The Semispatha and the Saex

[Thomas V.]

At some point (much later?), the seax is also labelled a semispatium; a word who first recorded instance is by Vegetius. This is a word which most people have in the past understood to refer to a shortened spatha or a gladius by another name. The suggestion has arisen however that in fact it is a word distinct from the spatha and may therefore refer to a different weapon entirely.

Semispathium means "a small spatha", with spathium being an uncommon term for "spatha". As in the Roman era spatha didn't necessarily mean "spatha", but could also mean "sword" in general, semispathium can also mean "a small sword". The Germanic term for "a small sword" would be sahs. So semispathium is the Latin equivalent of sahs. As "a short sword" is rather unspecific, semispathium can refer to plenty of other sword-/knife-/daggerlike objects. In my opinion Vegetius' semispathium refers to the pugio.