07-28-2004, 03:11 AM
I seriously doubt the Romans ever used leather (or rawhide, bone, wood, etc.) armor. Huge amounts of Roman military equipment survives from all over Europe and the Middle East, and plenty of Roman leather survives from military sites, but no leather armor. Archeology and the written sources indicate that some of Rome’s enemies, like the Sarmatians and Parthians, utilized armor made of leather or raw hide, and even horse hooves. However, these were really only cheaper versions of the more expensive iron or bronze armors owned by the wealthiest members of those societies; the poorest warriors, usually the majority, went unarmored. But Rome was an extremely wealthy society, with state control of the military; generally speaking, Rome fielded soldiers, while her enemies fielded war-bands. Rome had the wealth, resources and industrial capacity to outfit all of its regular soldiers with high-quality armor and weapons. There might be the odd exception, like recruitment of local auxiliaries or allies who came with their own equipment (which may be one explanation for the Dura armor), but for the most part I find the idea of Romans using leather armor very unlikely.<br>
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From what I understand about that crocodile armor (and I believe there was hippo armor too), no one is exactly sure what it was used for or even who used it. One belief was I think that it may have been used in religious ceremonies. I think Sumner’s theory was that the Romans might have used it to equip hastily levied troops during the Palmyrene rebellion, but I find even that explanation rather dubious.<br>
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I wouldn’t mind getting into another long discussion about lamellar, but for now I’ll just say that I don’t think the Romans ever used it (I know, I should at least qualify that a bit...) Lamellar seems to have developed slowly, with different types paralleling each other (as seen in the Etruscan and Palmyrene carvings discussed in the previous thread). My own reading of the evidence suggests to me that “trueâ€ÂÂ
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From what I understand about that crocodile armor (and I believe there was hippo armor too), no one is exactly sure what it was used for or even who used it. One belief was I think that it may have been used in religious ceremonies. I think Sumner’s theory was that the Romans might have used it to equip hastily levied troops during the Palmyrene rebellion, but I find even that explanation rather dubious.<br>
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I wouldn’t mind getting into another long discussion about lamellar, but for now I’ll just say that I don’t think the Romans ever used it (I know, I should at least qualify that a bit...) Lamellar seems to have developed slowly, with different types paralleling each other (as seen in the Etruscan and Palmyrene carvings discussed in the previous thread). My own reading of the evidence suggests to me that “trueâ€ÂÂ
