Was the leather muscled curiass of the later times sexier?

[wulfgar60]

A leather shield dating to the Bronze Age was found in Ireland, plus a wooden mold for making similar shields....If you're just standing around the punchbowl at a party, go ahead, and speculate your heads off. Just be careful here on RAT, because we lean more towards the academic and reenactor viewpoint.

Show us the EVIDENCE. Modern ideas of "logic" and "common sense" will get you nowhere.

Valete,

Matthew

There was a test done with a reconstructed Irish leather shield and a reconstruction of the same design of shield in bronze, examples of which have survived. They were cut with a reconstructed bronze sword. The leather shield (not dissimilar to the targes used by Jacobite clansmen in 1745) was very resistant to sword blows but the bronze equivalent was sliced open with ease.

I am an academic, and without the application of logic all arguments are crippled. Once again I feel I must point out that I am arguing for the mere possibility, not in any sense either the probability or, heaven forfend, the actuality, of Roman leather cuirasses.

As I write this I'm struck by the etymology of the word 'cuirass' - how ironic!

That's the problem with a rigid defense Martin. Plate armor could be a very good defense and send the blow skidding of. But it's rigidity could also capture the full force of the blow. Flexible types of armor can turn a blow, the force losing itself in the turning process.

If the segmenta was such a superior piece of armor. And there was no great difficulty it's fabrication. Then why was it abandoned in favor of flexible types of armor?

The earlier gladius was a functional sword that didn't require fantastic steel. But the growing use of the spatha coincided with the abandonment of the segmenta. And spatha's were often made of exceptional steel work. One modern investigation places them on par with samurai swords. A soft and flexible core with extremely hardened edges.

Just how well would the segmenta withstand all kinds of blows? How thick was the metal plate? 1mm?

In more recent eras leather armor proved popular even when plate was easily obtainable.