Lorica manica

A manica (Latin: manica, "sleeve") was a type of iron or bronze arm guard, with curved and overlapping metal segments or plates, fastened to leather straps, worn by Roman gladiators called crupellarii, and later by soldiers.

As early as Achaemenid times, there were references to "cheires" which consisted of hoops of metal that would be worn on the rein arm of a cavalryman. Hooped armour became extremely popular in the Saka, Parthian, and Kushan kingdoms and was used on both arms and legs. They can be seen at Khalchayan and on many pieces of Parthian artwork. In addition, two pieces were excavated at Taxila, dating to the 1st Century.

Roman troops fought crupellarii in the revolt of Florus and Sacrovir of AD 21 . From Trajan's Dacian Wars come the only representational evidence for the use of the manica, and we do not know if its use in that campaign was widespread or rare. Manicae (along with metal greaves) are attested as a supplement to metal body armour on several reliefs depicting that campaign, including the Tropaeum Traiani at Adamclisi and Trajan's Column.

These extra pieces of armour may have been used as a protection against the Dacian falcēs, which were two-handed weapons which could hit with great force. Trajan's column in Rome seems to suggest that the lorica segmentata and the manica were only issued to Roman-born legionaries and not to auxiliaries. However, the Tropaeum Traiani, which is considered a better guide to the reality of field equipment, portrays Roman legionaries and heavy infantry auxiliaries equipped in the same fashion—both wearing scale body armour with manica arm guards.

Finds identified as manicae have come from Newstead, Carnuntum, Richborough, Corbridge, Eining (Abusina) on the Danube frontier, Leon, Carlisle, and Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa. A very well preserved manica was found in 2010/2011 in a soldiers barrack at the Roman castle of Steincheshof on the Rhine frontier. This manica dated from the last third of the first century to the first third of the second century. These suggest that the manica was in use by the Roman military during the 1st century AD, independent from the Dacian wars. The sculpture at Alba Julia provides evidence of the manica in use in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD by the military.Ammianus describes Roman cavalry (probably cataphracts) on parade in AD 350 as "Laminarum circuli tenues apti corporis flexibus ambiebant per omnia membra diducti." (Thin circles of iron plates, fitted to the curves of their bodies, completely covered their limbs). Around 400 AD, manicae are represented on the Column of Arcadius and in the Notitia Dignitatum.

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