[John Piscopo]

Dear Friends,

I have just purchased a Roman Gladius for $825. from a coin dealer who had it on consignment from a friend, probably a customer and would like to present it to you for your study and consideration. As I do not have the sword in my possession, I am unable to provide my own .jpg pictures to this forum so I am including the following links that the Seller gave me for my use:
http://www.nemesisancients.com/ebaypics/ironsword.jpg
http://www.nemesisancients.com/ebaypics/ironsword01.jpg
http://www.nemesisancients.com/ebaypics/ironsword02.jpg
http://www.nemesisancients.com/ebaypics/ironsword03.jpg
http://www.nemesisancients.com/ebaypics/ironsword05.jpg
http://www.nemesisancients.com/ebaypics/ironsword06.jpg
http://www.nemesisancients.com/ebaypics/ironsword07.jpg
http://www.nemesisancients.com/ebaypics/ironsword08.jpg

I identified this sword for the Seller prior to making a deal with him for the purchase so he became an informed Seller of an identified item. If you have Roman Military Equipment by M.C. Bishop and C.N. Coulston you can find a line drawing of this sword on page 70 as Figure 1. Text as follows:

The blades (excluding tang) vary between 400mm (16in) and 550mm (22in) in length and blade widths taper from something like 48-60mm (2-3in to 2-2 1/3in), with a length of point varying between 96 and 200mm (3 3/4 and 8in). The handle assembly consisted of a hand guard, an octagonal-sectioned handgrip, usually made from a cow longbone, and then a pommel of slightly flattened ovoid appearance. The pommel and handguard were often made of wood, as examples from Vindonissa show, but could also be of bone or ivory. These pieces were held onto the tang by a copper alloy rivet. The sword from Rheingonheim had a silver plated wooden handle and the rivet originally possessed a 'small ring from a bronze chain', recalling a gladiator relief from Rome where the sword is suspended from the gladiator's wrist by a cord or chain.
Scholars differ over the two types of blade. Many of the Mainz type swords had waisted blades and one wonders if they were deliberately made this way (and why?) or whether they had been worn down by repeated sharpening.

This sword has been widely copied and I have an example, made in Spain, and can often be found on eBay where I bought mine. Here is an example: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem...tegory=135

My friend Dave thinks that the bulges on the tang are remnants of an ivory grip, an indication of it being owned by a sub officer of some rank. Note that the two rivets are remaining, these may be bronze as indicated in the description above. My blade does have the waisting at the ricasso, I disagree that this would have been caused by sharpening. I suspect that the blade was not sharpened all the way to the hilt, much less sharpened so often that the waisting would only occur within the two inches of the ricasso area. I suspect that the oval disc with the rivets is a rare feature in surviving swords. I will be looking at it carefully when it arrives to see if there are any markings.

Swords of this type so a long period of service in the early empire and many examples have been found in the German Rhineland. I suspect that mine was a German burial find as there are clearly much remaining traces of the original wooden scabbard, a feature that would not exist if the sword was found on or close to the surface where it would have quickly rotted away. My analysis is that the sword was owned by a German Auxilliary, possibly an officer, who retired from his unit and returned to his German home where he was buried with his weapon. An alternative explanation would be that the sword was war booty and the German warrior who was its owner took it as a battle trophy and had it buried with him.

The Roman Army issued weapons from the Imperial Armories and they belonged to the Army. Legionaries turned their weapons and armor in to the Quartermaster of their legions upon their retirement. Those who did keep their weapons were not buried with them.

Any comments would be appreciated.

[Russ Ellis]

Hey Joe, unfortunately I don't know enough about gladii to say much but I've invited a buddy here to check out your thread and my own one below as well. What do you think about that Raven reproduction?

[Chuck Perino]

Greetings Joe!
Here are some links where you may find some more information concerning Gladii:
ROMAN ARMY TALK: http://pub45.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk
a lot of excellent information discussed here regarding roman archaelogical finds

LEGIO XX: http://www.larp.com/legioxx/gladius.html
These guys are quite knowledgeable with regards to legionary eqipment and historical reenactment. Ask for Matt Amt, he knows it all!

Best of luck!

[John Piscopo]

Who is Joe?

[Chuck Perino]

Whoops! My bad John! Guess mentally I automatically combined "Piscopo" with "Joe Piscopo" of Saturday night live fame....my apologies!

[John Piscopo]

Dear Chuck,

Now I understand. Perhaps Russ did the same thing? I am much more well known among ancient weapons collectors than Joe Piscopo of Saturday Night Live fame is. You are one of those Renaissance men whose interests include both fields of study. Thanks for adding the Roman Army link to this thread, I have previously bookmarked it for my Rome file.

One of my friends suggested that my sword could be more narrowly dated to the 2nd Century. Any opinions on that?

[Chuck Perino]

I am by no means an expert in Roman weaponry, but in my experience a Mainz pattern gladius typically has a wider profile and a less tapering tip than the photos you have shown. I think it would take a massive amount of sharpening (grinding) to result in the loss of that much of the "textbook" mainz gladii profile. What is the total length of the sword?

Plus it appears that there is a fuller in picture "8"? That would also make me suspicious of being a Mainz type gladii.

Tough to tell from the pictures, but I get a spatha feeling about the sword rather than a gladii. Just my 2 cents!

[John Piscopo]

Dear Chuck,

I hope to do a better study on the sword once it is in hand. Difficult to do much from photographs, I did the best I could. Bishop and Coulston does not have as many swords for study as I would want, I would like to see a reference work with a hundred swords cataloged with photos as well as line drawings and a text that showed how to distinguish varieties of style and better dating from archaeologically excavated models that have been properly dated.