Gregory Aldrete

The classic sort of Roman legionary, I would say, is the one of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, so the early Roman Empire. This is the guy who wore bands of steel arranged in sort of bands around their body. It looks almost like a lobster's shell. This is a thing called the lorica segmentata.

It's solid steel, which is very good protection, but it's flexible because it has these individual bands that provide a lot of movement. And then you have a helmet, you have a square shield that's kind of curved, and you have the short sword, the Roman gladius. And that's kind of the classic Roman legionary. Later, more things develop. My personal sort of relationship with armor is I got –

It's solid steel, which is very good protection, but it's flexible because it has these individual bands that provide a lot of movement. And then you have a helmet, you have a square shield that's kind of curved, and you have the short sword, the Roman gladius. And that's kind of the classic Roman legionary. Later, more things develop. My personal sort of relationship with armor is I got –

It's solid steel, which is very good protection, but it's flexible because it has these individual bands that provide a lot of movement. And then you have a helmet, you have a square shield that's kind of curved, and you have the short sword, the Roman gladius. And that's kind of the classic Roman legionary. Later, more things develop. My personal sort of relationship with armor is I got –

really by accident involved in this project to try to reconstruct this mysterious type of armor that was used especially by the Greeks and Alexander the Great called the linothorax, which apparently was made only out of linen and glue. So this seems a little odd that, you know, that's not the sort of material once you want metal or something.

really by accident involved in this project to try to reconstruct this mysterious type of armor that was used especially by the Greeks and Alexander the Great called the linothorax, which apparently was made only out of linen and glue. So this seems a little odd that, you know, that's not the sort of material once you want metal or something.

really by accident involved in this project to try to reconstruct this mysterious type of armor that was used especially by the Greeks and Alexander the Great called the linothorax, which apparently was made only out of linen and glue. So this seems a little odd that, you know, that's not the sort of material once you want metal or something.

But we had clear literary references that people, including Alexander, and the most famous image of Alexander is this Alexander mosaic found at Pompeii that shows him wearing one of these funny types of armor. The catch is none survived. It's organic materials. So we don't have any of them. And archaeologists like to study things that survive.

But we had clear literary references that people, including Alexander, and the most famous image of Alexander is this Alexander mosaic found at Pompeii that shows him wearing one of these funny types of armor. The catch is none survived. It's organic materials. So we don't have any of them. And archaeologists like to study things that survive.

But we had clear literary references that people, including Alexander, and the most famous image of Alexander is this Alexander mosaic found at Pompeii that shows him wearing one of these funny types of armor. The catch is none survived. It's organic materials. So we don't have any of them. And archaeologists like to study things that survive.

So we have nice typologies of Greek armor made of bronze, Roman armor made of steel or sort of proto steel. But this thing, this line of thorax was a mystery. And one of my undergraduate students, a guy named Scott Bartell, had a real – well, an Alexander obsession. He really loved Alexander. As one should. He had Alexandros tattooed on his arm in Greek. And he was a smart student.

So we have nice typologies of Greek armor made of bronze, Roman armor made of steel or sort of proto steel. But this thing, this line of thorax was a mystery. And one of my undergraduate students, a guy named Scott Bartell, had a real – well, an Alexander obsession. He really loved Alexander. As one should. He had Alexandros tattooed on his arm in Greek. And he was a smart student.

So we have nice typologies of Greek armor made of bronze, Roman armor made of steel or sort of proto steel. But this thing, this line of thorax was a mystery. And one of my undergraduate students, a guy named Scott Bartell, had a real – well, an Alexander obsession. He really loved Alexander. As one should. He had Alexandros tattooed on his arm in Greek. And he was a smart student.

He was really smart. And so he, one summer, made himself an imitation of this thing of Alexander's just for fun. And he said, you know, can you give me some articles so I could do a better job? So I – some scholarly articles about this armor. And with typical sort of, you know, academic arrogance, I said, well, Scott, of course I will. I'll give you some references.

He was really smart. And so he, one summer, made himself an imitation of this thing of Alexander's just for fun. And he said, you know, can you give me some articles so I could do a better job? So I – some scholarly articles about this armor. And with typical sort of, you know, academic arrogance, I said, well, Scott, of course I will. I'll give you some references.

He was really smart. And so he, one summer, made himself an imitation of this thing of Alexander's just for fun. And he said, you know, can you give me some articles so I could do a better job? So I – some scholarly articles about this armor. And with typical sort of, you know, academic arrogance, I said, well, Scott, of course I will. I'll give you some references.

And I went and looked and there weren't any. So at that point, I was like, huh. Tell you what, why don't you and I look into this and try to do a reconstruction using only the materials they would have had in the ancient world? And little did I know at the time, I thought maybe I'll get an article out of this. I mean, it ended up being a 10-year project involving, you know –

And I went and looked and there weren't any. So at that point, I was like, huh. Tell you what, why don't you and I look into this and try to do a reconstruction using only the materials they would have had in the ancient world? And little did I know at the time, I thought maybe I'll get an article out of this. I mean, it ended up being a 10-year project involving, you know –

And I went and looked and there weren't any. So at that point, I was like, huh. Tell you what, why don't you and I look into this and try to do a reconstruction using only the materials they would have had in the ancient world? And little did I know at the time, I thought maybe I'll get an article out of this. I mean, it ended up being a 10-year project involving, you know –

150 students a couple dozen other faculty members um you know ended having three documentaries made out of it and scott and i ended up writing a scholarly book on this so this is how you know you never know where your next project's gonna come from so it started with this undergraduate turned to this huge thing but it's what we did we first said all right what are all the sources for this armor