Lorica musculata

Myslevtsev A.S.

Lorica musculata is a modern conventional designation for an anatomical cuirass whose relief represents the torso’s musculature. It normally combines breast and back plates. Bronze examples and some iron specimens are known.

Greek and Italic cuirasses provide comparative evidence. A small cardiophylax is a different form of protection, not the name for every early complete cuirass. One exclusive ancestry for all muscle cuirasses cannot be established from it.

Roman imagery especially associates muscle cuirasses with commanders and emperors, sometimes with rich decoration. Monumental representation can be idealised; it does not prove an exclusive right of one rank to wear the armour or that every example became purely ceremonial clothing.

Samnite's short anatomical breastplate. 4th century BCE

Lorica musculata. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 4th century BCE

Lorica musculata. Bronze. 3rd-2nd century BCE

Lorica musculata in Ancient Rome

The lowest military rank in Roman army which still wore lorica musculata were centurions. It is interesting that they also began to wear lorica musculata since Republic era, and this tradition of wearing remained unchanged during the Empire. Unlike the legates and emperors, centurion's lorica musculata wasn't decorated with rich engraving, but they wore faleras over it.

A centurion wearing lorica musculata. Reposited in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn. 1st century CE

The most richly engraved lorica musculata variants belonged to emperors and legates. The most common set of engraving were Jupiter spikes on the shoulder segments, the Gorgon Medusa in the upper part of the chest, and two griffins near the abdomen. That composition hasn't changed much since the Republic era. But there were other options, for example, images of gods, sphinxes, eagles. Also, a special fabric belt was often tied over the lorica musculata called Zona Militaris. In the middle of the lorica musculata, at the navel level, the belt was tied into a special knot, which is sometimes called as "Herculean". It was primarily the attribute of legates and emperors.

Gaius Julius Caesar's statue as an emperor. Rome, Museum of Roman Civilization. Inv. No. MCK 194. The beginning of the 2nd century CE (the statue was created during Trajan)

Trajan's statue. Early 2nd century CE

Marcus Aurelius' statue, Louvre. 2nd century CE

Augustus of Prima Porta presents the emperor in an idealised martial image with a raised hand. The statue is in the Vatican Museums’ Braccio Nuovo. Its cuirass relief is associated with the Parthian return of Roman standards in 20 BCE.

It is not a documentary scene of a speech to an exactly known number of legionaries before the war against Antony. Identification of individual cuirass figures remains interpretive. The statue is important for imperial symbolism and depictions of muscle armour, but does not document every commander’s everyday kit.

Augustus' statue from Prima Porta. Late first century BCE - Early 1st century CE

Also there is a quite interesting theory, that part of the lorica musculata weren't made out of bronze, but out of leather. That conclusion can be done from some bas-reliefs, where there is a folded lorica musculata lying on the ground next to the owner. It should be noted that perhaps this is just an image of subarmalis, not the lorica musculata itself.

A statue of Emperor Antoninus Pius with a leather lorica musuclata or subarmalis. Rome, National Roman Museum. 2nd century CE

A statue of Emperor Antoninus Pius with a leather lorica musculata or subarmalis. Rome, National Roman Museum. 2nd century CE

A statue of Emperor Hadrian with a leather lorica musculata or subarmalis. Turkey. Bergamo Museum. 2nd century CE

Greek cuirasses

The two-leaved cuirass in Greece appears in the Bronze Age. It became wide spread in the 8th – 6th centuries BCE. Due to its high production cost, the thorax didn't become a mass type of armor, and due to competition with linen armor. Its exact prevalence cannot be calculated as one wearer in ten from these examples. Modern reconstructions of such lorica musculata weighs about 6 kg. Craftsmen made the cuirass out of bronze, beating a metal sheet on a stone form. The armor consisted of front and back plate, fastened on the shoulders and sides with straps, or poles inserted in loops. The assembled thorax was barrel-shaped, and schematically resembled man's torso muscles. Both plates have cutouts for throat, arms, and waist. The lower part of the cuirass has a so-called bell-shape due to peculiar wide flangs. This form allowed the warrior to sit without removing the armor. The thorax itself was short and protected the warrior's body only to the waist. The thorax was decorated with engravings and punchwork, which in the most luxurious and expensive thoraxes formed whole compositions. Also, punchwork decorations were usually anatomical. There is a rare iron lorica musculata's version with gold accessories, which deserves special attentions. It was found in Epirus in the tomb of Prodromi. The finding dates back to 290-270 BCE.

Bronze cuirass. The Axel Guttmann collection. 7th-6th century BCE

Greek bronze cuirass with a relief image of a Gorgon. Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, sixth-fifth century BC.

Celtic cuirasses

One of the most ancient ancestor of lorica musculata can be considered Celtic cuirasses. They had completely different symbolic images and anatomy. The "ABS" was almost never depicted, but Celtic traditional drawings were often depicted. They were also made out of bronze, and mainly dated to the 4th-6th century BCE.

Celtic cuirass. Bronze, silver. Vasil Bozhkov Thrace Foundation, Sofia. 6th century BCE

Two Celtic cuirasses Found in Styria, Austria. Eggenberg Castle's Archaeological Museum, Graz. 6th century BCE

Celtic cuirasses. Museum of Saint-Germain, France. 5th-6th century BCE

Literature and sources

Erika Simon: Der Augustus von Prima Porta. Bremen, Dorn 1959. (Opus nobile 13)
Paul Zanker: Augustus und die Macht der Bilder. München, C. H. Beck 1987, ISBN 3-406-32067-8
Britova N. N., Loseva N. M., Sidorova N. A. Roman sculptural portrait, Moscow: Iskusstvo Publ.,1975.

Vatican Museums. Augustus of Prima Porta

Additional views

Lorica musculata. Bronze. Height: 57.8 cm. 5th-4th century BCE

Facial cuirasse's plate, bronze-silver, IV century BCE Greece

Lorica musculata. Bronze. Found in Apulia, Southern Italy. Milan, Poldi Pezzoli's Museum. Probably part of the trophy. 4th century BCE

Lorica musculata. Lanuvium's warrior tomb. Bronze, there are traces of leather and linen. Maximum height: 40.8 cm, shoulders 50 cm, width: 30 cm, overall thickness: 26 cm. 490-480 year BCE

Gaius Julius Caesar's statue as an emperor. Rome, Museum of Roman Civilization. Inv. No. MCK 194. The beginning of the 2nd century CE (the statue was created during Trajan)