The gladius was a two-edged straight blade that was suitable for every motion of a swinging arm. It usually had a tapered point and was short enough to carry on the body without hampering the running motion. It was primarily used by Roman soldiers for thrusting, chopping and cutting through bodies – which entailed the use of a very powerful sword arm and upper body strength. The hilt was suitable only for a one-armed hold on the weapon and a knob (called capulus) usually terminated it. Finger ridges were usually placed for maximum grip. Although there were actually many types of Roman swords, most of them were conveniently termed as such to simply denote the short sword supposedly patterned from the weapons of the Celtiberians. The Celtiberians were Celtic people who had occupied part of the Iberian Peninsula (which is present day Spain.)

 

 Prior to the Roman’s conquest of Hispania (before 218 BC,) Roman swords were longer and narrower. These were efficient in cutting and in stabbing, but since metallurgy was still pretty much in its infancy, the blades tended to break during chopping motions. The Roman soldiers needed something which was stronger than their own. The Celtiberians at that time had developed short swords that had better forged steel. Their models became the groundwork for the swordsmiths of ancient Rome to recreate the Hispanic looking sword or to be more precise: the Gladius Hispaniensis.

 

 However, the gladius achieved its notoriety mostly in the bloody amphitheaters of the time. Favored combatants were usually decked out in a host of weapons of their own choosing – from nets, to shields, to javelins and whatnots. Unfortunately, slaves who could not afford to spruce up their armory could only rely on whatever gladiolus was given to them; or in most cases, they have to take (by force) another combatant’s gladius as part of the sport.

 

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