lorica segmentata Question

[mcbishop]

I find it hard to believe that soldiers did not wear anything under armor. It would be usless against a blow to the shoulders because there would be nothing to absorb the shock so there would be broken bones.

Quite. The point of the article mentioned above is that the lorica segmentata will not sit correctly unless there is padding under the shoulders and the whole design of those overlapping laminated shoulder plates is to absorb and dissipate energy from blows. David Sim has got hold of a genuine trauma surgeon (keeps him in a cellar I believe) specifically to analyse what happens with padded/unpadded armour using the UK Defence Academy's facilities (high speed cameras, weighted projectiles with sensitive instruments etc etc) and has conducted experiments on all the main forms of armour. Trust me, you don't want to be under a blow without padding; it really would spoil your weekend (and your shoulder).

So the long and the short of it is that you need a padded garment that enables the horizontal strap on the segmentata breastplates to actually sit horizontally; if they didn't, we would see the stress in the archaeological finds and it simply isn't there.

Trust your instincts. All body armour needed padding.

Mike Bishop