09-14-2007, 11:10 PM
I'm sure I'm not adding anything new here- I doubt anyone could at this point- but I think we are incorrectly linking every mention of linen and thorax and assuming a "Lino-thorax".
If we assume for a moment that Throakes commonly meant a bronze corselet, then to my mind a Lino-thorax is not a corselet made of linen instead of bronze. It is a bronze corselet held together by linen. If we accept an evolution in the full corselet to one where bronze was conserved to cover only the most vulnerable places, then the question arises of how to hold these together? In Italy, the answer was to link the various metal pieces together with metal as though chaining them together. In the linothorax, like the Lucanian or Samnite models, there would be metal breast and perhaps back plates, plural plates on the sides and plates over the shoulders, but all held together within a linen shell. no need for leather since if you accept my italian comparison the sections without inserted plates don't need them.
One note on this is that calling them a tube-and-yoke construction is misleading, for they are surely better described as Box-and-yoke. The distinction is important because the sides of the box were inflexible, whereas either linen or leather could be fashioned in a tube- and perhaps was on occasion.
Now over time the plates may have been reduced further to scales, either on the surface or within the linen like a coat of plates, but the name would be unchanged. The same proably holds true if we eliminate the metal all together and leave just the quilted backing because the continuum of decreasing amounts of metal would be gradual enough that there would be no clear demarcation for a new name.
Spolas seems to be the sort of apron or protection that a blacksmith might wear. If we take a Lino-thorax and add a leather front to it in place of metal, so that it now has the same placement of leather as a workman's apron, then why not call it that reguardless of whether there was linen or more leather supporting it?
If we assume for a moment that Throakes commonly meant a bronze corselet, then to my mind a Lino-thorax is not a corselet made of linen instead of bronze. It is a bronze corselet held together by linen. If we accept an evolution in the full corselet to one where bronze was conserved to cover only the most vulnerable places, then the question arises of how to hold these together? In Italy, the answer was to link the various metal pieces together with metal as though chaining them together. In the linothorax, like the Lucanian or Samnite models, there would be metal breast and perhaps back plates, plural plates on the sides and plates over the shoulders, but all held together within a linen shell. no need for leather since if you accept my italian comparison the sections without inserted plates don't need them.
One note on this is that calling them a tube-and-yoke construction is misleading, for they are surely better described as Box-and-yoke. The distinction is important because the sides of the box were inflexible, whereas either linen or leather could be fashioned in a tube- and perhaps was on occasion.
Now over time the plates may have been reduced further to scales, either on the surface or within the linen like a coat of plates, but the name would be unchanged. The same proably holds true if we eliminate the metal all together and leave just the quilted backing because the continuum of decreasing amounts of metal would be gradual enough that there would be no clear demarcation for a new name.
Spolas seems to be the sort of apron or protection that a blacksmith might wear. If we take a Lino-thorax and add a leather front to it in place of metal, so that it now has the same placement of leather as a workman's apron, then why not call it that reguardless of whether there was linen or more leather supporting it?
Paul M. Bardunias
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A Spartan, being asked a question, answered "No." And when the questioner said, "You lie," the Spartan said, "You see, then, that it is stupid of you to ask questions to which you already know the answer!"
MODERATOR: [url:2dqwu8yc]http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=4100[/url]
A Spartan, being asked a question, answered "No." And when the questioner said, "You lie," the Spartan said, "You see, then, that it is stupid of you to ask questions to which you already know the answer!"
