Segmentata in the Eastern provinces

[Rado]

It's often suggested that Roman troops based in the east used lorica segmentata much less widely that those based in the west - or even not at all. Is there any real evidence for this, or is it a 'factoid'?

The only segmentata find I know of from the region is the one at Gamala, and that was particularly used by a soldier of V Macedonia, from the Danube.

If this is true, what might have been the reason for it? - Local supply? Custom or habit? Problems with sand and dust?

There are many finds of lorica seg.(of different models) from modern Bulgaria if you mean  Danube as a Eastern Roman provinces.Publications from THE LOWER DANUBE ROMAN LIMES ( 1 st -6 st C.AD)

[Nathan Ross]

if you mean  Danube as a Eastern Roman provinces.

Actually I meant 'the east' as in Syria, Judea, Egypt, etc...

Although Mike's post above implies that finds from eastern Europe are also scarce - I'm not sure if he was referring to Bulgaria.

[Caratacus]

Aha! I forgot about the Jerusalem finds and the chap from legio V Alaudau. Doesn't alter the situation much though, as was remarked that the Jewish War brought in many units from elsewhere in the Empire.

I also forgot about the Bulgarian finds - although I do have the information here somewhere! In addition there is a publication ("Castellum Albaniana", by Peter Bakker & Jan Willelm Bron) dealing with numerous lorica finds from that region. Again, it doesn't make for much of a change, because the finds from Germany, Holland, the UK, etc. are so much more numerous.

One curiosity is the variant of armour which has been called "lorica Alba Iulia" from the statue found in that place in Romania. Thus far, this type of armour appears to be unique to this region (although there are reports that some of the armour from Leon, in Spain, might have the same characteristics). This might possibly (note the hesitance here) lead to the idea that some of the scale armour parts that have been found might have come from this type of lorica segmentata, rather than from a pure scale armour coat. Just a thought!

I think that the jury is still very much out on this one. Compared to the western Europe situation, excavation work in the eastern half of the continent has only recently got started. I wouldn't mind betting that, given a few decades, we might find that a very different picture starts to emerge.

Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)