Linothorax vs Quilted linen vs spolas

[nikolaos]

Christian: Good point on arguing with Paul. I'll revise my comment to read, "I'll make sure my hypothesis is both verifiable and falsifiable before getting into a disagreement with him.

Now to do just that... With regards to your comments about Alcaeus' poetry referring to the heroic age, I might disagree. Alcaeus writes:

The great house glitters
with bronze. The entire ceiling is decorated
with shining helmets, down
from which white plumes of horsehair
nod, the adornments of
men's heads. Greaves of bronze
conceal the pegs they hang on
shining bright, a protection against strong arrows,
white corselets of new linen
and hollow shields lie thrown about.
Beside them are Chalkidian swords,
beside them are many belts and tunics.
These it has not been possible to forget,
since first we undertook this task of ours.

The opinion around the context to the poem seems to be Alcaeus' involvement in a rebellion against the Tyrant of Mytilene, which might argue that his reference to white linen corselets may be contemporary.

Now, not to muddy the waters, your earlier comments are quite correct, it predates the tube and yoke, makes no mention of quilting, and so forth. It would be interesting to see what the original greek text reads... Does it say thorakes hoi linoi, or something else?

Also, to add another twist in the discussion, its worth pointing out that we are all making the assumption that the tube and yoke armour is non-metalllic. As the only surviving example of the style, the Verdana cuirasse, is metal, its worth considering that the tube and yoke could be an all metal harness or metal on a fabric/leather substrate, or mixed media...

Have fun!
Cole