04-08-2013, 10:56 PM
The practise of wearing the sword on the right side is not because the sword on the left would wound the soldier next to the sword drawer, but because the sword could have got stuck into the shield when the shield is kept in front of the body all the time in close battle formation. I know that it's easier to draw the sword from the left side than from the right, but especially short swords are not difficult to draw from right side too, and that prevents effectively the sword from hitting your own shield. Semi-circular scutum covers the soldiers body very well, and when kept near the body, it becomes more difficult to draw the sword from the left than from the right.
For your information I have not read this anywhere, since I haven't found any info of why the gladius was hung on the right, instead I've come to this conclusion myself after experimenting the sword draw from both sides, and with a scutum.
Probably the placement of the scabbard changed about the same time with the shields. When soldiers didn't use semi-circular scuta anymore, there were no need of keeping the sword on the right side, and when the short gladius got replaced by longer spatha, it was easier to draw from the left. Even though it's perfectly possible to draw longer swords from right too, it becomes more and more difficult the longer the sword gets, while on the left side the swords length doesn't matter as much.
Roman officers from centuriones up used their swords on the right side, as a mark of status, and they didn't have to fight in close formations either (the centurio being an exception, since they lead soldiers into charge themselves being on the front line), so they didn't have a need to carry the sword on the right.
Which I don't know is why celts used their swords on the right side, since they had sometimes very long swords, which are quite difficult to draw from right, and they didn't use semi-circular shields and didn't fight in such close formations as Romans.
For your information I have not read this anywhere, since I haven't found any info of why the gladius was hung on the right, instead I've come to this conclusion myself after experimenting the sword draw from both sides, and with a scutum.
Probably the placement of the scabbard changed about the same time with the shields. When soldiers didn't use semi-circular scuta anymore, there were no need of keeping the sword on the right side, and when the short gladius got replaced by longer spatha, it was easier to draw from the left. Even though it's perfectly possible to draw longer swords from right too, it becomes more and more difficult the longer the sword gets, while on the left side the swords length doesn't matter as much.
Roman officers from centuriones up used their swords on the right side, as a mark of status, and they didn't have to fight in close formations either (the centurio being an exception, since they lead soldiers into charge themselves being on the front line), so they didn't have a need to carry the sword on the right.
Which I don't know is why celts used their swords on the right side, since they had sometimes very long swords, which are quite difficult to draw from right, and they didn't use semi-circular shields and didn't fight in such close formations as Romans.
Antonius Insulae (Sakari)
