Linothorax vs Spolas

[PMBardunias]

Paul, it is perhaps significant that in Pollux's lexicon the spolas is NOT linked with the stola, and when he reffers to Xenophon, it is not to give one more meaning to the word, but to show how the word has been used.

Pollux defines the Spolas as used by Xenophon, but the word is clearly a more generic term for garment that could also be specific to a leather armor- not unlike the way the word hoplon has many possible meanings. If in fact "Stolidion" is another word for Spolas, this link is clearer. I don't think Xenophon's spolas was anything other than a T-y, but that does not mean that the word Spolas may not have meant many things other than the t-y, and as you note, we cannot prove it was not a vest even in Xenophon. Thus it is safer to define it the way Pollux does: Xenophon's Spolas is a "thorax ek dermatos".

The problem is that to call the T-Y a spolas is to pull the same underhanded trick that those evil linophiles played in applying the term linothorax to the T-Y. Since we know a Spolas is defined as leather from our one reference, suddenly that becomes the default material for a T-Y and we have to speak of a linen Spolas. Just call them all Thorakes of different make. Were we Spartans we would call our armor "Aegis" as Nymphodorus of Syracuse tells us.

By the way, the aspis was not weapon-proof. There are a number of recorded failures, most famous being when Brasidas was wounded through his trecherous shield by a spear- arrows generall penetrate better than spears.