If the Roman Empire possessed plate armour, why was mail used for most of the medieval period?

by RobDogs

It makes little sense to me that the Roman Empire had their lorica segmantatas but in 13th century Europe they were still using mail despite armour made of metal plates existing a thousand years earlier

white_light-king

Adrian Goldsworthy's "The Complete Roman Army" has a pretty short good explanation of the decline of the Lorica Segmentata.

Basically the segmented plate cuirass declined due to maintenance issues. It was a complex design with a lot of small parts. Many of the small parts contained copper alloy, which caused corrosion issues with the iron plates. Taken together with a relatively modest improvement compared to chain mail (which always coexisted with the segmented cuirass) the Romans themselves largely abandoned the Lorica Segmentata by the 3rd century AD. Chainmail proved a cheaper solution, ultimately.