Linothorax vs Quilted linen vs spolas

[Paullus Scipio]

Another piece to throw on the fire:

I've been digging through Delian inventories lately, and I came upon this entry:

A cavalry thyreos in an oblong [shape?]- (em plaisiwi peri- and then lacuna)... a perfect gilded helmet with gilded horns and cheek pieces- (lacuna)... [something] silvered. Cuirass of woven linen with golden disks (thoraka huphanton linoun echonta chrusas aspidiskas)

Of course, this could very well be a cuirass captured from a barbarian, but the context of the other arms mentioned doesn't seem to indicate this. Foreign arms often seem to be qualified as such, and the horned helmet, for instance, is a very Hellenistic emblem of kingship - helmets with horns are shown, of course, on Seleucid coins. Still nice to have another source to work with.

Just to sound a note of caution here.....helmets with horns were not necessarily restricted to "Kings", - they were fairly widespread in Italy, or among the celts, for instance.Nor can I think of any Hellenistic King who might have been in Delos around this time. Furthermore, the date is troublesome (165-157 BC ). This would be a late date for both these items being 'contemporary'. I'm curious as to where this inscription comes from....would it be a temple by any chance? If so, that greatly increases the possibility that this is a list of 'trophies' owned by the temple, like the linen cuirasses seen by Pausanias in a temple in Asia Minor in the 1 C AD.......