Leather Armor? (NO HOLDS BARRED!!)

[Felix]

Could the changes in depiction of musculata from the Augustan to the Antonine eras reflect a degeneration of an armour type? There is an example of that happening in Qing (Manchu) Dynasty China. The court uniforms began as functional reinforced cloth armour, but over many years became cloth suits decorated with lots of gilded rivets that held nothing in place, but were purely decorative. In this case, such suits can be called armour, but lacked real defensive value. This brings up a point noted above - musculata are shown often enough on men of high status, who (generally) were not close to the fighting. If leather is an acceptable armour because it is cheap/available, one would expect to see a lot of it on the lower ranking types, auxiliaries and others.