Musculata Images

[Alexand96]

Sorry guys, but we've been over this, and over this.

Hey Magnus, just in case you thought I was bringing up the posting of recreated musculata just as way to search for evidence of leather...no worries. I'm solidly in your camp on this one, and I think the points you bring up are just a few of the reasons why I think leather would not have been practical of desired in the Roman world.

I think we have it highly ingrained in our modern minds that leather is not only fashionable, but in many cases a luxury: think of Italian leather shoes, designer leather jackets and so on. In the ancient world, as far as I can tell, leather was usually used for its inherent qualities of toughness and was rather abundant. For some reason, I think its difficult for us to imagine that ALL of the depictions we see of emperors, generals and officers wearing extremely detailed, most likely heavy and uncomfortable plate armour. But Rome was a martial culture to the extreme, with no inhibition toward displays of wealth. They were hard, rich men, and in their finest moments (having their likeness transcribed onto statue), I believe they wanted to be shown as rich and as fierce as possible. I really believe the modern mindset, and the way we see things plays into this argument.