Quote Originally Posted by Ludens View Post
Could you explain your reasoning?
Put simply Segmentata fails some of the most important tests for military procurment.

It is dangerously maintainance heavy, the leather straps and metal fittings are highly prone to breakage, especially in hotter climes. In colder climes the iron bands are vulnerable to rust, which may be why tinned examples have been found; tinned armour would be must more expensive though.

In terms of raw materials hamata is cheaper because it uses much less copper, and no tin. Although segmented armour is quicker to make it requires a greater degree of skill, because forming iron lames is difficult to do without properly smelting the iron.

These problems mean that the protective benefit vs other forms of armour is dubious at best, and non-existant or negative at worst.

The two areas this armour wins out are in weight or against blunt trauma. For this reason it has been proposed as equipment for artillery crews, who saw little hand-to hand combat, but were vulnerable to breakage in their machines (flying ballista arms etc.).