An Interesting Description of a Gladius in Action

Steel Tiger

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While hunting about looking for interesting tidbits of information I happened across this. It is from Livy's History of Rome, and may be the earliest reference to a Roman using a gladius hispaniensis. I thought someone might find it interesting.

When they had taken their stand between the two armies, while so many hearts around them were in suspense between hope and fear, the Gaul, like a great overhanging mass, held out his shield on his left arm to meet his adversary's blows and aimed a tremendous cut downwards with his sword. The Roman evaded the blow, and pushing aside the bottom of the Gaul's shield with his own, he slipped under it close up to the Gaul, too near for him to get at him with his sword. Then turning the point of his blade upwards, he gave two rapid thrusts in succession and stabbed the Gaul in the belly and the groin, laying his enemy prostrate over a large extent of ground. He left the body of his fallen foe undespoiled with the exception of his chain, which though smeared with blood he placed round his own neck. Astonishment and fear kept the Gauls motionless; the Romans ran eagerly forward from their lines to meet their warrior, and amidst cheers and congratulations they conducted him to the Dictator. In the doggerel verses which they extemporised in his honour they called him Torquatus ("adorned with a chain"), and this soubriquet became for his posterity a proud family name. The Dictator gave him a golden crown, and before the whole army alluded to his victory in terms of the highest praise. The History of Rome, vol II, 7.10 - Livy

I have emphasised the most pertinent part. Now the shield that Manlius was using would have been of the early Republican type with a rounded top and bottom and was probably slightly lighter (probably not significant) than the iconic rectangular shields of the middle empire, so this technique may not have continued beyond the changes in shield design.

What is interesting is the way in which he used the sword, close-in with upward thrusts from low down. It is quite different to the images we get of Roman legionaires standing with their swords slightly above waist height, pressed firmly against the rim of their shields, and apparently ready to thrust straight forward.

This is, of course, an image of individual combat, but what it does do is present another way of looking at the gladius, which, due to imperial imagery, has come down to us as an almost archetypical close order fighting weapon (a task it is very well suited to).

This particular variety of the gladius was probably about 75-80cm long with a 65cm blade and probably weighed around 1.4kg, a form that continued in use until about 20BC.


I also quite like the name of the Roman involved - Titus Manlius.
 

exile

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What is interesting is the way in which he used the sword, close-in with upward thrusts from low down. It is quite different to the images we get of Roman legionaires standing with their swords slightly above waist height, pressed firmly against the rim of their shields, and apparently ready to thrust straight forward.

This is, of course, an image of individual combat, but what it does do is present another way of looking at the gladius, which, due to imperial imagery, has come down to us as an almost archetypical close order fighting weapon (a task it is very well suited to).

Very nice, ST! Another illustration of the truism that sometimes less is more. The shortness of the gladius gave it some of the desirable handling characteristics of a knife, without compromising its robustness as a heavy combat weapon.

You gotta hand it to the Romans: they were incredibly versatile as soldiers. And you've put your finger on the crucial point, which applies not just to the weapon but to the warrior: we think of the Roman soldier as an efficient cog in a shield wall machine, maybe in sawtooth formation as in the great battle where Suetonius's small army turned the vastly larger Celtic forces under Boudica into chopped liver. But as this chap shows, he was no slouch at single combat either.
 

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As a counter to the view of the gladius hispaniensis as soley a thrusting weapon, another quote by Livy:
Livy 31.34-35:
[34] With the view of doing more to win the affections of his men and make them more ready to meet danger on his behalf, Philip paid special attention to the burial of the men who had fallen in the cavalry action and ordered the bodies to be brought into camp that all might see the honour paid to the dead. But nothing is so uncertain or so difficult to gauge as the temper of a mass of people. The very thing which was expected to make them keener to face any conflict only inspired them with hesitancy and fear. Philip's men had been accustomed to fighting with Greeks and Illyrians and had only seen wounds inflicted by javelins and arrows and in rare instances by lances. But when they saw bodies dismembered with the Spanish sword, arms cut off from the shoulder, heads struck off from the trunk, bowels exposed and other horrible wounds, they recognised the style of weapon and the kind of man against whom they had to fight, and a shudder of horror ran through the ranks.
 
OP
Steel Tiger

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I think that it is quite clear from the general appearance of the earlier gladii, in that they were similar to the Greek xiphos, that they were originally a cut and thrust weapon. An interesting point about some designs of gladii is that the upper portion was wider, by perhaps 1cm, than the lower portion. That would suggest a possibility of chopping like the contemporaneous machaira, or the kukri, or yataghan.

An interesting comparison is the way in which Spartan and Roman thinking varied with regard to their side arms. In the case of the Spartans their sidearms got shorter, going from the more standard xiphos of about 60cm during the Persian Wars to something about 25cm long during the Peloponnesian Wars. The Romans went the other way. The earliest blades were around 65cm long. This gradually grew until they were around 100cm in AD100. Not long after that they were replaced by the spatha.

So it would seem that while the Spartans were focussing on close order fighting (their spears got longer as well from 2.4m to 3.6m), allowing no real room for sword-fighting, the Roman fighting order was opening up, perhaps as a result of encountering so many varied enemies, many of whom had a strong focus on individual prowess within battle formations.
 

Andy Moynihan

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As a counter to the view of the gladius hispaniensis as soley a thrusting weapon, another quote by Livy:

Just looking at the blade width/shape, it was indeed made with cutting edges.

And you have to figure, even though by the time the rapier came into use much later in the Renaissance period, though it's blade geometry made it a poor cutter(it was optimized to thrust to fit the combat conditions of the duels of its day), even ITS edges, as far as possible, would be sharpened as far as they could be if for no other reason than to discourage it from being grabbed, so, take away the single duel aspect, reintroduce the need to freely attack in multiple directions as in mass battle, and looking at the gladius' blade profile I'm convinced beyond unconvincing that it could, and did, cut as well.
 

Darth F.Takeda

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Besides the low stab (pretty much like the 90degree upper arm to forearm and sword in strait thrust of Pekiti Tarsia) they also did a high stab, over the top, to the subclavian area. (Same is in PT and many other arts.)

They actually did a good job depicting known and suppossed Roman fighting in the series Rome.
 

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the romans were known to tell their troops that 2.5 inches of penetration by a thrust to the body is lethal 80%+ of the time.. and if you know your anatomy you know that it is true. the gladia was designed for close combat thrust with a wide blade and good point. it will slash or hack if you wish, and would likely take off a hand if you stuck it out there for him to do so. but there was no romance or naming of swords by the romans. they were in the business of killing efficiently and quickly.
In a good shield wall you do not attack the man in front of you! you kill the guy to your right, in front of your buddy. The most efficient way to do that against the galls and most of the enemy's of Rome, was a fast thrust or two as it exposes less of the legionary's arm to counter attack and had a higher lethality rate then a slash or hack. Also, in close made the use of the longer weapons used by their enemy's harder to use.
 

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Great quotes, Steel Tiger.

But perhaps more interesting that the exact delivery of the death blow is the manner in which the shield is used -- to displace the enemy's and open up a path for the blow.

There are descriptions of that sort of thing in medieval European martial arts manuals, and modern students have attempted to reconstruct them. Here is an example:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=R8SRaa33otU
 

lklawson

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As a counter to the view of the gladius hispaniensis as soley a thrusting weapon, another quote by Livy:
IMS, Vegititus described a Legionaries' gladius drill: Thrust, Thrust, Chop, Thrust, Step, Shield-Batter

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
 

lklawson

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I think that it is quite clear from the general appearance of the earlier gladii, in that they were similar to the Greek xiphos, that they were originally a cut and thrust weapon. An interesting point about some designs of gladii is that the upper portion was wider, by perhaps 1cm, than the lower portion. That would suggest a possibility of chopping like the contemporaneous machaira, or the kukri, or yataghan.
The blade design was time tested and well proven by the time the Romans used steel to form their incarnation. You can see similar designs going well back into the Bronze age: Single-handed, Broad-Baded, double-edged, pointed, minimal or no cross-guard...

Two that spring immediately to mind are examples from Luristan and what has been dubbed the "Canaanite Sword."

Luristan:
Canaanite Sword:
Anyway, cool ref.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
 

lklawson

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And you have to figure, even though by the time the rapier came into use much later in the Renaissance period, though it's blade geometry made it a poor cutter(it was optimized to thrust to fit the combat conditions of the duels of its day
Not to be too big of a wang, but Meyer clearly intended the Rapiers he used to cut and cut well.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
 

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