baseball, though I don't think it would be quite as easy to catch! And many cultures were using cane and reed for their arrows, so they're light, not packing a lot of punch, and losing speed through air resistance. We're not talking about bullets, here. "

:lol: :lol: :lol: Knew I should have added :relatively" :lol: :lol: :lol:


Quote:
With regard to the Parthians and Arrows, though, it is worth bearing in mind several key factors. First of all, the primary defense against Arrows for Heavy Foot is the Scutum, not Body Armour, which does not in any case cover every point of the body.


Bingo. If arrows were the reason for the invention of the lorica, why come up with a cuirass which covers LESS of the body than the mail did?

True possibly, but after being in the sun all day, being pelted with an endless supply of arrows, and perhaps no water, holding that scutum would become less sure a defense, perhaps?

Quote:
but the fact remains that segs appeared sometime between the debacle in Parthia, and the one in Germany!


"As far as we know, yes, but so what? Those were hardly the only defeats suffered by the Romans. Antony and other Romans had much better success against the Parthians, apparently using the same equipment as Crassus' men had. Same for Tiberius and Germanicus in Germany. "

Not when out in the open though surely, usually with the right geo conditions. And the seg was in use before Tiberius and Germanicus!