Why wear the sword on the right?

[Crispvs]

Actually the evidence is a bit more ambiguous than some commentators would have you believe. Most depictions of first century soldiers, as well as those from the first and second centuries BC, show the sword on the right side. However, Josephus, writing in the late 1st century AD and who had seen the real thing in Judea in the AD60s, says that the Romans wore their swords on the left (actually he says that they wore two swords, a shorter one on the right [normally taken to mean a pugio] and a longer one on the left). On the Adamklissi metopes, some soldiers wear their swords on the right and some on the left. The idea that 1st century centuriones wore their swords on the left comes from the tombstone evidence of a couple of tombstones only and standard vearers show a mixture of left and right for sword positions.

The position of the sword may have varied from unit to unit or from region to region. One thing we do knowmis that the overall picture was not as simple as many people would like to think.

Crispvs