Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

LORICA. LORICA. 711
order to steal the clothes of the bathers (Sch-l. in supposed to have been worn over the breast, and
Itonm. 1. c.), but used in a more general sense to the other over the back, so as to leave two vacant
denote thieves and highwaymen of all classes. spaces for the arms.
From the same root was formed the verb ekwcXri- This invention no doubt preceded the metallic
Ae,L, meaning, to take off the amictus, to denude. scale armour. The Rhoxalaini, a tribe allied to
(Soph. Trachin. 925.) [J. Y.] the Sarmatians, defended themselves by wearing a
LOPHOS (Xo'pos). [GALEA.] dress consisting of thin plates of iron and hard
LORA'RII. [FLAGRUM.] leather, (Tacit. tlist. i. 79.) The Persians wore a
LORI'CA (Ucipae), a cuirass. The epithet tunic of the same description, the scales being
XlvoO&prqS, applied to two light-armed warriors in sometimes of gold (Herod.:ii. 61; *&prWlca XpUthe Iliad (ii. 529, 830; Schol. ad loc.), and op- eeov AxessrEord', ix. 22); but they were commonly
posed to XaXAoeXi7wo, the common epithet of the of bronze (tloraca in dutzs aigsis squamis, Virg. Aen.
Grecian soldiers, indicates the early use of the xi. 487). The basis of the cu irass was sometimes
linen cuirass. It continued to be worn to much a skin, or a iece of strong linen to which the
later times among the Asiatics, especially the Per- metallic scales, or'"feathers " as they are also
sians (Xen. Cyrop. vi. 4. ~ 2; Plot. Alex. p. 1254, called, were sewed. (Virg. _4e. xi. 770; Serv.
ed. Steph.), the Egyptians' (Herod. ii. 182, iii. in loc.; Justin, xli. 2. 10.)
47), the Phoenicians (Panus. vi. 19. ~ 4), and the The epithet XeArrtoT's, as applied to a thorax,
Chalybes. (Xen. Arab. iv. 7. ~ 15.) Iphicrates is opposed to the epithet poXL18eTrds. (Arrian,
endeavoured to restore the use of it among the Tact. p. 13, 14.) The former denotes a similitude
Greeks (Nepos, Ipieic. i, 4), and it was occasion- to the scales of fish (XEsrioLv), the latter to the
ally adopted by the Romans, though considered a scales of selRpents (poXia'v). The resemblance to
much less effectual defence than a cuirass of metal. the scales of serpents, which are long and narrow,
(Sueton. Galba, 19; Arrian, Tact. p. 14, ed. is exhibited on the shoulders of the Roman soldier
Blancardi.) in the woodcut at page 136. These scales were
A much stronger material for cuirasses was horn, imitated by long flexible bands of steel, made to
which was applied to this use more especially by fold onIe over another according to the contraction
the Sarmatae and Quadi, being cut into small of the body. They appear very frequently on the
pieces, which were planed and polished and fas- Roman monuments of the times of the emperors,
tened, like feathers, upon linen shirts. (Amm. and the following woodcut places in immediate
Marcell. xvii. 12. ed. Wagner.) Hoofs were em- contrast a;Stpa XenrtswcOrd on the right and
ployed for the same purpose. Pausanias (i. 21. (poXLiwros on the left, both taken from Bartoli's
~ 8) having made mention of a thorax preserved Arcus Triumnhales,
in the temple of Aesculapins at Athens, gives the
following account of the Sarmatians:- Having
vast herds of horses, which they sometimes kill
for food or for sacrifice, they collect their hoofs,
cleanse and divide them, and shape them like the
scales of a serpent (qoMit-w); they then bore them
and sew them together, so that the scales overlap
one another, and in general appearance they resemble the surface of a green fir-cone. This author
adds, that the loricae made of these horny scales
are much more strong and impenetrable than
linen cuirasses, which are useful to hunters, but
not adapted for fighting. The annexed woodcut,
taken from Meyrick's Critical Inquiry into Ancient
Armour (plate iii.) exhibits an Asiatic cuirass exactly corresponding to this description. It consists _.
of slices of some animal's hoof, which are stitched
together, overlapping each other in perpendicular
rows, without being fastened to any under gar- The Roman hastati wore cuirasses of chain-mail,
ment. The projection nearest the middle must be i. e. hauberks or habergeons (ah&vsJrTobs &6&paaeas, Polyb. vi. 21; Athen. v. 22; Arrian, 1. c.).
Virgil several times mentions hauberks in which
the rings, linked or hooked into one another, were
of gold (loricacn consesfami 7lamis, auroque trilicem,
B Virg. Aen. iii. 467, v. 259, vii. 639).
In contradistinction to the flexible cuirasses, or
coats of mail, which have now been described, that
commonly worn by the Greeks and Romans, more
especially in the earlier ages, was called &cpa,
Ftrci'is, or Wrards, because, when placed upon the
ground on its lower edge, it stood erect. In consequence of its firmness it was even used as a seat
to rest upon. (Paus. x. 27. ~2.) It consisted
principally of the two yaxa, viz. the breast-plate
(pector'ale) made of hard leather or of bronze, iron,
or sometimes the more precious metals, which
covered the breast and abdomen (Hom. Il. v. 99,
xiii. 507, 587, xvii. 314); and of the correspondzz 4