Lorica Hamata or Lorica Segmentata

[Crispvs]

"With regard to the tombstone of Marcus Favonius Facilis the musculataesque feature is the rounded bottom edge at the front .... Quintus Sertorius Festus the musculataesque feature are the two staggered rows of semicircular scale flaps."

Good point, and one I had not considered before. However, the fact that Severus' squamata does not have a shaped lower edge, lappets, or anything else to distinguish it from any other squamata, should lead us to be cautious about assuming that a centurio's armour would necessarily differ from that of his men.

Therefore Thomas, while it might be nice to have an armour with a shaped lower edge, it would not be at all inaccurate to have one which either finishes just below the waist or which extends down over the hips either.

"Every contemporary centurion depiction I am aware of doesn't include chest hooks. Maybe (some) centurions chosed to omit the hooks, as muscle cuirasses weren't equipped with chest hooks."

How many have you seen? Of those wearing mail, Facilis certainly has doubling, so we might well ask about chest hooks, but Petronius Classicus does not appear to have doubling and neither does Marcus Caelius (who I forgot to mention above). Neither of the scale wearing centuriones (Severus and Festus) have doubling either. Minucius Lorianus is unarmoured. That would seem to be just one example of shoulder doubling to consult, unless you can think of some I haven't mentioned. ;-)


"In my layman (!) opinion the tombstone of Marcus Favonius Facilis is so detailed, that existing chest hooks would have been included by the sculptor."

Again I am inclined to agree with you here. It might be that the shoulder doubling was tied with thonging or laces to points on the chest of the armour in the same way as the earlier linothorax, as there must have been something to stop the flaps of the doubling flying up during sharp movements.


"According to Thomas Fischer, the flexibility of mail and scale armour was the reason for centurions using said kinds of armour instead of real muscle cuirasses."

Hmmm - that is as maybe, but I don't recall seeing that in the writing of any ancient author I have read, so it seems like an assumption to me.
I suspect that Mr Fischer is not used to wearing armour though, as if he was, he might have known that whilst less rigid than a musculata, squamata is far less flexible than hamata or segmentata as it needs to be attached to a fairly stiff backing material and due to the wired construction of the rows of scales there is only limited lateral flexibility. I say that as someone used to wearing both segmentata and squamata, as well as hamata, although I admit to never having worn a musculata.


Crispvs