Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor - New Book

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

I agree with Paul B. Certainly the passage is not as clear as it gets, but to me indeed it points towards a tube and yoke thing. More so because the Lybian spolas is specified as something different than the common spolas.

Like we said about the shields, which some times are referred to as "the willow" because of its basic material, I believe the spolas literally somehow meant a leather something that covers your body, be it an apron or a leopard skin. Note that the two are most probably a different kind of leather, I don't think a butcher was wearing a fur apron, so the term is very general.
This does not mean that by classical times the word was not used to mean a "thorax ek dermatos", just like a willow was an aspis of willow.
So Greeks might have referred to their thorakes as "the leather"!