Linothorax: Kevlar of the Ancients

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2020

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

The House of the Faun in Pompeii is known for being one of the largest and most impressive private residences in the ancient city. Among its many works of art is a depiction of Alexander the Great in battle. In previous episodes we have discussed Alexander’s rule and empire, but this time, let’s focus on his armour, as shown in this mosaic on the floor of the House of Faun, the only contemporary portrayal of linothorax on a known figure. For, instead of wearing bronze or iron armour as one might expect, Alexander is going into battle wearing a breastplate of linen.

Gregory Aldrete has spent 12 years studying the composition and effectiveness of this ancient armour used by many nations around the Mediterranean. To do so, he recreated the armour from scratch, using authentic materials. In this episode Gregory, Professor Emeritus from The University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, speaks with Tristan about how this armour protected one of the most powerful conquering armies of all history, despite being made of a soft fabric.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's podcast
0:07.4	we are talking ancient body armor. Not Iron Body Armor, not Bronze Body Armor, we are
0:13.2	talking Linnon Body Armor. The Lino Thorax, that famous body armor that you see Alexander
0:19.6	the Great Wearing on that renowned mosaic discovered on the floor of the House of the
0:24.6	Fawn in Pompeii. Now joining me to talk through the effectiveness of the Linnon Thorax and
0:30.1	what we know about this ancient body armor I was delighted to be joined by Professor Gregory
0:34.3	Aldretti from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. Gregory has written the book on the
0:40.0	Linnon Thorax and he has also reconstructed it. He is tested out its efficiency first
0:45.5	hand. He is the man to go to to talk about ancient Linnon Body Armor. Here is, without
0:53.5	further ado, Gregory Aldretti. Greg, it is great to have you on the podcast. Thank you for
1:08.2	joining me. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you. Now the Linnon Thorax, the body armor that helped
1:14.3	Alexander the Great conquer the mighty Persian Empire. That's the quick tagline isn't it and
1:19.3	there's some truth to that but it wasn't just Alexander who wore this. This is a technology
1:23.5	that was used for 1500 years by about a dozen different cultures. So it has a very long
1:30.1	lifespan and this is of course this body armor it's something that you spent a lot of
1:34.2	time recreating and studying. Yes, so it was not my intent to go off on a 12-year tangent
1:40.9	studying ancient body armor but one of my students, Scott Bartel, was an enormous fan
1:47.7	of Alexander the Great. I was quite obsessed with him as a tattoo and Greek of him on his
1:51.7	arm all sorts of things and he had seen the very famous Alexander Mosaic which is from Pompeii
1:57.6	which many people have seen in which Alexander is depicted wearing this Linnon armor called
2:02.8	a line of thorax and Scott wanted to recreate one of these for himself and so one day he came
2:09.4	to me and said I want to try and make this armor. Can you give me some references to do it properly
	...

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