Late Empire provision of swords?

[Flavivs Aetivs]

The state would have wanted to equip every soldier (infantry and cavalry) with a spatha. In peaceful times, this would not have been a problem. Soldiers would even have spent private money to obtain better weapons. However, in times of crisis this could present a problem. No doubt we all see that, despite obvious stockpiles, after the disaster of Adrianople it may not have been easy to outfit every newly trained unit with a spatha (or body armour etc.).

From the 5th c. onwards, economics are clearly getting worse and we hear of units without proper material, i.e. cavalry units without horses etc. it's comparable to any modern army in the later days of its existance. No doubt one of the reasons that so many Germanis were hired en block (besides money being available and the numbers of the mercenaries) was that they came equipped and ready for action (where instead during the 4th c. we see that such troops were outfitted by the Romans!).

By the 6th c. we hear of lack of equipment being common - maurikios clearly advocates to put the men with body armour in front and behind, therby indicating that it was quite normal for a unit to lack this as common equipment.

I once argued that Vegetius may have (presuming that he was writing after the disaster at Adrianople) that when he mentions the lack of armor and good discipline, it could have been due to the inablity of the fabrica to supply the troops with the necessary equipment fast enough, and that the new recruits were just given a crash course and thrown into the field to fight the Goths.

Also, the Germans weren't necessarily as mass -hired as you may think. The generalissimos of the 5th century including Stilicho, Aetius, and Ricimerus served their own interests, and more likely used privately hired and trained Bucellarii than Foederati. Aetius has a private retainer of Huns, and the gallic landownign class they served could have each given money to train troops to protect their fortified estates. A good example of this is when Sidonius Appolinaris and company trained a large force with private money to defend thier estates against the visigoths, which proved effective until around 470. (I have a source for that but i can't find it right now, I think it's one of sidonius apollinaris' Carmina or something)