Modern replica. The history below is about the original this piece reproduces.
The gladius was the short sword of the Roman legionary and the weapon that conquered the Mediterranean world. Adopted from Iberian patterns during the Punic Wars, it paired a broad two-edged blade of roughly 50 to 68 centimeters with a long tapering point, optimized for the tight ranks of the legion, where a soldier stabbed past his shield rather than swung. For some four centuries it equipped the most successful heavy infantry of the ancient world.
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