Armour Flexibility

[Dan Howard]

I don't think you can really compare the cost of plate armour in the middle ages with that in ancient times (esp. not the late middle ages), seeing as the technology & infrastructure to manufacture steel plate in the middle ages was far in advance of anything the Romans would've had. Any form of plate armour most likely was a lot more expensive to manufacture in ancient times quite simply because it demanded skilled smiths and a more advanced 'know how' to manufacture than the by then old technology of chain mail.

You need to go back and get your misinformation straight. You have tried two completely opposite tacks so far.

Also whilst the time of contructing a shirt of chain mail takes longer than a plate cuirass for example, producing plate was still more expensive thanks to the expertise and equipment needed to do so, which was true in the medieval period and therefore also must have been the case in ancient times when the small efficient blast furnaces of the middle ages didnt exist.

This is your quote not mine. All I did was present evidence that directly contradicted this statement. First you specifically say that the cost of making armour in the middle ages could be used as an indicator of the cost for Roman armour and now you say it can't.

And here is where a key difference between the middle ages and the Roman empire becomes important I think: the Romans made far more extensive use of slave labour, something they could've used to produce chain mail quickly & cheaply in huge amounts as it didn't take much skill to make, saving the Romans precious time & money. The production of ferrous plate on the other hand would've proven a lot more difficult for the Romans, as it was a more advanced technology that demanded skilled smiths, the proper equipment and a rather highly developed infrastructure.

Read Sim and Kaminsky's new book. The Romans had production techniques that seem to be more advanced than that used for most of the medieval period.

Do some research on what it takes to produce iron wire without modern machinery. The cost of weaving the links is a fraction of the total production cost of mail armour. Citing slave labour as a cost saver for one industry and not another is disingenuous.