Many works on the weapons of the Roman army will attest that the segmented cuirass of the heavy infantry is called lorica segmentata, scale armour is known as lorica squamata, and the correct term for mail is lorica hamata. All three terms are well-accepted and can be considered common knowledge in scholarly and popular publications. While many do indicate that lorica segmentata is a modern Latinised term without an ancient counterpart, it is usually taken for a fact that the Romans referred to a coat of mail as a lorica hamata. However, when we look in more detail at the available evidence, the term loses much of its assumed infallibility. One may even say that establishing the Roman term for mail is like stepping on quicksand, seemingly safe on the surface, but shaky and treacherous deep down.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE ON ARMOUR

While many classical sources make mention of armour, often using the word thoraca (cuirass) or lorica (armour), they usually do so only in a general sense. The great majority of the written sources does not specify the type of armour that was involved, what it looked like or was constructed. For example, although historical works often involve narrations of conflict, it is the description of events and not of objects that gets the emphasis. For the narrative it is simply not necessary to go into the elaborate description of objects such as armour. Moreover, what armour looked like was probably self-evident to most readers and did not need to be explained in the texts.