Details

LOT 0311

Late Roman Iron Sword of Herulian Type

5TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.

35 in. (604 grams, 89 cm).

The double-edged spatha with parallel-sided blade and pointed tip, battle nicks to both cutting edges; the hilt and tang extending over the blade as a tight-fitting sleeve; remains of rivet on the tang.

Provenance

Ex private collection of Mr M.B., Mainz, Germany, since the 1980s.
Acquired from the above, 2004.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no. 11939-210916.

Literature

See Dennis, G., Maurice’s Strategikon, handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984; Lebedinski, I., Armes et guerriers Barbares au temps des grandes invasions IVème au Vième siècle après J.C., Paris, 2001, p.118, for a similar example from Chapka-Tserkovnyi Kholm (Abkhazia); Kazanski, M., Mastykova, A., Tsibilium II, La nécropole apsile de Tsibilium, l’étude du site, BAR, 2007, see swords on pl.6, no.27 (Chapka-Cerkovnyj Holm), pl.13, no.14 (Anuhva).

Footnotes

This sword belongs to the group of spathae of late Roman typology, widespread among the Germanic and Abkhazian foederati, and garrison troops of the Northern Black Sea and Caucasus. These swords could have been the prototypes of the Eastern Roman spathia, classified in the Strategikon of Pseudo-Mavrikios as Herouliskia (Herulian swords) for their connections with the Germanic mercenaries bearing them in service with the Roman army.