[905] Quinctilian, Inst. Orat. xii. 11. Marchionni (p. 123) makes the Gladius short and broad for infantry, and the Ensis long and broad for cavalry, in fact, synonymous with Spatha. This view is not unusual.
[906] In Claud. cap. 15.
[907] Florus, ii. 17.
[908] This blade greatly resembles one found in Ostirbotten, Finland, except that the latter preserves the tang. Trans. Congress of Bologna of 1871, p. 428.
[909] The point was called cuspis, which never applies to the mucro, acies, or edge. ‘Differt a mucrone quæ est acies gladii,’ says Facciolati.
[910] See chap. vii. In Hugues de Bançoi’s Battle of Benevento we read: ‘Le Roy Charles’ (brother of St. Louis, and then fighting to take Sicily from Manfred) ... ‘crioit de sa bouche Royale à ses Chevaliers de serrer les ennemis, leur disant, Frappez de la pointe, Frappez de la pointe, soldats de Jésus Christ. Et il ne faut pas s’en étonner, car ce Prince habile avait lu dans le Livre de l’Art Militaire que les nobles Romains n’avoient pas imaginé de meilleure manière de combattre que de percer les ennemis avec la pointe de l’épée.’
[911] Livy, xxxv. 12. According to Spanish tradition, Toletum (probably a Carthaginian-Punic word) was founded b.c. 540 by Hebrews, who called it Toledoth, in Arab. Tawallud, the ‘mother of cities.’
[912] Properly the South-Danube country from the Wienerwald to the Inn. The great seat of the iron works was at Lauriacum (Lorch, near Enns). After b.c. 16 the province was ruled by a Procurator.
[913] See chap. vi.
[914] In Tonini’s Rimini avanti l’ era volgare (p. 31) we read that the Spatha-blade ‘Come ognuno sa, presso i Greci quanto presso i Latini, est genus gladii latioris; onde Isidoro nelle Origini (xviii. cap. 6) ha che alcuni spatham latine autumant, eo quod spatiosa sit, id est lata et ampla.’ But this is a dictionary derivation. In chap. viii. I have traced it back to the Egyptian Sfet, and in chap. xiii. I shall show that it is the straight broadsword as used by the Kelts.