Best type of armor?

[Dayve]

What about the type of armour the classical Greek hoplites wore? The kind you see early Roman equittes, generals and Triarii wearing? I always imagined that to be really tough and easy to make because it's basically just hardened leather, almost like a really strong plastic...

Imagine if the Romans had discovered lexan...

[Watchman]

That's solid bronze plate, AFAIK. Not exactly the easiest thing to get anything through.

When it went out of use after 1635 it was more a matter of logistics and changes in the strategic demands than its inability to protect its wearer.

A little known fact is that breastplates were in use among shock cavalry into the early 1700s. The fashion was to wear them under the uniform coat so they don't normally show in pictorial sources, but I've seen enough literary references as well as the occasional officer portrait with the uniform open and the armour showing. They apparently dropped out of use after that for a while though, until Frederik the Great of Prussia reintroduced them to a limited degree in the "Napoleonic"-pattern cuirassieurs towards the end of the century.

[geala]

Yes, that's true. Some heavy cavalry had harnesses and -sometimes- helmets. A cuirass of a French Curassier araound 1815 is said to be able to deflect musket balls fired from 50 metres.

And during sieges the use of armour for breast and heads never stopped entirely even in the "naked" centuries from 1650 to 1914.


@ Dayve: Leather normally is a lousy material for armour. Of course it was used nevertheless if nothing better was available.

Greek cuirasses in the Geometric and early Classical periods seemed to be made mostly from bronze. But soon linen harnesses, sometimes added by some scales, came in use. Cloth armour, especially that made of several layers of linen, gives astonishing protection and is lighter and more flexible than rigid defences (But you sweat a lot, I can't imagine it's use in hot climates but indeed it was widely used. Perhaps I would have gone without breast armour in a hot Mediterranean summer; anyway dying young is the best thing. ).

There were phases in which hoplites used less armour. Sometimes no breast armour at all seems to be worn f.e. in the later years of the Peloponesian war. Later armour came back in use and so on.

By the way in my opinion EB is very correct about the armour used. I like it very much.

Edit: what about helmets? Far more important than any other form of armour I think. There were many lovely forms of helmets in the ancient and medieval times, but my two favorites are: 1. one form of Gallic helmet with a wide brim and additional cheekguards (look at my avatar and imagine an additional brim), 2. the medieval salet (Schaller in German) with movable visor.