Lorica

A cuira , or coat of mail worn by the Roman soldiers, was made of various materials. The ordinary kind consisted of a skin, or a piece of strong linen covered with small plates of iron, which resembled both in their shape and in their manner of overlapping each other the scales of a serpent or fish. Sometimes cuira es or hauberks, composed entirely of iron rings linked together, were worn by the Roman hastati . A le flexible but more impervious defense was the cuira made of hard leather or of metal, and consisting of two parts (the one covering the breast and abdomen, and the other the back), united by hinges and leathern thongs.