Illustrations of Sassanid Persian Clibanarii

[Renatus]

Indeed, but the application of Occam's razor would lead to a different conclusion. We know the Romans made mailshirts, we know that the Romans made various forms of plate armour articulated by leather strapping. Parsimony would reject the likelihood of mail-and-plate constructs as that would require the introduction of a technology, attaching plate armour elements to each other using mail links, that we have no concrete evidence that the Romans employed.

Very well, so you then have to introduce a hypothesis as to what Julian was actually trying to say. Occam's razor would dictate that it should be accepted that Julian knew what he was talking about and that his words should be taken at face value.