Armor: How effective was Chainmail

[Nathan Ross]

IMO their mail had an integrated padded liner...

It seems to me you'd lose a lot of advantages of ring mail by fixing it to a padded undercoat... I'm not aware of any archaeological example of Roman ring mail that shows signs of attached textiles, or means of doing so.

I wanted to ask about this too, the last time it came up. I remember Dan saying that the leather 'edging' on mail would suggest a fixed liner underneath. As far as I know, though, this edging is only shown on representations of early hamata shoulder doublers, which are a double layer of mail anyway. As Robert says, an integral liner would seem to have few advantages and many disadvantages. Quicker to put on, perhaps?

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.

The Adamklissi metopes show manica used with scale and mail. It's perhaps easy to see why plate might be preferable to mail as a limb defence - the chances of a blow breaking or fracturing bone and disabling an arm or leg are much greater with a more flexible armour.