The Semispatha and the Saex

[Longovicium]

I wonder on the demonym 'Saxon' as I understand there to be no internal references by the Angles to themselves as Saxons; that in fact this term is one placed upon them instead. Unlike the Franks and the Allemani, for example, whose names reflect a larger tribal confederation, the Angles never formed such large groupings such that they coined, as it were, a generic term for themselves. I understand that the demonym 'Angle' itself is already derived from the angon and survives today as obviously English but more importantly as a vestige of the throwing weapon in the term 'angling'. I find it hard to see the same tribes labelled under two different weapon names save that one is an internal designation and the other an external one.

Is it perhaps possible that Roman writers simply used the word most apt to describe these northern Germans and labelled them as such? If so, then a short one-edged sword or seax must have been prevalent (notwithstanding burial finds or their lack) at this early stage to be used as a demonym.

If the semispatium is to be read as a weapon distinct from a spatha, I am tempted to see the seax as the best candidate. It is a short-bladed weapon with a single cutting edge which differs from a longsword and a shortsword. The spread of seaxes in burial finds all postdate Vegetius however so that really puts a crimp in my suggestion!