Roman Swords

The original Roman swords were very similar in design to those that were wielded by the ancient Greeks.  They were double-edged short swords (longer than daggers but shorter than "standard" swords) that had straight blades and tapered points for stabbing.  They were used for melee fighting, another name for hand-to-hand combat.

The Latin name for a shorts word - gladius - is the etymological root for the term "gladiator."  Although the word gladiator conjures up images of slave or near-slave warriors fighting other men and animals in the circuses of the Roman Empire, it more properly and simply means "one who fights with a sword." 

As time passed and the dominion of Rome expanded into far-reaching territories, the design of Roman swords changed.  Following the exposure of Roman soldiers to foreign weapons such as those of the Gauls, Iberians and Carthaginians, the blades of the swords used by the ancient Romans evolved.  Over time Roman swords became a bit longer and narrower than the classical Greek-era swords that formed the underlying design of the Roman gladius.  Although the blades of the original gladii were straight, the blades of some Roman swords became leaf-shaped or "wasp-waisted," with curved indentations near the center on both sides of the blade.  Not surprisingly, sometime during or after this design evolution, probably around the 1st Century A.D., the term "gladius" acquired a more general meaning and came to include not just straight-bladed short swords, but also Roman swords of the wasp-waist variety.

The "spatha" was another, later type of Roman sword.  At up to one meter in length, it was longer than a gladius, but had a similar, leaf-shaped or wasp-waisted design.  Originally, the spatha was only worn by Roman cavalry officers, but it was eventually adopted for use by many Roman legionaries and their auxiliary troops.  The spatha was a more advanced design for Roman swords, employing layers of iron and steel.  No one really knows, but the design of the spatha perhaps later evolved into the Medieval broadsword.

Early Roman swords were made of bronze or iron, but by the time of the Roman Republic (from about the 6th Century B.C. to about the 1st Century B.C.), steel and the process of making it had become well known.  Steel, being much harder than iron, was the superior metal for weaponry, and the Romans, being the soldiers that they were, adopted its use for their swords.  Roman swords and the legionaries who wielded them cut wide swaths throughout the world, and in doing so, Roman swords became the ancient equivalent of a modern weapon of mass destruction.

Swords have been used as weapons since time immemorial, and in hundreds of different cultures throughout the world.  But no culture used the sword more effectively than the Romans.  At the height of the Roman Empire, Roman swords were the instruments of war that conquered, tamed and ruled most of the entire known world. 

No culture, no civilization, has employed the sword as a more potent weapon. Roman swords. A piece of history.  A piece of the glory that was Rome.

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