Armor: How effective was Chainmail

[Kegluneq]

We have no idea whether Romans wore a subarmalis under their mail. IMO their mail had an integrated padded liner and they just wore a regular tunic underneath.

I know this was brought up last time but I'm still highly sceptical of this. It seems to me you'd lose a lot of advantages of ring mail by fixing it to a padded undercoat, from flexibility to ease of cleaning, repair and transportation. Is there a historical equivalent that could put my mind to rest on that account? I'm not aware of any archaeological example of Roman ring mail that shows signs of attached textiles, or means of doing so.

Given that mail sleeves and chausses would have been possible for Romans to have made, it is obvious that segmented limb armour offered some advantage over mail in the opinion of Roman armourers and those procuring armour.

I believe this was certainly McCarthy et al's conclusion regarding the manicae from Carlisle, which were kept in active use until they had all but disintegrated. Rigid armour would certainly be more important on the limbs than heavy padding. These obviously needn't have been worn only with seggy though, even if surviving art indicates that.