Es-Soumaa Gladius

[M. Caecilius]

I recently came across mentions of the Es-Soumaa gladius, recovered in a Numidian princely tomb, excavated, from what I can tell, by F. Bonnel in 1915. Those who describe the gladius (largely, G. Ulbert and Th. Gerresheim e.a. in a German catalog for an exposition about ancient Numidia, in 1979-1980) accept it as a Roman republican gladius.

However, while the sword makes a token appearances in the footnotes of Feugère and Sanz Quésada, other works, such as those in the Osprey series (e.g. N. Fields, Roman Republican Legionary 298-105 B.C.) or the work of Bishop and Coulston do not mention it at all, referring instead to the Delios and Smihel weapons as the oldest types of republican gladii.

So I was wondering whether there is a reason not to include the Es-Soumaa example. It's find context is Numidian, but as Ulbert argues, the influence of Rome on Numidia was strong at the time the tomb was built, which coincides with the fall of Carthage and Numantia. It is however rather shorter than the Delos or Smihel swords - these are in excess of 62 cm (the Delos one seems to me to be rather a Spatha, though I'm no expert), while the Es-Soumaa sword reached ca. 55 cm.

Also, I was wondering whether anyone has any good pictures of the Es-Soumaa sword. I own the catalog mentioned above (H.G. Horn, Ch. B. Rüger, die Numidier, Bonn 1979), which incidentally mentions that the sword had two blood-grooves, and I wanted to confirm whether the authors mean two on each side, or two in total (one on each side).

Many thanks!

[Decebalus]

The sword has two parallel blood-grooves on both sides of the blade, but deeper on one side than on the other. On p. 334 fig. 200 of the mentioned publication you will find a drawing of the cross-section besides the blade.
The sword has similarities to some shorter Latène sword blades from Spain and to a scabbard from France and could have been influenced by them, but there is no reason to call it a gladius or a direct forerunner of it.
So this might be the reason not to mention it in a work on Roman weapons.
Ch. Miks in his comprehensive work on Roman swords descibes it in a chapter about possible early gladii but did not put it in his catalogue.

Greets,

Andreas

[M. Caecilius]

Thanks, Andreas.

Many thanks for pointing out the cross-section. I still fail to see the grooves on the drawing and the x-ray, but the cross-section shows them very neatly!

What is the reference for Miks? I'd be very interested to hear what he has to say (subject to academic properties on the copyright, of course).

By the way: I've also wondered whether there are clues what a short-sword does in the tomb of a prince of a people known for their cavalry - did the Numidians also value infantry combat, or am I wrong to assume that short-swords would be awkward to use from horseback (and being therefore shunned in favour of the longer spatha)?

[tiberius aemilius naso]

I've never heard about this sword. Really interesting. Is the Christian Miks book available in English?

[Decebalus]

The Miks book is avaiable only in German.
Here you can find the product description with a table of contents.
There is also a review in ANCIENT WARFARE V.3
The images show the sword with reconstruction of the scabbard (from "Die Numider", Exhibition cat. Bonn 1979) and a reconstruction of the Numidian prince Micipsa (died 118 BC) by Peter Connolly which did not appear in the exhibition book, but was shown in original and published only as a postcard...

Max, you can send me a PM with your email adress and I will send you what Miks has to say about the sword.

[M. Caecilius]

Thanks again, and PM sent.

Not much seems to be available in English, so far a I know - I haven't seen Bonnel's excavation rapport, but I'd expect it to be in French, and of course Ulbert writes in German, as the sword was restored in Bonn in the 70s, what there was left of it after spending a bit less than a century largely unattended.

Is there any evidence (beside chronological coincidence) for accepting this as the tomb of Micipsa? There are theories that the older o the people buried here (one aged, one in his early twenties, iirc) would have been at Numantia with the Numidian auxiliaries, but so far I've only seen speculation.

I've found some more quotes in Quesada-Sanz who puts it in his catalogue as "probably Roman republican", while Ulbert believes that, had it been found in Spain, it would undoubtedly be called a gladius hispaniensis, which should make it very attractive for an early example of gladii, of which there are quite a few if we chose to make the longer one (à la Delos) Spathas rather than Gladii, as some catalogs do. What do people think about this last point, in particular with reference to Delos and Es-Soumaa swords?