[Jan J. Gahy]

Hallo everyone
I was on Celtic festival Lughnasad in Czech republic recently and i saw there few reenacting roman groups, Im also starting in one Roman reenacting group too and thinking about Roman legionnaire around 1. AD and i want to make my own lorica segmentata, but there is one thing about it bugging me: Some of their Loricas had hinged plates on back of their shoulders and some dont (Roman guys were from several groups), I asked about manueverability and its pretty the same. Can somebody tell me if its necessary to have there these hinged parts on back? And for which century is it more common because i think these hinged parts may be later century style of segmentata. And now im not sure if i should make these parts on back or not, and I know there should be hinged parts in FRONT for sure.

For more photos check my gallery on FB: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2377...amp;type=1

Looking forward for answers.

[Chuck Russell]

http://www.larp.com/legioxx/ go here to learn all good things about romans.

[Matthew Amt]

Ave!

Ya beat me to it, Chuck! Thanks for the plug.

Jan, ALL versions of the lorica segmentata for which we have any significant amount of information had hinges on the collar plates and upper shoulder guards. The one possible exception is a shoulder guard plate from Chichester which serve as one continuous plate instead of 3 hinged together. However, the lorica in the second photo you posted, without hinges, is the 1975 interpretation of the Newstead style lorica, which at the time was thought to be "improved" and "simplified" from the earlier Corbridge style, without all the bling and hinges. But now we know that's not correct, and that the Newstead style had even BIGGER and FANCIER hinges, plus even more useless brass bling than the Corbridge! Here:

http://www.larp.com/legioxx/newstlor.html

The Corbridge style page is here:

http://www.larp.com/legioxx/lorica.html

Granted, all these hinges don't *do* much, except twist and break! Probably they just helped keep the soldiers busy with polishing. Almost all the fittings on a segmentata are frightfully thin sheet brass, so they're not all that hard to cut and file to shape, just kind of tedious. If you really want to make a segmentata, make one of those hinges first, then show it around and get some critiques, and make another one which is smaller and more slender and graceful in shape, and repeat until satisfied. THEN make the rest of those hinges, and then all the hinged strap and buckle fittings, the lacing loops, etc. Only then should you bother cutting steel for the plates.

The style of lorica you make will depend on what year you are portraying. The Corbridge style is good from c. 30 AD into the second century. The Newstead shows up in the second century, probably Hadrian rather than Trajan. The Kalkriese is the earliest type, say 20 BC to around 40 AD. So it may be up to what your group is doing.

That get you started? Good luck and Vale,

Matthew

[Jan J. Gahy]

Thanks for help guys, these advices are really helpful. We are relatively new group and we are mainly focused on roman auxiliary troops in Slovakia region, but we also need some legionnaires. We have our own group blacksmith so i needed help with amount of components and if i can left out few hinges for easier construction (i want to construct it myself for best fitting)