The spatha was a long, straight sword measuring roughly half a meter to a meter in length, used across the Roman Empire from the first to sixth centuries AD. Celtic mercenaries introduced it to Roman forces during the Second Punic War, and it was used mainly by cavalry before infantry adopted it around the second century, gradually replacing the shorter gladius as the standard heavy infantry sword. It remained in use through the Migration Period and influenced the swords of the Viking age and the later knightly swords of medieval Europe. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Weapon Class
Weapon Class (category)Sword / Polearm / Bladed 1 Classification
Service Status Weapon Class Sources
1. Wikipedia: Spatha
Lead paragraph
The spatha was a type of straight and long sword, measuring between 0.5 and 1 metre (20 and 40 inches)
- Weapon class (sword-polearm-blade) is a pre-industrial/melee weapon type by its own nature per the entity's own sourced description text; not carried in current active military service.
View the SourceWikidata: Spatha
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