Lorica hamata / segmentata

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Edward,

The amount of labour required just to make bloomery iron wire is way higher than anything involved in the making segmented plates and the quality of the iron must be much higher or it cannot pass through the draw plate without the slag inclusions causing it to continuously break. So the cost of labour is higher and so is the cost of the raw materials. A little of this is covered in Sims' "Iron for the Eagles". Apologies to all those who like segmentata but it is peasant armour. The state might have provided it but the cost was deducted from your pay. Those with the means would have worn hamata, squamata, musculata - anything but segmented plate.

What I don't understand is why Segmentata completely disappeared in the middle ages.
Wouldn't a quick-to-make cheap armor be very useful to arm the militia and levies?

First of all, I think that Dan Howard just said that the segmentata was not a quick-to-make cheap armor. :wink:
Second, the segmentata was in all probability already long out of use during the Roman period, and unknown to any Medieval European.
Plate armour was indeed re-introduced later, but as add-on armour over mail if I'm remembering correctly.