How To.. wear the Pugio and Gladius (belts, fasteners)

[Crispvs]

I agree that many modern reconstructions are top heavy, but we have enough surviving solid iron grip plates in addition to the thin embossed iron examples to be sure that a lot of Roman daggers were probably top heavy as well, especially as the tang seems normally to have been in the shape of all or part of the overall handle shape (type 'A' tang) untill the mid first century AD, when rod tangs appear to have become much more common.

Therefore I think that top heaviness would have been an issue then as now but there are two other factors affecting many modern reconstuctions.
The first is that the evidence strongly suggests that the actual sheaths were normally built around a wooden core, which would have meant that the blades sat much more snugly in their sheaths than many reconstructions do, as they rattle around in purely metal sheaths which do not feature the necessary wooden components.
The other problem is the already mentioned modern practice of suspending the pugio sheath from straps which allow it to swing around to a certain extent. The sculptural evidence at least, suggests that the real things were tightly tied to their frogs with little or no room for movement.

Regarding the reference to Galba's dagger, there is considerable evidence that during an earlier period Iberian warriors carried their daggers against their chests on baldrics. Some evidently hung vertically, as they feature only two rings (the upper on one side and the lower on the other. Others, particularly of the type which featured pairs of circular expansions on the pommel and at the bottom of the sheath (I am sure Cesar will be able to tell us their technical name) seem to have been tightly strapped using four rings to the balric, meaning they would have laid horizontally against the chest. It is possible that these methods of carriage lasted longer in Spain than had previously been thought, although I don't think that the description of it hanging from his neck necessarily indicates a baldric method of suspension. Suetonius (if the detail is accurate in any case) could simply be referring to a short strap which did nothing more than pass around his neck, being attached to each of the upper suspension rings.

Crispvs