Sarmatian origins of the spatha?

[Alanus]

Hi Alan,

1) when do think that the Roman army first began to use the spatha?
2) was this due to steppe recruits (or ‘Alan’ or from any comparable origin) entering the Roman army?

Back to you, Robert (with an Ooops! enclosed)

1) I gave the wrong century, even though I personally portray an early Alan recruit, for instance in the first few decades. I meant "late 1st century into the 2nd," and actually I think the period of introduction might be shortly after the AD 40. At this time, the Roxolani had reached the lower Danube opposite Scythia Minor. By AD 60, they were hitting settlements in Moesia. A significant battle ocurred in 62, and around this time a Roman legion was almost destroyed, I think. In the winter of 68-69, we have our best description of these early Alans by Tacitus. They lost an ice-battle, weighed down with booty; and their armor was so heavy they had a hard time getting back onto their feet after toppling from their mounts. (Massagetae-styled cataphracts) The description runs... "their use of long lances and swords with two hands." The archaeological record confirms the sword lengths, up to 100cm.

During this period, the Roman army would have employed Roxolani as inerpreters and scouts, probably lesser nobles who wanted to climb the Roman ladder. This would be the period (AD 60s to century-end) when the Alanic long sword evolved into the Roman spatha. There is some varience, from the earliest spathas-- narrow-bladed and somewhat Alanic-- to the later, wider-bladed, spatha that became the norm by the beginning of the 2nd Century. I'm basing that statement on what remains of funery steles, a narrow-bladed example like this:
[attachment=1506]spatha011.JPG[/attachment]
Mid to late 1st century, Landesmuseum, Mainz. Perhaps we are looking at "artistic license" but the sculpting appears technically accurate.


Here are blade-width reproductions of a few long-swords of this period, the spatha included:
[attachment=1507]spatha003.JPG[/attachment]
They represent a narrow width 8-sided clam-shell, folded steel (Alanic), medium width double-fullered, welded from 3 twisted rods (Filippovka), and 4-sided wide-width, tempered steel Roman spatha. All the blades are about the same weight, only the configuration changes; and the Roman spatha is the simplest to produce by "mass production."

2) Do I think the Roxolani blades influenced the birth of the spatha? Yes. Certainly, Celtic (and perhaps Germanic) long swords existed prior to this introduction, but they were never adopted, and they seldom exceeded 75-80cm in length.

I think I'm correct, that the mid 1st century presaged the use of the wider spatha by the introduction of the Alanic long-sword through native recruits joining the Roman cavalry. And then by the end of the century we have a formalized standard, such as this example:
[attachment]C:\\fakepath\\spatha 012.JPG[/attachment]

I'm sorry for the initial confusion. Sometimes the date in my head never makes it to the date I type. :mrgreen:

PS: This site or is not allowing the above 012.JPG to appear. It's a standard wider spatha on a late 1st century stele.