Historical accuracy questions

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Swords aren't that heavy, two kilos for a bastard sword is the upper limit.

Talking of gear weights. When I did my Roman guestimate I was only thing of the weapons and armour. You forget everything you wear is heavy.

I find it very difficult to believe that Gladius and tull are more than a kilo though. Modern reconstruction Gladii are usually less that 0.7kg.

[cunctator]

That's the actual weight of an reconstructed type mainz gladius based on an example found near Chichester. The sword alone without the tull has a weight of 1.55 Kg. Genenerally type mainz gladii have a weight between 1.2 and 1.6 Kg. Only the type Pompeii gladius weights less than 1 Kg.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

That's the actual weight of an reconstructed type mainz gladius based on an example found near Chichester. The sword alone without the tull has a weight of 1.55 Kg. Genenerally type mainz gladii have a weight between 1.2 and 1.6 Kg. Only the type Pompeii gladius weights less than 1 Kg.

I don't distrust you but could you direct me to some sources I could read up on this? As regards weights I'm more familiar with mediaevil swords.

[cunctator]

The first things in english that come to my mind are (the first mostly in english:
-"The Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies", which has a few articles about swords in it's various volumes.
http://www.jrmes.org.uk/

and "Roman Military Equipment" by M.C. Bishop & J.C.N. Coulston
http://www.romanmilitaryequipment.co.uk/

I also found an arcticle on JSTOR, but can't acces it from here, but it sounds interesting:
"Study of the Metallography of Some Roman Swords"
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=006...3E2.0.CO%3B2-J

The numbers for the legionary equippment posted above are from "Die Legionen des Augustus" by Markus Junkelmann, very detailed but only focusing on augustan legionary infantry and rather old now.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

"Study of the Metallography of Some Roman Swords" is a good read. I was thumbing through the jmres earlier today, or one volume. Unfortunately our library, sucks. It's actually sliding down the hill because when they built it they didn't account for the weight of the books.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

"Study of the Metallography of Some Roman Swords" is a good read. I was thumbing through the jmres earlier today, or one volume. Unfortunately our library, sucks. It's actually sliding down the hill because when they built it they didn't account for the weight of the books.

LOL
I don't know why, but I find that really funny.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

LOL
I don't know why, but I find that really funny.

Well I didn't tell you for educational purposes, we had a good laugh about it in the backroom a week or so ago.