3rd century B.C., assembled from scales found near Lake Trasimene.
Scale armour is perhaps the oldest type of metal body armour.
Despite its early origins it was used throughout the entire period of Roman dominance. Scale armour is usually depicted with short sleeves, and the lower edges reaching the upper thighs, as in the sculpture of Q. Sertorius Festus on a grave stela . Alternately, the marble relief in the Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, shows a lorica squamata , worn by a 1st century legionary. Scale armour was made from both iron and bronze. The manufacture of scale armour involved small sections of metal sheeting of varying sizes being attached by wires or riveted to their neighbours and sewn onto a suitably flexible foundation of hide or strong cloth.