Interesting stuff, Brandy Blue and Cimon.

Quote Originally Posted by Brandy Blue View Post
Antisocialmunkey, what do you mean about Lorica Seg-whatever? And why do you have to track down and kill him? (I just hope it wasn't me!)
He probably refers to the person responsible for the general public thinking that all Roman legionaries wore the famous segmented armour (lorica segmentata). The inclusion of LS is a recurring topic on the forums, even though it has been repeatedly stated that it won't be in EB because it appears only at the very end of the time-frame and doesn't seem to have been very common even when it was popular (about 50 to 200 years after EB's time-frame).

Anyway, it probably wasn't a single person that falsified history. More likely it became well know because it is preferred by illustrators and reenactors. It's recognizable, easy to make (compared to chainmail), uniquely Roman and looks good. None of these ever stated it was the only type of armour Roman legions used, but this fixed the image in the public mind. Add to this the history-related laziness of your average Hollywood filmmaker, and you can understand why most people nowadays think of LS as the essential Roman armour.