![]() ![]() This training would have provided the Roman soldier with a good foundation of skill, to be improved upon from practical experience or further advanced training. In fact, it is also found that Roman gladiators trained with a wooden sword, which was weighted with lead, against a straw man or a wooden pole known as a palus (an early relative of the later wooden pell). One translation of Juvenal's poetry by Barten Holyday in 1661 makes note that the Roman trainees learned to fight with the wooden wasters before moving on to the use of sharpened steel. This probably carried over to their training with weaponry, but we have no Roman manuals of swordsmanship. The Empire's legionary soldiers were heavily trained and prided themselves on their disciplinary skills. the spatha was used throughout much of the Roman Empire. The spatha was a longer double-edged sword initially used only by Celtic soldiers, later incorporated as auxilia into Roman Cavalry units however by the 2nd century A.D. Gladiators used a shorter gladius than the military. ![]() Although, some depictions of Roman soldiers show them using slashing and cuts. ![]() According to Vegetius the Romans mainly used underhanded stabs and thrusts because one thrust into the gut would kill an enemy faster than slashes or cutting. The Roman legionaries and other forces of the Roman military, until the 2nd century A.D., used the gladius as a short thrusting sword effectively with the scutum, a type of shield, in battle. ![]()
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