Plate Armour - Early History

Early History

Further information: Lorica segmentata, Manica (armguard), and Coat of plates

Partial plate armour, which protected the chest and the lower limbs, was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, but it fell into disuse after the collapse of the Roman Empire because of the cost and work involved in producing a piece of metal plate or cuirass. Single plates of metal armour were again used from the late 13th century on, to protect joints and shins, and these were worn over a mail hauberk.

Read more about this topic:  Plate Armour

Famous quotes containing the words early and/or history:

    “On the Coast of Coromandel
    Where the early pumpkins blow,
    In the middle of the woods
    Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo.
    Two old chairs, and half a candle,—
    One old jug without a handle,—
    These were all his worldly goods:
    In the middle of the woods,”
    —Edward Lear (1812–1888)

    “In history the great moment is, when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty;—and you have Pericles and Phidias,—and not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. Everything good in nature and in the world is in that moment of transition, when the swarthy juices still flow plentifully from nature, but their astrigency or acridity is got out by ethics and humanity.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)