a cuirass, or coat of mail, worn by the Roman soldiers, was made of various materials. One formed by numerous folds of linen was used rather in hunting than in warfare. The ordinary kind consisted of a skin or a piece of strong linen, covered with small plates of iron which resembled, both in their shape and in their manner of overlapping each other, the scales of a serpent or a fish. Sometimes cuirasses or hauberks, composed entirely of iron rings linked together, were worn by the Roman hastati. A less flexible but more impervious defence was the cuirass made of hard leather or of metal, and consisting of two parts (the one covering the breast and abdomen, and the other the back), united by hinges and leathern thongs.