Caesarean Legionnaires without armor?

[Severus]

One thing springs to mind about being fired at during a siege is you are no doubt unusually close to the archers shooting arrows at you from the top of a wall, especially if you are at the base of a wall or gateway. Not only that, the arrows are no doubt firing down, not up into the air, and wouldn't lose any velocity. Maybe this has an effect on the stopping power of hamata, where it might be adequate during normal battle conditions? The closeness and downward velocity might give the arrow, at a complete and utter guess, twice the normal penetration, hence the need for something extra on top of your armour?

Your theory on height advantage sounds reasonable but the conquistadors weren't besieging the natives with any serious fortifications and the example shows the arrow being shot at the mail draped over or on a basket.

I think this points more to the fact that Caesar's men at Dyrrhachium were augmenting their armor rather than preparing their only source of body armor.

Anyone ever fired an arrow at their expensive hamata and recorded the results?

Anyone have any idea who bows from Native Americans match up against bows from Caesar's time. More hitting power? less? types of arrow heads?

This seems interesting. . .


Matt Webster