Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered
I've heard it argued that such armor would be much more common in the front rank compared to the back ranks.
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Some ancient and medieval sources talk about that, but remember that there might be 3 byrnies among the 50 men in a longship! So "much more common" is relative.
We don't have much evidence on the exact numbers, but even in days with much more specialization and better tools and economies of scale, mail was terribly expensive.