Legionary short gladius to long gladius

[Virilis]

Hi Archie!

I think the "classic" short swords / gladiuses like Pompeii and Mainz style were not in use at the time of Marcus Aurelius anymore, at least not extensively. The swords that replaced them were not actually "spathas" yet, more like Lauriacum-Hromowka etc. style gladiuses on "steroids" (by this I mean for example the shape of a pompeii style gladius with large dimensions, up to 65 cm long and 6cm wide). Have to check Christian Miks's opus on roman swords once again, though...

The swords in this transition period (let's say 150-200 AD) seemed quite brutish before they developed into more elegant late roman spathas as we have been used to think of them, methinks...