Details

LOT 2133

Roman Gladius with Bone Hilt

1ST-2ND CENTURY AD

26 1/4" (818 grams, 68.5cm).

A gladius short sword with lentoid-section forge-welded parallel-sided blade tapering at about four-fifths of the length to an acute point; the wooden lower guard D-shaped in profile with a bronze plaque beneath where the tang enters; bone grip, square in section with five raised ribs; lentoid-section D-shaped wooden pommel with collared bronze knop.

Provenance

Property of a North Yorkshire gentleman; acquired before 1975.

Literature

Cf. James, S. Excavations at Dura Europos 1928-1937. VII The Arms, Armour and Other Military Equipment, London, 2004, fig.87 for the complete sword; Chapman, E.M. A Catalogue of Roman Military Equipment in the National Museum of Wales, BAR British Series no.388, Oxford, 2005, Ab07 for a similar carved bone grip.

Footnotes

The pommel is made in one piece and shows no signs of the tightening wedges normally used to secure it around the tang. The blade is forge-welded from iron billets, and shows the characteristic 'wavy' effect in the surface.

CONDITION