The Spatha is a straight, slashing sword, usually worn by cavalry officers and auxiliaries in later Roman armies.

Usually a longer version of the shorter, leaf-shaped gladius, the spatha is over 2 feet long but seldom reached a full yard.

Employed by both Roman cavalrymen and their German enemies, later Lombard spathae were actually more advanced than the iron cast gladii, being constructed from a crude, albeit effective, steel-like alloy.

From German spathae probably stemmed most later kinds of straight, middle sized slashing blades.

A common name for such weapons is broad sword - although the term is more accurately referred to a mid 16th century slavic sword, the Schiavona.

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