12-16-2014, 11:38 PM
Hi David
I'm of the "leather armor is unlikely" school -- a junior centurion (as Facilis apparently was) would find himself at the front of a battle line in the thick of battle and would, in my opinion, have a more robust defense than linen over leather. However, why not linen or thin leather over mail? I've seen plausible reconstructions of shoulder doubling that are mail faced with linen or thin leather; why not do the whole cuirass this way? It would provide the protection of mail but would provide a surface more suitable for decoration and embellishment.
Well, Dan Howard will provide you with plenty of evidence for the existence of leather armour, although not of the musculata or segmentata variety!
I myself was not advocating linen over leather but the other way around, in the Greek manner. As Facilis was indeed a junior centurion as you say, undecorated and relatively young when he died, then perhaps his defence was not as robust as senior centurions.
Nevertheless the idea of leather covers for mail shirts is not new, even Russell Robinson suggested that possibility. However I like your way of thinking when it comes to the idea of them being decorated and embellished.
The main problem with the type of protection I illustrated would be whether anyone could raise their arms wearing such a cuirass. The article in case you have not seen it included a reconstruction in linen with the extensions over the shoulder. The maker was photographed wearing it and raising his arms. Still the overall consensus of opinion is that the armour would be mail.
Graham.
I'm of the "leather armor is unlikely" school -- a junior centurion (as Facilis apparently was) would find himself at the front of a battle line in the thick of battle and would, in my opinion, have a more robust defense than linen over leather. However, why not linen or thin leather over mail? I've seen plausible reconstructions of shoulder doubling that are mail faced with linen or thin leather; why not do the whole cuirass this way? It would provide the protection of mail but would provide a surface more suitable for decoration and embellishment.
Well, Dan Howard will provide you with plenty of evidence for the existence of leather armour, although not of the musculata or segmentata variety!
I myself was not advocating linen over leather but the other way around, in the Greek manner. As Facilis was indeed a junior centurion as you say, undecorated and relatively young when he died, then perhaps his defence was not as robust as senior centurions.
Nevertheless the idea of leather covers for mail shirts is not new, even Russell Robinson suggested that possibility. However I like your way of thinking when it comes to the idea of them being decorated and embellished.
The main problem with the type of protection I illustrated would be whether anyone could raise their arms wearing such a cuirass. The article in case you have not seen it included a reconstruction in linen with the extensions over the shoulder. The maker was photographed wearing it and raising his arms. Still the overall consensus of opinion is that the armour would be mail.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
