Leather Armor? (NO HOLDS BARRED!!)

[Theodosius the Great]

Woah- two big problems with that one: first pteruges aren't proof of musculatae, and don't by themselves suggest anything at all.

True, he could be wearing chain mail.

And after saying that you disagree that it's bad to assume he must be wearing armor, how can you say it back?

Easily, because there's a context to support my assumption - i.e. everyone's wearing armor. But to assume that he is wearing nothing but a subarmalis is much more shaky because AFAIK, there's never been a subarmalis that can be clearly identified in sculpture. We don't know if pteruges were attached to armor or a subarmalis.

So depending on the context, some assumptions are safer than others, IMO.

but the fact is that if you look at the size of the musculatae on the other men, the one who's wearing a tunica doesn't have the same size under it.

Okay, good observation. It may suggest he's wearing chain mail. But like someone said earlier, sculpture isn't a photograph, so maybe the artist didn't catch some detail. Who knows...but those pteruges are attached to something Without all the facts, we need to make assumptions to formulate theories. Sometimes there's no choice.