Pteruges (also spelled pteryges, from Greek πτέρυγες, meaning "feathers") refers to the defensive skirt of leather or multi-layered fabric (linen) strips or lappets worn around the waists of Roman and Greek warriors and soldiers, as well as the similarly-fashioned epaulette-like strips worn on the shoulders, that protected the upper arms. Both sets of strips are usually interpreted as belonging to a single garment worn under a cuirass, though in a linen cuirass (linothorax) they may have been integral. The cuirass itself could be variously constructed: of plate-bronze (muscle cuirass), linothorax, scale, lamellar or mail. Pteruges could be arranged as a single row of longer strips or in two or more layers of shorter, overlapping lappets of graduated length.
On many Roman coins the pteryges visible on the near shoulder under drapery is the only part of the cuirass visible.
Alexander the Great in battle. Pteruges of leather or stiffened linen are depicted at the shoulders and hips, emerging from beneath his cuirass. Detail of the Alexander Mosaic (A Roman copy of a Hellenistic painting).