\"Celtic\" military technology and the Romans

[Renatus]

The above quotation implies that plate elements of cataphract armour are connected by mail, but the exact form of this connection is not evident. How small the "small pieces" of the torso armour were is also moot. I suspect that if a scale armour had been meant then other more accurately descriptive wording would have been used. Given that the panegyric is quite lyrical, I do not think that references to fish or other scaled creatures would have been wanting.

That is the passage that I alluded to earlier. Personally, I do not think that 'small pieces' can be anything other than scale or, possibly, lamellar.