Did they or didn\'t they ?

[SOCL]

I don't think Dando-Collins can really be trusted at all, for all the reasons mentioned, especially by Tarbicus. Additionally, though, he has a tendency to take a theory and repeat it without the theory disclaimer, so it becomes this sort of parrot behavior, which I think plagues too much of the "popular history" of Rome so that you get things that were just theories becoming accepted fact without proof or verification. As Matt quoted, Mike Bishop states this quite clearly ("In such circumstances I see no problem in reconstructing a centurion in lorica seg so long as nobody starts saying 'this is how it was done' rather than 'this might have been how it was done' (because that is how factoids are born"). I guess I'm really only posting because I think this needs to be addressed on a larger scale within the reenacting community where theories become fact(oids). In any event, I'm also concerned that definitively saying "Yes, centurions might have worn segmentata" will eventually dissolve into "Centurions only wore segmentata" in the same sort of behavior people have taken to saying "Centurions only wore hamata", etc.