The Abandonment of the Gladius for the Spatha - Why?

[Martin Wallgren]

As long as you are fighting with blunt swords and not any intention to hurt your opponent, you'll be able to be more sure of some conclusions but I maintain that you are not too different from the 'show-fighters'. That will always be the case when you're not using sharp weapons and aiming for a kill. I mean, it's still a hobby or science at best - not bloody survival as it would be if you were training for war, would it? It's that last step which nobody is (should be?) prepared to take.

I want to stress that we train in all sence as gentlemen and don´t try to kill eachother. We use aluminium or wooden waisters when wedo full contact. Have protectiv headgear and riotgloves. We try to have the mindset though of training for war or deadly combat but hope to have our sparringpartners on our flanks should it hapen we find ourselfs in a timemachinewarp an ends up in a medieval or ancient war. In full contact sparring we don´t hold back more than a soldier would in hard training in past times. Sometimes small injuries and bruises occur but most sessions don´t endthat way.

Back on topic. I agree that the crossguard would help. But I think (as I always do) that we are missing somethin techniquewise here. That the spatha is maybe more of a Roman version of the Rapier maybe?!? Why? It has a presence of this in my eyes, it reminds me of the much earlier bronsage "rapiers", and linger blades are often intended for more stabbing and slashing than a head on chop. The other reason is the gladius was a stabber (or so I heard and belive) and if the tradition is to stab why don´t stick with a good consept, even if the need for a longer blade is there. And the last is that the swinging of the sword is IMO a overrated princip ov all swordsmanship. According to Hanko Döbringers manual from the late 14th C one should use the thrust and drawcut each in the same degree as a chop, and this is longswords we talking about.

This is not somthing I can prove here in a forum by talking but something one needs to see, and I plan on giving you all examples later on (if I´m right ) in videos.

Thanks for a wonderful discussion so far.

Keep ém comming :lol: