Time period weapons vs time period armor

[Bryan]

In his De Beneficiis (On Benefits) (5, 24), Seneca the Younger recounts an anecdotal story of Caesar meeting up with one of his old veterans that he had met before but no longer recognized due to extensive scars from battle, where the soldier had his eye taken out and his skull crushed (though survived), as well as his helmet split open, by a Spanish machaera.