Lorica Hamata: Roman Mail Armor
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- čas přidán 1. 08. 2020
- The lorica segmentata is the probably the most well known of any form of Roman armor, but the most common appears to have been lorica hamata--Roman mail armor. Lorica Hamata appears to have been constructed in five different manners, each succeeding each other as the centuries went by and as Rome faced new enemies and came into contact with new forms of mail construction. In this video we conduct a brief overview of the armor, and in future videos we'll examine mail construction in more detail.
SOURCES:
Roman Body Armor, Travis
Roman Military Equipment: From the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome, 2nd Edition, Bishop
The Complete Roman Army, Goldsworthy
#romanarmor
#militaryhistory
#romanhistory
Some of the Pros and Cons of maile:
Pros:
1. It breathes well, you're less likely to die of heat exhaustion, so long as you don't wear thick padding. This could be important is very hot climates.
2. Flexible, can be worn over gaps like the armpit. It's also easy to tailor it to a person.
3. Easy to repair and produce.
4. Can be worn as light armour, simply by using the right size and thickness of rings.
5. Good for mass production, where draw plates can be semi-standardized so you can use maile rings from anywhere.
Cons:
1. It's heavy compared to other armour designs, when worn as medium or heavy armour.
2. It's loose, so this can make movement awkward.
3. It takes a lot of man-hours to produce, to the extent it was more expensive than munition plate later on.
4. It's easier to pierce than metal plates.
Great video as usual
Really hope that youtube god The Algorithm will bless this channel eventually
Thank! I hope so too! It took Metatron 400 videos to hit 50,000 subs, so we’ll see what happens
@@TheFallofRome I'd say your channel is closer to Military History Visualized. Considering how popular his channel is despite his heavy accent, I hope your channel will grow too.
@@TheFallofRome Well if people start citing you, mentioning you, referencing you, or replying to you...Maybe that will help.
can we hear a little about roman lamellar, and how it differs from eastern lamellar?
Yes! I have another video planned on that armor
@@TheFallofRome what about one on scale armor?
Martin Wijnhoeven is the expert on Roman maille construction, and the fundamental transformation of Roman maille construction occurs in the 2nd century AD. Before this period, maille seems to have been constructed in the same manner as the old Tube-and-Yoke cuirasses of ancient Greece, except they usually had closed shoulders, whereas the thick leather Spolades relied entirely on the epomides (the shoulder doubler) to protect the shoulders.
The reason the doubler was dropped, half-length or wrist-length sleeves, and knee-length skirts developed was because some time between about 120 and 200 AD, the Romans began making maille in the same manner they fabricated coptic tunics. The Romans thought of maille as simply an "iron shirt," hence why their word for it was "Tunica Ferrea." When they started making their tunics in the coptic pattern (one cross-shaped piece folded in half), they started making their maille this way as well. We can tell this, because on the early principate-era hauberks that have surviving sides, the rows of links are the same all the way around, whereas on the late 2nd and 3rd century hauberks from the empire and from the bog finds, the rows alternate between the front in the back (i.e. the front half of the hauberk will have a row of punched links, while the back half will have a row of riveted links at that exact same point on the hauberk).
Martin's research is all on Academia.edu, it's extremely useful: vu-nl.academia.edu/MartijnAWijnhoven
"Laid out Flat" is the paper I'm referencing here.
Damn I forgot about that paper! I actually have the a printed out version lying around somewhere...I was primarily going off of Travis & Bishop’s stuff for this video, but like I said it’s just designed to be a broad overview. I’ll have to use Wijnhoeven’s work when I do the more in-depth stuff.
I’ve occasionally come across references to the links alternating in composition-bronze, iron, bronze, etc. although I haven’t been able to find a whole lot on that particular aspect. Any ideas where I could look?
@@TheFallofRome Wijnhoeven has written several papers on that topic. There's also the Simon James report on Dura Europos which mentions the Sassanid hauberk with the bronze links forming a trident shape.
I've always wondered about the production of armor in the ancient world. I've read that it takes about three months for a blacksmith to construct a single suit of mail, and while ancient weapons and armor could theoretically last forever, they mostly didn't (due to wear and tear, weather, theft, battle damage, etc.). So this stuff had to be churned out on a regular basis by small town forges all across the peninsula in order to supply a growing army tens of thousands strong that is constantly campaigning. Is that what happened, or did they have super factories that manufactured it all for them (the fabricae wasn't a thing until the Imperial period, wasn't it?)
During the Second Punic War the Romans talk about their manpower reserves and their ability to continue to resist Hannibal even after appalling losses, but is there any record or description about their equipment reserves? I don't think they had a standardized GI kit by that point, so every soldier had to equip himself which made for a colorful and varied fighting outfit, almost a militia.
So my question is: Were equipment shortages ever a factor at all? Was there ever a time where they complained that they had the men but not the means to equip them? What usually happened to equipment of dead soldiers after battles? Were they recovered by locals or kept as spoils by the victors? Did the Romans recover their equipment after the disasters at Cannae and Lake Trasimene, or did they just make more?
Having a little music in the background goes a long way when it comes to enjoying a video.
I disagree. Most of the time I find it annoying and I know plenty of excellent CZcamsrs won't don't use music.
Maybe a blacksmith could make mail during the spare periods, and people could help out during the winter?
FIRST AGAIN!
This video really suffers from its lack of accompanying illustrations and pictures TBH.