Greaves and Vambraces in the rank and file

[Matthew Amt]

What about missiles, such as arrows and stones (from slings)?

What about them? Hold your shield up and hunker down.

And as you're blocking a shot from the man in front of you, the man to his left, right, or behind him can strike at you while you’re busy blocking the first mans strike.

And while those guys are aiming at you, they are NOT paying attention to the men in front of THEM! No one is implying that a battlefield is a safe place. We're just saying that for many legionaries the protection of greaves were apparently not worth the cost, weight, and hassle. This is no surprise, since it's the same in many other cultures and eras.

There could be many reasons why we don’t find evidence of greaves in this era. Maybe they were melted down to use for something else after its service life.

And yet we have enormous numbers of helmets, armor parts, belt parts, paterae, situlae, brooches, hairpins, bronze lamps, furniture parts, door fittings, etc. We also have MANY illustrations of soldiers NOT wearing greaves. Simple conclusion: Most soldiers did not wear them. Why is this hard to accept?

Or, maybe like in modern militaries the armor and weapons were given back to the unit after your enlistment is over, and so they would have been used by different individuals over a span of time.

But legionaries in this era owned their gear. We do have artifacts with the names of several owners, but again, why do all the helmets and armor parts survive but not the greaves?

But, in my opinion, wearing greaves is an obvious necessity.

Well, sorry, but the guys who were there at the time apparently disagree with you! We learn history from the EVIDENCE, not from modern opinion.

And, after lugging around the weight of your lorica, helmet, weapons, etc., what is the difference if a couple more pounds are added?

Too much, it seems.

And I’m not just saying this, I was an Infantryman in the US Marines, and know all about hiking around with heavy gear and equipment.

And have US Marines worn greaves in every battle since 1775? Aren't they be an obvious necessity?

A possible clue about greaves use may be that Roman doctors were skilled
in setting broken bones and even used traction devices. Could this have been in part due to broken leg bones from battle injuries suffered by non greeves using soldiers?

Um, that's quite a stretch!! Broken bones were a common part of everyday life! They still are, in fact, even though our living spaces are designed with far more safety in mind. Peacetime injuries ALWAYS vastly outnumbered battlefield wounds, up until World War I. Not to mention the fact that most weapons would be chopping and slicing bones, not simply breaking them.

Valete,

Matthew