Linothorax vs Quilted linen vs spolas

[Sean Manning]

There must have been a few bronze or iron plate tube-and-yokes other than Philip's, but if they were common we would have to explain where all the finds have gone.

I have followed this subject with interest, but have refrained from posting because almost everything in the way of evidence has been discussed before, but I see a number of inaccuracies and misleading statements creeping in, which might best be corrected, so as to keep the thread on the straight and narrow…..

Sean Manning:
and there are a few references to Greek armour of linen in Classical literature. There is better evidence that the "spolas" was a leather garment of some kind, but we don't know if it was armour. Some people think it was the ancient name for the "linothorax" but I'm not convinced.

There are not, in fact, any references to contemporary Greek armour of linen in Classical literature,( say 500 BC-300BC) unless Sean is including Homer, where as Dan has described, there are a couple…. or Alcaeus, neither of whom is strictly speaking"classical", and both of whom write well before the Tube-and-Yoke appeared and whose poetry concerns the mythical ‘Heroic Age’ .

Alcaeus (c. 600 BCE) is a bit early, I agree, but evidence for armour in that period is scarce. Someone should check the source of fragment #140 because my source lists it with his political songs, referring to current political events on Lesbos. The surviving poetry of Alcaeus includes all kinds of things including mythic subjects and bawdy drinking songs.

<In essence, references to foreigners in linen armour suggest that linen armour was foreign to Greeks.>

That's a leap in logic. Herodotus describes Persian iron and bronze helmets, neither of which would be strange to Greeks except that the cut was outlandish. So Htd., Xenophon, and Plutarch could mention foreign linen armour because linen armour was strange, or because the cut was strange, or the decoration on the armour was remarkable, or because barbarian soldiers are strange. I believe Herodotus mentions a few examples of barbarians leather armour too although I can't find one in the Catalogue of Nations.