Novae, Bulgaria Bronze Segmentata?

[A_Volpe]

how big are these fragments? Just because some bits and pieces were found strewn with some other bits and pieces that looks like Segmentata fittings, to me that does not equal an all-bronze or primarily-bronze seggie armor.

Is it not possible that the fragments could have been a replacement plate as a last-minute throw-together?

The Corbridge horde - from what I have been told - had a shoulder section of seggie armor where they did away with the hinge entirely on one of the plates, electing to just rivet the whole section of plates together - Could a "spacer" plate of bronze be used in a similar fashion? I think that is more probable than making a whole armor of bronze.

Dan -

This makes no sense. Segmentata was peasant armour. Anyone with the wealth to have bronze armour would be wearing a musculata, not segmentata.

I'm not sure I understand the categorizing of bronze as a "peasant" material? Romans were using bronze for all sorts of applications, and if going by what you said, why would a wealthy well-to-do officer be paying for such "peasant" metal? Would he not be going for a more expensive, exotic material to show off his status?

The quality of their brass and bronze I have been told by several people is of high quality. One person has explained to me it's on the same level of quality they are using in their coins. That is not "cheapo" material. If the metal was of such poor quality, then why did the Romans horde it so much and use it so much?

Most of the evidence supports the idea that Romans seemed to have preferred Iron for their body armor, whereas brass seemed to be pretty common for helmets. So if this is what you mean by bronze not being used by soldiers for body armor, I would tend to agree with you.

But the category of "peasant" in the first place - To the best of my knowledge, Classes of soldiers reflecting a Roman's land and status was essentially eliminated once the Legions became "all volunteer"...Also, the evidence that a large amount of arms and armor and gear being as heavily decorated, tinned and silvered as there is for the Romans, I don't see how a soldier pouring a lot of his hard-earned, measly paycheck into his gear categorizes him as a "peasant", if he is making just a little extra money to be able to decorate his gear, that is an indication they were not necessarily living bare-bones and paycheck to paycheck.