Leather Armor? (NO HOLDS BARRED!!)

[tlclark]

Thanks, Travis. I see your position more clearly now.

So, as you see it, there's a period of change at work here. First, there are linen/metal cuirass types co-existing, followed by leather/metel, then finally just leather cuirasses when we reach Antoninus Pius.

Close. Here's the way I would describe my current view which is open to revision.

The early musculata is largely inspired by the late hellenistic linothorax, meaning that in Republican and early imperial times, it is most likely leather or composite. However, it also strongly borrows on the greek bronze muscled cuirass, so there are obvious combinations and variations, and certainly some are bronze, I think the necklines are the dead give-away. The round necklines are probably meant to represent bronze cuirasses since that's the greek tradition for bronze cuirasses, they are all round. Square are probably a vestigal hangover from the linothorax.

It's probably wrong to think of the musculata as a type, like the segmentata or a hamata. Rather it is a class, with many subcategories and no doubt lots of variation. Also, we are looking at armor of a particular social group, officers and even high-ranking officers at that. Musculata worn by people just under them might have a totaly different construction.

Beginning in the early imperial period, there is probably a shift to more metal than leather cuirasses. I say this for two reasons. One, there is a lot of ornate breastplates with details that would be hard to render in leather, and lots of round necklines. This is more or less constant through the Julio-Claudian and into the Flavian period. From here, everything starts to change. Round necklines disappear, square becomes standard, the shoulder harnesses and tongue pteruges are obviously leather, and the hinges and torsos seem to have a lot more "twist" and torsion to them, something that would be impossible in bronze. This is also the time period we see a lot of those floppy cuirasses flung over tree-stumps which can't be explained by anything except leather or maybe molded laminate textiles.

Aside from Hadrian, whose every cuirasses is an elaborate showpiece with VERY ornate and diverse iconography, the emperors' image becomes standard, it is also at this time the musculata become more or less standard, this is the period of not only the MOST musculatae, but also the most detailed (from a technical view) musculatae. Details that have no real iconographic purpose, like the textured pteruges, the armhole flaps, are more common. They really do seem to represent actual cuirasses and not just some standard artistic type. And the details on these, all point to leather.

Now, that doesn't mean that all musculata are leather, just the the ones used by officers and the emperor are, which makes me think that these are parade or ceremonial pieces.

Then it all starts to go south. Side seams disappear, cuirasses start to take on torsions not even possible to human anatomy, there are bizarre flourishes, it really does seem that things are rendered more according to style than reality and after that, it's anyone's guess, but the scaled musculata shows up right about this time, so I would argue that that's evidence for a leather musculata that needs reinforcement.

There, hope that's clear.

On pteruges, I don't know what to think anymore. I'm fairly certain that they are cloth, but I am having a hard time deciding if they are felt, linen laminate, felt/linen composite, or possibly even weft-faced heavy wool bands!

Travis