Linothorax vs Quilted linen vs spolas

[Paullus Scipio]

By way of adding to Cole's post, I will provide some figures for the energy of ancient weapons. Bear in mind that these are very approximate, because there are many factors affecting the energy delivered at target by a particular blow/strike or weapon. These figures come from P.H. Blyth's "Effectiveness of Greek Armour against arrows in the Persian War", which was a multi-disciplinary study of the subject and the figures are quite conservative.. It dealt very well with the subject of Helmets and Shields, but the subject of body armour, and the Tube-and-Yoke corselet in particular received little or no attention, simply because not enough, then or now, was known about it's construction:
Weapon: Mass: Delivery method: Energy
Club, Axe or Greek sword : 2kg ; used two-handed ; 130 joules(96 foot lbs)
Club, Axe or Greek sword : 1 kg ; used single handed ; 65 joules(48 ft lbs)
javelin :0.8 kg ; thrown, with run-up ; 198 joules(146 ft lbs)
javelin :0.8 kg ; thrown, one pace only ; 111 joules(83 ft lbs)
javelin :0.8 kg ; thrown standing ; 60 joules(49 ft lbs)
javelin :0.8 kg ; thrown,one pace with loop ; 160 joules(118 ft lbs)
light spear or small
sword/dagger :0.8 kg ; close combat ; 30 joules(24 ft lbs)
sarissa :8(?)kg ; two-hand thrust,pace fwd ; 160 joules(118 ft lbs)
spear-butt : various ; thrust down, coup-de-grace; 50 joules (40 ft lbs)

One can see from this that energies of the order of 30-60 joules (24-49 ft lbs) could be given generally to typical Greek Hand weapons, and armour would need to resist this type of thrust, as well as slashing blows up to 60 joules(49 ft lbs)

Missile weapons:
sling bullet :24 gm swung one handed ; 30-36 joules(22-27 ft lbs)
light bow 3-6 gm arrowhead ; 20 joules at 50 metres
15-20 gm incl shaft ; 15 joules at 100 metres
9 joules at 200 metres(sufficient to penetrate flesh)

heavy bow 30 joules at 50 metres
26 joules at 100 metres
20 joules at 200 metres

Thus Persian/Scythian arrows delivered at target much the same energy range as Greek Hand weapons ( and incidently rather lower than mediaeval longbows). Of course, the arrowhead being smaller requires a much smaller ( about 2.5 times) hole to cause fatal injury, so despite the low energy (by mediaeval standards) the arrow would have some advantages over the spear...