Leather Armor? (NO HOLDS BARRED!!)

[Crispvs]

I have to wonder... if it is possible to emboss copper alloy into the myriad of shapes we know the Romans did, and if it was fashionable for generals in the early imperial period to have political and/or mythological scenes or figures embossed into their breastplates, why could it not have been equally fashionable for those who wore breastplates a century of two later to have had copper-alloy brestplates embossed with scales? Why does the appearance of scales have to indicate leather? We do not know the minds of the armourers or most of the senior officers who may have worn breastplates decorated with scales. How then can we assume that simply because the decoration of sculpted figures has changed the material being depicted must have changed?
Twisting or warping of bodily shapes in sculpture may be nothing more than artistic licence and to my mind does not indicate the material of the armour with any degree of security. The lack of hinges or seems is better evidence for the nature of the material depicted but still may suffer from artists views on how they should depict something. Sculptures may be very interesting and often instructive, but they are not photographs. Therefore we do not know how much actuality we are seeing versus artists' methodology.

Crispvs