Quote Originally Posted by Imperator
....that's the longest and most ambitious spam post I've ever seen
No, it's not.

And Foot, et al- it is possible that the Lorica Segmentata fell out of production because of a deteriorating infastructure in Rome, which could no longer afford the expense or technical expertise to produce the Segmentata, and so defaulted to Hamata. Look at the heavy-armored cavalrymen for another example of this: they dissappeared shortly after the 30 years war, despite being still technically useful, as their armor was bullet-resistant to an impressive degree (many plates have been tested by being fired upon with a .45 caliber pistol, and were able to withstand the force of the bullet.) However, they simply became too expensive to maintain, and so the kingdoms of Europe defaulted to lightly armored cavalry for the rest of the cavalry's lifetime.