\'Black\' armour

[john m roberts]

There was a means of preventing rust that nobody has mentioned here: make the soldiers keep their damned armor clean! I spent three years in the Army. My rifle never got rusty because I cleaned it every day. My brass stayed shiny (we had brass back then) because I polished it every day. We had sergeants (who were similar in many ways to centurions) who were not at all shy about telling us to clean and maintain our gear, and about the punishments we would suffer if we failed to. Legionaries had plenty of motivation to keep their metal spotless, with or without oil, wax or tin.