Leather Cuirass

[Tarbicus]

This is due to the use of the term 'linothorakes' by various ancient authors, initially I believe, by Herodotus, who describes it as being of egyptian origin (logically enough, since flax is a common crop in fertile Egypt ).

But Herodotus was a contemporary of the armour. There's no reason to suppose his description is mistaken.

But could this be true of Greece? Flax requires many acres, a lot of water, and is labour intensive . Furthermore there is no evidence of flax being grown in any quantity in mountainous Classical Greece. Did the city states have enough money to import vast quantities of flax/linen to equip it's citizen soldiers? (Each linothorax requires many, up to 15, layers to make a single cuirass - see Matthew Amt's article on reconstruction for the large amount necessary, and the difficulties involved.)

Look around your house and figure out how much of your possessions, including clothing, is imported from China or a similar major exporter of goods. You're assuming linen was expensive, but if it was extremely cheap to buy (Egypt specialised in textile production, I thought, with vast resources to make it), and trade was easy, I don't see an issue. All we have these days is the ability to transport the goods over greater distances in a shorter time period, but the principals of trade are the same.

More importantly, a much cheaper alternative was avilable to a Greek 'Polis' -leather....

I'm staying away from that one. :wink: