Polybius, horse archers arrows, roman armour, oh my.

[Matthew Amt]

Which just proves my point entirely, the shape of the bodkin I am talking about will penetrate mail, fired from a decent bow, at any mail, Indian or Real Roman.

We don't know that. You can do all kinds of tests with modern bows, modern arrows, and modern armor, and they really don't prove anything about the ancient equivalents. Without knowing exactly how much force a Parthian bow can impart (and all modern studies are necessarily theories, since no originals survive), and without knowing exactly how much force the mail can resist, there is no way to prove that any particular arrowhead can penetrate Roman mail. It is absolutely true that "given enough force" a blunt stick can go through armor, and therefore that given enough force an arrow can go through mail. What we simply do not know is *how often a bow was able to impart that much force*! A "decent bow" might simply not be strong enough to do that on any regular basis.

That said, even if an arrow strike has only a 1 percent chance of penetrating mail, given the number of arrows fired at the Romans, those legions are toast. But be careful of leaps in logic.

Valete,

Matthew