Why didn't romans wear full plate armor? They certainly

>>35002694
because full plate armor isn't cheap and outfitting entire battalions with it would have cost all the gold in rome

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>>35002726
Wasn't it cheaper back then though? Romans had already mastered metalworking mass production that eventually got lost in the dark ages.

>>35002694
Full plate is expensive to make, difficult to maintain, and tiresome to march with and to operate. A set of lorica, manica, and greaves is much simpler than having to custom fit articulated joints for every man for comparatively little increase in protection.

>>35002694
Because it gets hot near the mediterranean sea, try marching on foot for several months with that shit on

>>35002694
No they didn't.
They could barely make segments in big enough sizes for the segmentata, and certainly weren't advanced enough in their metalworking to make something like late 15th century armour.

>>35002849
The Italians did it, as did the French, Spanish, and English who were constantly fighting around there.

They couldn't make swords longer than Spatha due to the metal so full plate armour is a long shot.

>>35002849
Good thing about plate armor that steel sheets is not a good thermal insulation medium.

>>35002773
The steel it'self wasn't that expensive.

,,,well, okay refining metal is this huge and expensive process you nee to structure an economy around but really, that's not what made full plate expensive.

It was all those tiny joints that required a master to make. Every single one required a pin or rivet that was tight enough to hold the pieces together but loose enough to let the joint move freely.

With the Lorica Segmentata they really only worried about the shoulder joints and even then they cheated to save time and energy.

>>35002694
>They certainly had the metalworking technology to go full plate

No, they didn't. Read a fucking book - I suggest The Knight and the Blast Furnace.

Because they trained to cover most of their bodies with a big fucking shield next to 2 other guys with big fucking shields. They wanted to stay light and cheap so they could move around easier with less maintenance