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Roman Full Plate Armor?
#76
Right.

I am new to this forum and I don't wish to taint this discussion box with the dark forces of thread necromancy.

But I just have to say that it's nice to amongst fellow Romans who are astute in grasping that without Rome, the very pillars of civilization and the free movement of goods and men to pave and thrust swords of stone in the hearts of conquered territories there wouldn't be a civilized world and we would indefinitely be all illiterate.

Unlike other forums (i.e. Historum and other medieval forums to name a few) which I have been banned on for supporting Roman facts out of perverted fiction that Medieval bias-ts have couldn't understand or accept the hard hitting truth which proves the fact that Rome civilized them, this one has many members who are aware of this and so we avoid any perversion of history where possible and ultimately let the dead waste themselves under 6 feet of Roman soil.


Quote:It is generally assumed that the full-plate armor, e.g. of a medieval knight, was first invented in the Middle Ages (obviously ignoring Dendra Armor and other such items of great antiquity). Romans clearly had the technological access to a full-plate armor suit via the lorica segmentata, but they've never adopted a full-body suit as far as I know. It's precisely in this context that my interest was piqued by a passage in Tacitus:

Annals 3.43:

Quote:[Julius] Sacrovir with some armed cohorts had made himself master of Augustodunum, the capital of the tribe, with the noblest youth of Gaul, there devoting themselves to a liberal education, and with such hostages he proposed to unite in his cause their parents and kinsfolk. He also distributed among the youth arms which he had had secretly manufactured. There were forty thousand, one fifth armed like our legionaries; the rest had spears and knives and other weapons used in the chase. In addition were some slaves who were being trained for gladiators, clad after the national fashion in a complete covering of steel. They were called crupellarii, and though they were ill-adapted for inflicting wounds, they were impenetrable to them.

Do we have more information about these crupellarii?


EDIT: Oops, I have found some more things, e.g. this reconstructed suit:

[Image: crupellarius-n.jpg]

Do we know some specifics about the suit's construction, and what sort of provenance and usability it had?

Do we know the reasons why the Romans never adopted the crupellarius suit militarily (e.g. for tactical reasons)?


Rome had the technology to further develop the soldiers armour and implement that in ever cohort of infantry. But this was impractical.

Reason is simple.

The Lorics segmentata gave the legionary that ability to move with unfettered disturbance on the battlefield unencumbered by heavy armour would of been a serious disadvantage on rout marches and general combat as a whole.

The notion that the more armoured the better doesn't carry with it a practical basis and therefor is supported by those who generally lack knowledge of ancient-Medieval paraphernalia and it's advantages and disadvantages.

The political purpose of the time was to cease vast expanses of territory and deploy troops rapidly, this does outclass and degrade Roman military technology because of this, on the contrary, in fact as mentioned above the Roman plate armour was much better quality than that of Medieval times. But the technology of Roman Lorics segmentata in itself is a military wonder and advancement that many in fact nearly everyone disregards as been inferior.

The scutum ultimately was in my opinion better than been fettered inside heavy armour. I would feel more confident in battle behind a scutum than feel trapped and restricted in my ability to fight the enemy in full plate armour.

Infact it was the Medieval smiths that didn't have the capability or knowledge to make ROman armour to armour Medieval armies. Wink That would of been a total different stroy if that was done and society would of been a lot different with armour that served to preserve a soldiers life of different cultures and Medieval principalities.


Quote:Not strictly true, as sliding rivets were used in the Gamla lorica seg (in the backplates - I've seen the real thing and there is absolutely no doubting it). As for trip hammers, the latest metallographic evidence that David Sim is accruing and publishing seems to show clear signs of having been rolled and, as he pointed out to me once, the finest steel plate used in lorica seg was lighter and tougher than the best plate armour made in the Renaissance (better than the stuff Maximilian gave to Henry VIII). It was just a pity that it always looked like it had been assembled by monkeys.

Mike Bishop


You are 100% correct. You deserve an award for showing excellency in astuteness.

I hope others absorb the light your comment has to offer.

Bravo.
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