10-20-2007, 07:29 PM
Yeah, I'd say it was simply a change of fashion. In any case, weren't there a couple different types of shorter sword that were still in use quite late? Semispatha, etc.
It's always dangerous to get into "WHY", unless the ancients wrote it down for us (and even then!). You can get into an awful lot of theory and conjecture. It's fine to theorize sometimes, but too often it doesn't really advance our knowledge, and for reenactors it can lead to some very dodgy conclusions and reconstructions. Beware!
Oddly enough, there are scholars who feel that Bronze Age warfare must have been loose and open, mostly small skirmishes, because the weapons are usually small! Short swords the approximate size of a gladius were the rule, along with spears, javelins, and lots of axes. But some folks just don't feel you can have massed combat with weapons like that. Hmmm.... By this logic, an army using only longer swords must have fought MORE closely and "heavily" than an Imperial Roman army!
Like I said, beware!
Matthew
It's always dangerous to get into "WHY", unless the ancients wrote it down for us (and even then!). You can get into an awful lot of theory and conjecture. It's fine to theorize sometimes, but too often it doesn't really advance our knowledge, and for reenactors it can lead to some very dodgy conclusions and reconstructions. Beware!
Oddly enough, there are scholars who feel that Bronze Age warfare must have been loose and open, mostly small skirmishes, because the weapons are usually small! Short swords the approximate size of a gladius were the rule, along with spears, javelins, and lots of axes. But some folks just don't feel you can have massed combat with weapons like that. Hmmm.... By this logic, an army using only longer swords must have fought MORE closely and "heavily" than an Imperial Roman army!
Like I said, beware!
Matthew
Matthew Amt (Quintus)
Legio XX, USA
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.larp.com/legioxx/">http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
Legio XX, USA
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.larp.com/legioxx/">http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
