Can you imagine the time it would take to make just the metal plates of the armour for one guy let alone for thousands of them. They had to be pounded out so this and uniform all by hand. No mill driven hammers back then
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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Funny enough, one of the suspected advantages of this is that, though it required a skilled specialist to make, it was relatively quick compared to chainmail - lorica segmentata was designed to be mass-produced, essentially. ~20 big plates vs. 25,000 rings for mail.
It's harder to repair, though. A few links get busted in mail, you just make a few new ones of roughly the same shape and type and forge them in. A teenage apprentice of the local provincial town can bang out the repair. A bit of the lorica segmentata gets busted, and you need another plate of just the right size and curvature to replace it, and the local blacksmith of the ~100 population provincial town probably isn't going to be able to handle it.
When the Legions moved away from self-sufficient units (wherein specialist legionary blacksmiths handled a large portion of the work), the lorica segmentata, likewise, fell by the wayside.
Thank you. I miss the historical nerds sharing rid bits. Seriously. I love this shit
I was talking to one guy once (few times a while back) and turns out he was an Oxford phd student and specialized in 3-4 ancient languages.
Thank you. I miss the historical nerds sharing rid bits. Seriously. I love this shit
I live to please! 🙏
I was talking to one guy once (few times a while back) and turns out he was an Oxford phd student and specialized in 3-4 ancient languages.
I'm always in awe of folk with that level of drive and education. Like being a Little Leaguer meeting someone on a baseball card.
This drawing is cool as fuck
The falx penetrating the shield for the frontmost and middle legionary was a really nice touch. The penetrative power of the falx was exactly what caused the legions in Dacia to (temporarily) uparmor themselves with armguards and heavier helmets.
But I guess the guy at the front was wishing he'd had some armour at this point.
"My muscles will protect me" - guy whose muscles will not, in fact, protect him
Agreed the metal looks so incredibly shiny