Lorica hamata / segmentata

[Tarbicus]

I take your point, but I doubt any battle would last longer than a few hours, and not all troops would engage the enemy. For longer periods I imagine scale being one of the easiest armours to repair, needing only some spares and thread or wire. As hamata is often quoted as being more favoured than seg because it's easier to repair (not an opinion I subscribe to), the same popular reasoning should put scale way up there on top; Plenty of it on the Adamklissi metopes.