blade, 25 inches, but is otherwise similar in character and in dimensions. Both show a distinct midrib. On neither is there any trace of the mountings of the hilt, nor of the sheath. Another incomplete sword from the Pit at the Baths still retains the greater part of its bone hilt (Plate XXXIV., Fig. 13). The blade has been doubled back, and the point is gone. The remaining part of the blade measures 16¼ inches in length, and has a maximum width of 1316 inches. The hilt, which is 4¼ inches long, is obviously imperfect. It terminates at the upper end in an ovoid pommel 278 inches in circumference. The grip has alternate ridges and flutings to prevent it slipping in the hand, and no doubt it expanded again beneath, as do the hilt of bone recently discovered near Dorchester, and the ivory hilt found at Mainz and now in the Museum there. The Dorchester specimen is 645 inches long, and represents a variety which appears to have been in common use among the Romans. It is frequently to be seen on legionary monuments. It is, therefore, probable that this doubled-up sword, and the two more perfect blades, Figs. 6 and 7, are, like Figs. 11 and 14, to be classed as Roman.

The Gladius and the Spatha

The two types of sword that have been discussed, as exemplified by Figs. 11 and 6, probably represent the weapons of the legionary and of the auxiliary respectively. We learn from literary sources that in the time of Claudius the auxiliaries carried a sword, known as the spatha, which differed from the sword of the legionaries. Vegetius, writing at a much later date, describes the spatha as being longer than the gladius. Under Vespasian, too, the horsemen had a longer sword than the infantry. The contrast between the weapons of the legionary and of the auxiliary—the gladius and pilum in the one case, and the spatha and hasta in the other—is strikingly brought out in a passage of Tacitus, in which he describes the defeat of Caratacus by Ostorius Scapula.[1]

The long narrow blade of the spatha is closely akin to the Celtic swords of La Tène. No doubt many of the auxiliaries brought their native weapons with them into the Roman service. Thus, the curved sword which the Dacians wear in the sculptures of the Trajan column reappears on a tablet from Amboglanna, now at Newcastle, dedicated by Dacian auxiliaries. In the same way this long light sword, the counterpart of which may be found in pre-Roman graves in Central Europe, was perhaps the weapon

1 "Si auxiliaribus resisterent, gladiis ac pilis legionariorum, si huc veterent, spathis et hastis auxiliarium sternebantur." Annals, Book xii. c. 35.

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