Good evening, gentlemen.
The swordbucket can´t be complete without one the most important blades of the ancient world. The mighty Roman Gladius.
Derived of a celtiberic sword used alongside the falcata by the iberian mercenary troops of Hannibal during the Second Punic War, this sword impressed the romans and was quickly adopted as the gladius hispaniensis, or spanish sword. A nimble weapon in close combat, it was specially good with the point, but is also able to made vicious cuts. Here is depicted the Mainz type, with a hilt made of bronze, dark noble wood and bone.
Another variant of gladius was the Fulham type, with a slightly shorter blade length but with a narrower and a little longer point, parallel sides with the exception of the shoulders. The hilt was en general lines the same.
The final variant of the gladius was the Pompeii type. Even shorter, with parallel sides from the hilt to the point, which was shorter. The Pompeii type was cheaper and easier to made. The hilt was similar to the other precedent models.
The spatha was first a cavalry sword, the longer blade gives a better reach, but in the late II Century AD it was being carried by foot legionaries and was the standard sword of the late Roman Empire. The spatha survived the empire as it was the basis of several barbarian swords of the Migration Period, depicted here is the Podlodow type, found in Poland, far outside the european eastern boundaries of the Empire. It was a 3 feet long sword, with a hilt not dissimilar to the hilt of a gladius, the blade had a double fuller almost to the point.
Probably, Julius Ceasar was stabbed to dead with this kind of blade:
The roman pugio is a combat knife which was excellent for stabbing, it had a full length central rib for additional rigidity. The blade was riveted to the handle both at the tang and at the shoulders. The hilt was made from layers of wood, horn, bone or completely of metal (steel, bronze, or even silver). Cheers.