02-28-2016, 10:58 AM
(02-28-2016, 04:13 AM)Flavivs Aetivs Wrote: "Mail" is what the postman brings you. "Maile" is what you rush forth glittering into arms with.
Ha! Yes, I can see the advantage of spelling it differently, although generations of English scholars have got by alright using the standard spelling. I've always thought 'maile' or 'maille' was some sort of Old French spelling; it has an air of anachronism or even vague elitism about it. Although I have no idea what the current thinking in 'armour studies' might be...
About these doublers, meanwhile - I wonder if they might have been phased out gradually. The Ephesus relief that Ross Cowan referred to in the thread above shows (allowing for 'artistic license', ineptitude etc) what might be a sort of vestigal version. Perhaps the original 'doublers' were constructed on the model of the 'tube and yoke' cuirass, and made of leather (which would explain the shape and stiffness), later acquiring a layer of mail or scale over the top, secured around the edges. Maybe in time they shrank until they resembled the shoulder straps of the muscle cuirass - as we see on the Ephesus relief - before disappearing completely?
Nathan Ross
