What was Roman Army PLATE ARMOR? (All about 'Lorica Segmentata' wearing and use) 

So shiny. Too bad I replaced my suitcase about two weeks ago. One of my wheels disintegrated into a few chunks. Parking lots and brickwork were hard on the tiny plastic wheels.

Lorica Segmentata isn't plate armor, it's laminar armor, come on, your channel literally is about military material culture history. And it's armor 101. And you've forgotten that "Lorica Segmentata" is a 16th-century name, not an original one.

A bit of feedback on the sound. You were "over miked" lets say, and Gavin was "under miked" plus you have a very strong voice whereas Gavins is softer. So you came across a bit too loud and Gavin was sometimes hard to hear. Hope that helps. Great presentation otherwise. Thank you. Cheers!

Funnily enough we were both at Tod's recently. But we didn't stab Gavin. This time.

Or how he can throw while wearing the armor

@@sf90001 Gavin and Michael together so Michael can try throwing in the armor and also try throwing at the armor.

It doesn't look very heavy either. I wonder by how much it'd slow a man in the 100 yard dash. Of course the scutum and pilum would have their effect too.

@@sf90001 I for one am very curious how well he could throw a pilum in vs out of the armor.

they did. Read M.C. Bishop

It made manufacturing the armor on an industrial scale possible. Thousands of individual plates could be manufactured and then fitted by a legion’s armorers to the dimensions of the individual soldiers.

I think that informs maille ultimately winning out; it's one size fits most and very easy to repair, salvage, maintain etc

@@Toxoplasma13 but maille protects very differently from plate and does not work well against spears and arrows so it depends on the regular opponents. Maille is also heavier than plate and puts more weight on the shoulders causing greater fatigue over time.

​@@Toxoplasma13 Maille did not win out but was always present till the age of gun powder. Maille limits one to a shield for without plate armour you cannot hope to stop projectiles like a volley of arrows. Men in warfare are equipped according to their intended function. So you know continental Europe France, German & Italy highly favoured plate armour while England favoured Brigandine being a island nation as plate is not practical aboard ships though the English nobility wore probably the best plate armour of any nation. Function, Wealth & status determined a lot. People say 1 size fits all but maille comes more in small to extra large like a T shirt. if a rotund/plump induvial you cannot realistically fight in plate armour as it simply won't fit or rest on the hips having all weight upon the shoulders. Maille or Brigandine are th2 main option of armour used by the overweight. Laminar armour such as Lorica segmentata shown is early proto plate armour which can allow some excess garth but it has it's limits. Lamellar armour is the stage between Laminar/ lorica segmentata & Lorica squamata/scaled armour. The Romans called maille 'Lorica hamata'. In Roman times why one wore hamata, squamata aut segmentata depended on their role in an army as well as personal preference, personal wealth & physical weight etcetera. Wearing Segmenata from horseback as cavalry is not comfortable though some did so. Squamata was preferred to hamata but scale armour was more expensive & time consuming to hamata/maille. Some soldiers even went without metal armour on horseback for mobility. A professional cavalry like Equites Romani were completely differently equipped compared to Alae /auxiliary cavalry. both required but for completely different function on campaign. The oldest armour being a helmet before any metal body armour was a thing the Helmet type of plate armour mind.

Ugh, if I cared much about the algorithm I'd probably be making different sorts of video. Hopefully some history and armour is interesting enough to some people.

Because the romans gave humanity so much and they were such a strange popup in history. A relatively small spot on the map that became a world dominating super power. All cultures since Rome have been vastly influences by them and in many cases still are today.

Largely because the Romans seem so familiar yet foreign when you read about them. Archaeologically and technologically, we have far less information than we would like. We tend to imagine them as technologically inferior, but there are traces of remarkable devices: thermos-like metal containers, a remarkable, plane-table-like surveying device with threaded adjustments, and who knows what else. They were technologically on the edge of an industrial revolution, but events, sociology, economics, and politics forbade.

(and we're living through the fall of Rome v2.0)

​ The gave us NUFFIN'! Apart from sanitation, education, roads (goes without saying...), aqueducts and peace. And wine, of course. Nuffin' I tell ya!

« What did the Romans ever do for us? » 😊

@@chefchaudard3580 Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order… and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?!

@@-Zevin- AND the robes!

​@@-Zevin- mass pedophilia, rape, torture, slavery and murder....

@@chefchaudard3580 Brought peace?

It kind of didn't... In that it evolved to match the changing shields and weapons, and then late Roman helmets become early medieval helmets as worn by Saxons, Franks etc. You can clearly see the line from 4th century Roman helmets to 5th/6th century 'Germanic' helmets and then onto Vendel, Anglo-Saxon etc.

Early "dark ages" helmets still followed the same principles. The question really is rather, why did mail aventails replace cheek pieces?

I find it interesting how the Roman helmet has cheek pieces but no nose protection, when the later early medieval helmet only has a nasal.

Finally it was used by Polish winged hussars (kinda similar in principles) and even later by Prussian cuirassiers.

@@hjorturerlend Covers way more, doesn't flop around nearly as much if it rest on the shoulders nicely, and breathes, despite covering way more, probably. You can flip the question and ask why Romans didn't come up with mail collars/aventails, when they were doing some really impressive mail for over 500 years. But it seems that mail followed the shape of tunics and other clothing closely for quite a while, it didn't even have real sleeves until ~ 250 AD or so.

Thank you! This is an underrated comment and ubderexplored concept. Seems a great bridge between brigadine and cuirasses?

Seems like a sophisticated coat of plates. But I imagine even more than a thousand years earlier that controlling the Mediterranean gave the Romans unparalleled resources that allowed for such sophisticated armour long before it would be seen again. Though obviously it didn't reach the heights of late medieval plate armour. But clearly, segmentata would offer a huge advantage over contemporary opponents in antiquity wearing only mail or no armour at all.

DON'T TEMPT HIM, THIS IS DANGEROUS

For "Senatus Populusque Romanus" of course !

😂

FIGHT,FIGHT,FIGHT!

Average Murr punishment

I've got a keen interest in the Sub-Roman period too, and I'd be extremely excited to see anything Mat could do on the subject. Although I think a large part of the reason it feels overlooked is that there is less surviving evidence and less research than there is before and after.

@@tiltskillet7085 i agree with you there. The evidence got overtaken by later Saxon artifacts or in the case of wales, by norman incursions It's just an interesting part of history because I'm fascinated by the idea of how the romano British society in the cities slowly became more natively British after the romans left. It'd be a really interesting period culturally

Is there any armour (or images of it) found in Britain for that period? There are 5 or so Anglo-Saxon helmets (from a much longer period). I think four of those were found in graves because the pagan Anglo-Saxons were buried with their armour whereas Christian Britons wouldn't have been. This is a period where people stop making much, even, say wheel-thrown pottery. You might assume they'd keep producing arms and armour in a dangerous world, particularly given, eg, there seems to be evidence of continued occupation of some of the forts on Hadrian's Wall but were they making do and mending? And if they were making new stuff what was it? I don't think we can say for sure. Metal is recyclable after all, if you don't be buried with it. Maybe there's more evidence from the continent.

There is a very cool video of a guy doing exercises while wearing a reconstruction of the Kalkreise Lorica Segmentata in the museum. He can do pretty much anything, press-ups, forward rolls, pull ups etc.

I'd think they'd only have the armor on while doing labor in rare circumstances.

I was looking if anyone else noticed. He does *not* look happy to be there. Is he cold? Did he hear some bad news? Trying to hold in diarrhea? Or he's just uncomfortable with anyone else getting handsy with his baby.

and 100m dash, followed by throw a spear(s)

This sounds cool. A comparison between other types of armor’s mobility sounds like a great idea.

Or do cartwheels like knights in full plate used to do.

Frankly, they were insanely well armoured by the standards of the day.

​@@scholagladiatoriaWould you say that their armament plus the discipline played a major part in their victory against Boudicca and the Britons? Besides the location that is. Oh if I may be so bold, would it be possible to do a video about the Greek hoplites and their armour, especially the linothorax and how effective it was against thrusting and cutting?

Yeah I need to do more on Greek arms and armour. Also earlier and non-European stuff. As for the Boudiccan revolt - yes... basically I don't think the Britons stood a chance unless they could take the Romans piece by piece when hugely outnumbered. Hit and run skirmishing would have been the way to go, not pitched battles unless with very uneven sizes.

​@@scholagladiatoriaSo basically what Arminius did in Germania,making Augustus really upset, yelling;Varus where are my Legions? 😁

Technically, they had the technology to wear plate from head to toe (think the fully enclosed helmets standard bearers wore, for arms and legs think gladiator gear). I guess it was simply not practical, as it would have meant much more heat and more parts to maintain. Also, more costs for each legionare. The system they had was simply genius IMO.

Noted!

It's Lorica Musculata if I'm not mistaken. And yes, it was a breastplate that was sculpted to look like abs and pecs and was indeed officer armor usually high ranking officers at that.

@@adambielen8996 I have always wondered why these types of armor weren't more popular, was this a much more expensive technical piece to produce? That would explain it only being available to the upper-class / officers.

​@-Zevin- can't be made en masse or in a modular way. Private purchase only. Popular with self-equipping Greek hoplites, but a bad match for how Roman soldiers were organised and equipped.

@@-Zevin- Yes, it was considerably more expensive to make.

I believe you may be thinking of Lorica musculata.

Both: it was mass-produced (well, sort of) but every legionary paid for it through pay discounts. And, if they had the money and the fancy, they could get it customized, I suppose: a whole train of merchants and artisans followed every legion like fleas to a dog,

I honestly am going to destroy his helmet soon. I mean literally - he sent me a helmet to destroy. Coming soon to a screen near you.

@@scholagladiatoria That is going to be glorious

Looking forward to it!

Our pleasure!

'94 was a great year, and Soundgarden an important part of my youth!

As regards logistics, sizing and so on. Nobody knows. All there are are a few rusty iron and copper-alloy bits (not even enough to fill a suitcase) and some more or less inaccurate sculptural representations. Nobody even knows what it was even called ("lorica segmentata" is a made-up modern name).

His face would be way more obvious one, though it's obviously the part of body one generally protects constantly both consciously and subconsciously. And can generally see attack coming at his face...

Corintiation helmets protect the face. Also, I've heard on a channel about ninja people don't usually account for things visual 45 degrees above them of below there feet. Not really serious, but still think makes sense. Dude covered in so much bronze everyone has trouble even straching him, even shoot in the foot, bleeds out, give a few hundreed years and a myth is born.@@lscibor

Thats a really cool idea would love to see it

That's only a modern supposition. The only Roman images of the belt worn with this armour in combat show it either totally missing or very short (apparently wound round the belt to shorten it [?]). People tend to let themselves be too influenced by reconstruction paintings in books and by what they see "Roman" cosplayers wear.

I know some were tinned, which might suggest that they were usually brushed/polish silver finish normally rather than blackened or painted etc.

@@scholagladiatoria thank you

It's an interesting thought, for which, unfortunately there is not a shred of evidence either way.

I've never seen any evidence of that

@@scholagladiatoria thx for the reply. Yeah its interesting Romans didnt seem to find it useful or practical.

It doesn't seem like they really thought about adding real sleeves to mail, until some late 2nd century AD at least, despite the fact that their striking hands and arms in particular would be exposed quite a lot. Despite the fact that they were experimenting with manica, and gladiators seemingly have been wearing some arm protection like that for long time, so it wasn't completley alien idea. Same thing with very elaborate helmets, closed helmets. It seems it just wasn't deemed worth the cost and trouble, despite the fact it seems weird to us, today. Eventually the did adopt sleeved mail, with sleeves even up to very wrist, though.

@@lscibor indeed, but at that point they also stoped using plate (if i am correct). And my question was more for the combination, what we see in middle ages then...

lol. It's my baby.

@@scholagladiatoria what is it?

430D M-Sport X-drive

@@scholagladiatoria that's a sweet ride.

Yes, but it takes a book to explain it.