The Gladius: The Roman Short Sword

This article will seek to reconstruct Roman sword and shield fighting through its existence from antiquity to the medieval period. It will utilise a number of written and depicted sources, showing that not only did the Roman way of fighting change through time but also, especially during the medieval period, holds a level comparison with other systems such as furusiyya in the Abbasid and post-Abbasid world. Additionally, the use of hopping/jumping may have been a form of footwork that was common to the region.

2024

June 13 th 9:00 Welcome 9:35-12:00 Greek mercenaries (Chair: WOLFGANG SPICKERMANN) SZ 01.18 LENNART GILHAUS (Bonn, Germany / Essen, Germany)-The violence of the Ten Thousand: Dynamics and practices of a Greek community of violence ISABELL TSCHEINIG (Graz, Austria)-Peltasts: Mercenaries, allies or citizen-soldiers? ALEXANDER SCHACHNER (Graz, Austria)-From Iphicrates to Blackwater: What modern private military contractors can tell us about ancient Greek mercenaries KLAUS TAUSEND (Graz, Austria)-Mercenaries in Mycenaean Greece? 9:35-12:00 Roman republic (Chair: FERNANDO ECHEVERRÍA) HS 01.15 FABRIZIO BIGLINO (Turin, Italy)-Losing the battle, winning the war? The crisis of the Roman army during the mid-second century BC OLIVER BRÄCKEL (Leipzig, Germany)-The battle of Carrhae and its consequences MIGUEL ESTEBAN PAYNO (Madrid, Spain)-Warlike tension, war effort and military contribution: On the Celtiberian armies of the first Celtiberian war (182-179 BCE) BORJA VERTEDOR BALLESTEROS (Palma, Spain)-The sword and the word: Romanrepublican military officers acting as ambassadors (218-146 BC) 12:00-12:20 Coffee break 12:20-13:30 Weapons (Chair: KLAUS TAUSEND) SZ 01.18 SOBHI ASHOUR (Cairo, Egypt) / ERRIKOS MANIOTIS (Brno, Czech Republic)-Hellenistic and Roman era weapons from the Graeco-Roman Museum (GRM) of Alexandria, Egypt

Arms & Armour, 2012

The hitherto undocumented sword from the collection of the Museo Histórico Municipal de Baena, Córdoba (Spain) is discussed. The sword is of unknown provenance but from its typology is judged to be Roman and could come from a site on the Iberian Peninsula. keywords Roman sword, gladius, Early Roman Empire, militaria, Baena, Córdoba, Hispania History of the sword and context The sword in the Museo Histórico Municipal de Baena 1 (inv. no. 98/6/56, Figures 1 and 2) was donated to the museum in 1998 by the Instituto Luis Carrillo Sotomayor (Baena) which had itself received the item from a local parish priest, Father Virgilio Olmo Relaño. 2 Unfortunately, when we began research into the Baena sword it was too late to interview Father Olmo, who had left no information about its provenance. Therefore, we do not know where nor in what circumstances the sword was found, and so we must concentrate on the typological analysis as our only source of information. We might, tentatively, suggest an origin for the sword close to the town of Baena, as that was the area known to Father Olmo. We believe that this sword is of Roman date (vid infra), but the town of Baena had little Roman presence, as it is likely to be a medieval foundation. 3 Nevertheless, its territory is rich in Roman and Pre-Roman sites. 4 Of the Roman period a few important sites draw our attention: Cerro del Minguillar 5 (Baena, ancient Iponuba), El Laderón (Doña Mencía, ancient Favencia 6), Cerro Plaza de Armas and El Higuerón 7 (Nueva Carteya) and Torreparedones 8 (between Baena and Castro del Río, ancient name unknown 9). Tentatively, we might suggest El Higuerón (Nueva Carteya) as a possible origin for our sword, since it was used as a stronghold during the first centuries of our era 10 and, in all probability had a military presence that is coherent with the dating of our sword. In any case, the relation between our sword and any of these sites is just speculative, so we can not further elaborate on this issue.

As the archaeological excavations at Micia haven’t produced any Roman sword so far, the casual finding of two blade fragments and of one handguard plate is of some interest for the reconstruction of the equipment of the military units quartered in this large auxiliary fort. The narrow sword blade fragments dating from c. AD 170 to 270 were probably deposited in the last years of the fort c. 250/260. Having a close parallel at Hoghiz auxiliary fort, they seem to have belonged to cavalry equipment. The copper alloy handguard plate is of a type met between c. AD 180 and 260/280 on a very large area of the Roman Empire. With five examples known so far, the handle assemblages of wood including guards provided with copper alloy plates look like the most fashionable type of spatha-grip in Dacia after the Marcomannic Wars and until the abandonment of the province. Yet, in this period of time in Dacia, as in all the Roman Empire, bone and iron sword-grip assemblages were also used.

M C Bishop (ed.), The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment. Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Research Seminar, BAR, International Series 275, Oxford, 1985

In this paper I will discuss the chronology and typology of first century Roman daggers and their sheaths. I shall then attempt to draw, from that evidence and from other historical and archaeological material, answers to two questions. Firstly I want to identify where these daggers and sheaths were made, and whether the location of manufacture changed during the first century. Secondly I wish to see what evidence there is that could identify who made the daggers. Again I want to see whether this also changes during the century.

Roman military equipment in the 4 th century BC: pilum, scutum and the introduction of manipular tactics Słowa kluczowe: wojskowość starożytnego Rzymu, pilum, scutum, taktyka manewrowa W eapons and tactics of the Roman army in the era of the great wars with Carthage, Macedonia and the Seleucid Empire, as well as in campaigns against the Celts and the tribes of Iberian Peninsula , waged in the years 264–133 BC, are the subject of many publications. Earlier periods in the development of Roman weapons and fighting techniques have been comparatively neglected. The main reason for this is the low reliability of literary sources (Small 2000, p. 230) and almost complete lack of archaeological finds, the context and dating of which can be linked with the army of Rome in the period of the Early Republic (Rawlings 2007, p. 54), as well as the scarcity of iconographic sources. However, this period was crucial for the emergence of a particular method of fighting of the army, which was to conquer the whole Mediterranean world. The aim of this text is to explain and interpret different types of sources and, as a result, to offer a reconstruction of major elements in the evolution of weapons and tactics of heavy infantry, which formed the backbone of the Roman army in the period when these changes occurred, with a special emphasis placed on the widespread use of oblong shield and heavy javelin in the 4 th century BC. Authors of principal publications concerning the subject of development of Roman arms and armour such as Michael C. Bishop and Jonathan Ch.N. Coulston (2006) as well as Michel Feugère (2002) begin their narrative from the First Punic War. There is no consensus among researchers as to the dating of the transformation of Roman weaponry and tactics in this period. Most of them do not agree with any date given by ancient authors, often emphasizing low reliability of written sources (e.g.

The archaeological identification of the Hispanic prototype of the gladius hispaniensis (the Republican Roman sword from the Second Punic War onwards), and that of the the gladius hispaniensis itself. has been the subject of debate throughout this century, without being clearly resolved. Only now, in the light of recent discoveries and research, is it possible to suggest a clear line of development from the first to the second.

Abstract: A long and well preserved sword was brought to light in 2006 during the archaeological excavations carried out by the Soknopaiou Nesos Project (University of Salento, Lecce) in the temenos of the main temple in Soknopaiou Nesos, modern Dime. The current state of research would suggest a classification as a Roman, or at least Roman influenced, weapon of the late Republican period. However, some peculiar elements of this sword seem to point to an oriental or Egyptian final assemblage. It thus may give a new impulse to the still open discussion about the appearance of Hellenistic swords starting from the period of Alexander's Successors. The weapon can have been used by soldiers of the late Ptolemaic period as well as by members of the Roman army. The question whether the sword ended up in the temenos as part of local defensive arms or as a votive object will largely remain speculative, as its find context is not stratigraphically reliable.