Leather Armor? (NO HOLDS BARRED!!)

[Tarbicus]

As far as puncture resistance I have to disagree. I have seem many a pair of 'leathers' protect or save people from some nasty impalings by metal tools, many of which would have points or edges as serious as any gladius.

So have I. But this leather was too thick to be the flexible material in your sculptures.

I nipped out to the British Museum and took some snaps of some bits and pieces. Anyway, here's one of a muscled cuirass from either Greece or Italy from the 4th C BC, the Ruvo cuirass.



This being so small I'm sure only a tunic could be worn underneath, even taking into account the difference in stature between moderns and ancients, and provided anyone agrees with that statement, how would this stop an arrow at high velocity? When I say small, it's tiny. No way both tunic and subarmalis would fit, except for a 12 year old.

I doubt that an arrow could puncture it

Arrows can puncture it quite easily - even light hunting arrows. It is useless as armour unless it is layered or too thick to provide any flexibility.

See above.

but arrows have been known to puncture plate as well. The French Knights at Avignon had the best plate armor protection available and it was still inadequate to the English long bow.

This is a myth best left to another discussion. You are thinking of Agincourt, not Avignon, and the English longbow could not puncture plate armour.

From what I know the English longbow could puncture French plate, it couldn't puncture Milanese plate. Hence the French hired Italian mercenary knights to lead the attack. Thankfully for the English they were so undisciplined they swept through and carried on to the English baggage train leaving the French exposed, and the heavily outnumbered English drove the French into a bloodbath. I'm thinking of either Crecy or another battle of that time (the latter I think but I can't remember the name offhand). Was the Milanese plate armour technique known to the ancients?