Segmented Plate - Pyramid Low Tech II what am I missing?

[DanHoward]

Originally Posted by Kromm

It's doubtful that every sort of armor or even most sorts of armor lumped into a single GURPS tech level ever coexisted in the same time and place, so the comparison was unlikely to have been made. Yet mail did replace segmented plate, so clearly its superiority was eventually recognized . . .

If we are talking about Roman segmented plate then the earliest fragment was found at Dangstetten and dates to 9 BC. Mail was developed in the 4th century BC and adopted by the Romans around a century later. So Roman use of mail predates segmentata by around two centuries. Mail and segmentata were both used for around three centuries and then segmentata was phased out. There are no depictions of segmentata being worn by anyone other than low ranking soldiers. IMO it was munitions armour designed for those who couldn't afford anything better. Those with the means preferred mail, or scale, or bronze musculata.

This might help.
http://myarmoury.com/feature_mail.html