Metal plate beneath Linothorakes or Spolades

[Paullus Scipio]

Rocktupac wrote:

This is only a hypothetical thickness that linen armor must be to offer enough protection (and likely even more) as 2mm thick bronze armor and repel all arrow assaults likely to have been seen on an ancient battlefield.

I hope you don't think that armour is meant or designed to be weaponproof ? To quote your earlier post: "..that would be silly...".

Armour, from the earliest times to modern tanks, is generally designed as a compromise between weight, protection, available materials, cost and other factors. Occasionally 'weaponproof' armour shows up ( such as Demetrius' iron cuirass, or the breastplates with 'shotproof' pistol marks from renaissance times) but these are never generally adopted.

That Greek Tube-and-Yoke armour and shields were not entirely arrowproof is shown by anecdotes such as the Spartan Callicrates, mortally wounded by an arrow in the side during the opening phases of Plataea, lamenting that he didn't get the chance to strike a blow, or the Spartan Leonymus on Xenophon's expedition who was killed by an arrow which went into the side of his body through his shield and 'spolas'.....and by modern studies such as "The Effectiveness of Greek Armour against Arrows in the Persian War" by P.H. Blyth 1977 ( now available on-line - which is just as well, as my original hardcopy is fading badly :lol: ) that shows that Greek helmets weren't 'arrowproof' either, though providing better protection than shields....

Armour studies, even hypothetical ones, should not begin from a premise of how much is necessary to totally defeat contemporary attacking weapons....