Roman helmets: Imperial Gallic/Italic and Ridge - comparisons and sources

[CaesarAugustus]

Nathan, I agree that we will never reach an agreement, but that points are clear. You can reduce the overall organization centralizing the expert smiths in few places, leaving the legions (who were no longer the legions of the past) without smiths specialized in torsion engines and so on. And in fact, the usage of the ballista in battle fields become something not described, and Ammianus complains for the breakages that could affect the ballista... the same torsion engine that had been used in previous centuries with high profit. This highlights the loss of experience and skill. In essence, organization. Now, we are in the same ages, and with all that problems... they are happy to have precious metal on the helmets??? No, come on, this is not serious

And Adrianople is not centuries after the introduction of the ridget helmet, is just around 75 years as you have stated. Enough to see the collapse of the roman army. And we know that in the first ages it is extremely likely that the ridget helmet was not so widespread. After? Near to the collapse in the Rhine sector. The loss of Nisibis and Singara. And finally the collapse of the Danube sector. Really far from being a good period.
Obviously this is not Ridge helmet fault, but that is part of the organizational collapse followed the reforms suffered by the army and on going social transformations.

Anyway, the only way to solve this problem is to compare the two helmets on the field