Leather Armor? (NO HOLDS BARRED!!)

[tlclark]

Matt,

Thanks for the post!

Well I now feel I know Brad Pitt as well as Angelina!

Given how the human body looks when it's in shape (not that most of us aren't in shape...but c'mon, we're no brad pitts!), how can you determine that these statues are in fact wearing armour, as opposed to having been rendered in the form of the perfect human body?

Or am I just missing something?

Short answer. We can't. For example check this out.

http://astro.temple.edu/~tlclark/lorica ... udiusa.jpg

Chances are the emperor claudius didn't look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is obviously a heroic idealized statue. How can we tell that these aren't meant just to be tight-fitting garments over idealized torsos? We can get at no definitive answer to that.

In fact your theory was the prevailing theory regarding these images and I think that was Robinson's position as well. The idea was that these were meant to represent tight-fitting armor made of linen, or even possibly mail! and the details would have been painted on.

When looking at the Antonine Pius above, it's entirely possible that that is what we are seeing. The cuirass seems utterly insubstantial, but in the Bergama statue, the cuirass has a muscled form though it is only semi-rigid. This image, and a few others, suggest that in fact they were NOT meant to be seen as tight-fitting garments but as musculata. Also, when we see the musculata in trophies or by itself, it has the muscled shape, so the evidence is that case is unambiguous. In general, I think if you weigh all the evidence, these are meant to be musculata and not tight-fitting garments over idealized torsos. That doesn't seem to be the case in the Bergama statue, but we can never know for sure that they meant that in all cases.

The musculata is a class, and every one is different. It's entirely possible that there were rigid, semi-rigid, and completely flexible musculatae. What I am presenting is my best reading of the evidence, and I don't think we are seeing tight-fitting garments, but I can't exclude that possibility.

Given the rest of your argument Travis, it's certainly plausible...maybe some less well-off tribunes couldn't afforde musculata in metal. I dunno...i know myself I'd certainly want it in metal...more of a status statement if you ask me.

Yeah, that makes total sense to me and I would agree that that would be more logical, but we have these flexible things next to emperors, and they get to choose how they are shown. That suggests that they liked this armor, and what it said about them.

Travis