Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/391

Rh represented in Mr. Rich's excellent manual, the "Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary," p. 392, (r. Lorica). The material in that example is, however, bone, the plates being united by metallic rings.

One is strongly tempted to believe that this is the very armour described by various Roman writers, in passages which have hitherto greatly puzzled the commentators; by Silius Italicus, for instance, who, in his fifth book, thus describes a coat of scaly-mail:

And by Claudian, who, in his second book, has:

And again by Virgil, who, in the third book of Æneid, writes:

Among the northern nations, armour of scale-work was probably worn by leaders; but the descriptions of the Sagas and other writings are so vague, that it seems impossible to derive any satisfactory conclusion from their testimony. And, unluckily, existing remains do not offer their aid to clear the mystery. "Among the most usual weapons of defence," writes Mr. Worsaae, in his Primeval Antiquities of Denmark," the ancient Sagas mention helmets, coats of mail, armour, and shields. The fact that of the three first-named objects scarcely any relics at all have reached us, is by no means difficult to explain. The helmets were probably in most cases only the skins of the heads of animals, drawn over a framework of wood or leather, as the coat of mail was usually of strong quilted linen, or thick woven cloth. Lastly, the armour which covered the breast was formed, it is true, of metal, either in iron rings attached to each other, or of plates fastened on each other like scales; but it certainly was only a few individuals who had the means and opportunity of obtaining such expensive objects." The numerous Anglo-Saxon illuminations exactly confirm this view; in them we see clearly that it was the chiefs only who had the benefit of the Brünne, but the rudeness of the delineation still leaves us in doubt as to the