The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History - Karatunov.net

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The Roman A rmy
ern provi n ces wh ere the cl i m a te is dry, but some examples of a rrowh e ads wi t h
wood sti ll attach ed have been found at Ho u s e s te ads and Corbri d ge in nort h ern
E n gland and at Caerl eon (Co u l s ton , 1 9 8 5 ) . In the we s t , b a rbed arrows were of ten
u s ed , wh i ch would have been very ef fective against tri be s m en who wore no arm
or. The arrows were kept in a cyl i n d rical qu iver, examples of wh i ch are shown
on Roman sculptu re s , and there would have been a re s erve of a rrows for arch ers
to use wh en their qu ivers were em pty (Co u l s ton , 1 9 8 5 ) . Horse arch ers prob a bly
u s ed ligh ter and shorter bows than infantry and ligh ter arrows , so the infantry
a rch ers would have had a lon ger ra n gethan the mounted s a gi t t a ri i .
The Gladius
Commonly termed the gladius Hispaniensis, this type of sword was adopted by
the Romans either when they met mercenaries from Spain in Carthaginian employ
or when they first campaigned in Spain. The Republican gladii tend to be
longer than the Imperial examples, but there are so few known examples that it
is impo s s i ble to be dogm a tic on this score . The early Im perial gl a d i i were
shaped like an elongated leaf with a long tapered point, like the examples found
at Mainz in Germany, from which they take their name in modern terminology.
These Ma i n z - type swords are com m on on Augustan sites and prob a bly su rvived
until the Claudian period, when they were eventually replaced by the soc
a ll ed Pom peian type s , s tra i ght sided with a shorter poi n t . The handgrips of
wood , bon e , or ivory usu a lly had four grooves for the fingers and en su red a
good hold; pom m els were of wood , po s s i bly covered with sheet met a l , or of
ivory, and the scabbards were usually made of wood with sheet metal covers, often
very highly decorated.
The gladius was effective either for cutting or for thrusting and was used by
legionaries and auxiliaries. The sword was worn on a belt, suspended from the
four rings on the two circlips around the top of the scabbard, but no one knows
precisely how or whether in fact all four rings were used (Bishop and Coulston,
1 9 9 3 ) . This we a pon was used by legi on a ries and auxiliari e s , and tom b s ton e s
from the Rhine frontier show auxiliaries wearing the gladius, like the legionaries,
on the right side, which enabled the soldiers to withdraw it easily without
hindering their shield arm ( Feugère, 2002). Sculptural evidence shows that centurions
and officers wore their gladii on the left.
The Spatha
This long slashing sword is traditionally associated with the Roman cavalry, but
it was used by infantry as well from the late second century, so the presence of a