The Spatha: The Roman Long Sword

Osprey Weapons #72

by M.C. Bishop, Peter Dennis (Illustrator)

The Roman long sword, the spatha, was central to the Romans' defense of their empire--this title investigates the origins, development, combat use, and lasting legacy of this feared close-combat weapon.

Adopted from the Celts in the 1st century BC, the spatha, a lethal and formidable chopping blade, became the primary sword of the Roman soldier in the Later Empire. Over the following centuries, the blade, its scabbard, and its system of carriage underwent a series of developments, until by the 3rd century AD it was the universal sidearm of both infantry and cavalry.

Thanks to its long reach, the spatha was the ideal cavalry weapon, replacing the long gladius hispaniensis in the later Republican period. As the manner in which Roman infantrymen fought evolved, styles of hand-to-hand combat changed so much that the gladius was superseded by the longer spatha during the 2nd century AD. Like the gladius, the spatha was technologically advanced, with a carefully controlled use of steel. Easy maintenance was key to its success and the spatha was designed to be easily repaired in the field where access to a forge may have been limited. It remained the main Roman sword into the Late Roman period and its influence survived into the Dark Ages with Byzantine, Carolingian, and Viking blades.

Drawing together historical accounts, excavated artefacts, and the results of the latest scientific analyses of the blades, renowned authority M.C. Bishop reveals the full history of the development, technology, training, and use of the spatha the sword that defended an empire.

Genres: History, Roman

80 pages, Paperback

Published January 21, 2020

About the author

M. C. Bishop (Mike Bishop) is a freelance writer, publisher, and archaeologist who – among other things – walks, drives, cycles, flies, tweets, blogs, draws, and photographs Hadrian’s Wall. His particular specialities are Roman arms and armor and the Roman site at Corbridge in Northumberland, but he confesses to being at his happiest when working on articles or books (writing, illustrating, editing, copy-editing, typesetting, proofreading, and indexing!).

Reviews

[S.J.A. Turney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m going to guess that anyone who's here knows of Osprey Publishing’s renown in the field of military history. I am the owner of scores of their books ranging from the days of ancient Greece to the Renaissance war galley, though more than half of them are on the subject of Rome and Byzantium. I love my Osprey books, and while I laud them above most military history works, even I can admit that they vary a little in quality. Some are a little assumptive and bold, others more technical and trustworthy. All are good, but from the point of view of a historical researcher one has to be aware of such things. So that’s Osprey. Leaders in their field.

Mike (M. C., which I know makes him sound like a DJ) Bishop is a name I count as a go-to for all things Roman military. Along with John Coulson, he is the preeminent authority on Roman military equipment, having studied it for decades, been involved in the archaeology that has brought some of it to light, written up the excavation reports for some of the most important of Roman military sites, and been a leading light in Roman military circles for some time. His is one of at most half a dozen names that I trust implicitly when I read their work, whether it be on military equipment or a guide to walking Hadrian’s Wall (also his excellent work.)

So when Bishop signed on to do a few ‘weapon’ books for Osprey, I knew these would be up there with the best of their titles. Pilum and Gladius I already have, and have reviewed. Now, he has turned his considerable talent to informing us about the Roman longsword, the spatha.
Spatha is a book that contains everything you need to know about the weapon. There is no need to consult another source. From the archaeological discoveries, largely based on ‘bog finds’ in Northern Europe, Bishop gives us immense detail of the form, composition, design, distribution, use and value of the weapon. Backing this up with accounts from sources such as the Historia Augusta, Arrian and Tacitus, every angle is explored. I consider myself knowledgeable about the subject from years of study, and yet I learned a number of things from reading this work, not least about the development of the ‘semispatha’ as a compromise between the long slashing weapon and the short stabbing weapon, often formed from re-pointing broken spathas.

From the development of the weapon based upon the original Spanish Sword, to the influence the blade would have on following centuries of cultures right to the late Viking era, Bishop provides a detailed narrative that attempts to fill in the gaps in the historical record with source-based logic, never even leaning towards assumptions without giving caveats and explanations, and identifies a number of unexpected aspects that cannot be denied.

Complete with wonderful illustrations from reconstructive paintings, through photographs of artefacts, to technical line drawings, this is the only book you’ll ever need on the subject and joins its peers as one of my go-to texts for research when writing Roman novels.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit more speculative than Osprey's superb gladius entry, but that's the nature of the game, I guess.

[Checkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Osprey books are usually dependable reads. Compact and informative booklets that are basically deep dives on very specific military history topics - like the Roman Spatha. The Osprey books are for those who want to know more about a very specific subject - often such subject matter receive little to no attention by historians in their considerably larger works. It's understandable, but sometimes one wants to know more about the smaller things that the bigger picture historians have neither the page space nor inclination to cover.

M.C. Bishop is very focused and provides surprisingly dense technical detail (considering the book number only 80 pages) regarding the variations of the blades, hilts and scabbards. As is standard from Osprey there is the generous number of photos, diagrams and artistic depictions of the Spatha being used in battle by the Roman Army. A fast read, but informative and satisfying.