Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/768

 732 ARMOR deaths of solid metal for the legs from knee tunics or shirts, divided so that they fell on e ereaves were moulded to the each side the horse of a mounted knight; but form of the legs, and sometimes covered the they made their armor of actual mail, formed knee The Greeks carried at first large circu- lar shields, covering almost the whole man; afterward smaller ones of the same shape. The Roman soldiery wore armor almost exactly like that just described, save that they carried oblong instead of round shields. After a time, too they rejected the greaves, and fought with the legs bare. So few changes were made m the Boman Armor. (From Trajan's Column.) armor itself, however, that even in the time of the crusades the soldiers of the eastern empire still wore exactly such equipments as are pic- tured in the bass-reliefs of Trajan's column. The oriental nations adopted at an early period an armor made of overlapping scales of metal sewn upon leather, and fitting the whole body of the wearer. They also clothed their horses in this armor. The Sarmatians especially are said to have worn this armor, if indeed they did not introduce it. Such were the principal kinds of armor in use among the leading na- tions of eastern Europe and of the Orient ; but it was in western Europe that the complete defensive armor afterward used, which reached its perfection in the middle ages, had its origin. A manuscript of the reign of Charles the Bald (A. D. 860) shows the armor of the western nations which had once been Roman prov- inces, or had come in contact with Romans, to have been similar to the Roman dress just de- scribed. But soon afterward great changes began. We have little to show the manner of these changes, but we find their result, two centuries later, shown in the Bayeux tapestry, executed some time after the invasion of Eng- land by William the Conqueror (1066). This shows the Saxons to have adopted an armor consisting of a long tunic reaching to the knee, and made of leather upon which were sewed stout metal rings, close together. They wore conical steel caps. The Normans wore similar Norman Spearman. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.) of rings woven together like those in a modern curb chain ; they wore long sleeves, which the Saxons had not, and long hose woven of rings. The Norman shield was in shape like a modern smoothing-iron. The fact that this flexible mail might be driven into the flesh by a hard Full Suit of Chain Mail, Time of the Early Crusades. blow, in spite of the heaviest lining, led to the introduction of plate armor. First the square- topped helmet of the templars was adopted, covering the whole face, and having a door opening laterally on hinges. Then poldrons, or plates covering the shoulders, genouilteres, or