Editing Spatha (section)

=== Roman Empire ===
[[File:Roman Cavalry 2 - cropped.JPG|thumb|[[Roman cavalry]] reenactor wearing a replica ''spatha'']]
[[File:7946 - Venezia - Tetrarchi in Piazza San Marco - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto, 8-Aug-2007.jpg|thumb|Depiction of swords with hilts fashioned in the shape of eagles' heads ([[Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs]], c. AD 300)]]
The ''spatha'' was first introduced to the Romans by [[Celts|Celtic mercenaries]] during the [[Second Punic War]]. The Celts would have used weaponry and armor from their homeland, and one of the Celtic weapons would have been the ''spatha.''<ref name=":0" /> Although many believe that the ''spatha'' was adopted by the Romans due to contact with [[Germania]], this is not true.<ref name=":0" />

The earlier ''[[gladius]]'' sword was gradually replaced by the ''spatha'' from the late 2nd to the 3rd century AD. From the early 3rd century, legionaries and cavalrymen began to wear their swords on the left side, perhaps because the ''[[scutum (shield)|scutum]]'' had been abandoned and the ''spatha'' had replaced the ''gladius''.<ref>Lesley Adkins, Roy A. Adkins, ''Handbook to life in ancient Rome'', Oxford University Press, 1998
{{ISBN|978-0-19-512332-6}}, p. 87.</ref>

In the imperial period, the Romans adopted the original Greek term, ''spáthē'' (σπάθη), as ''spatha'', which still carried the general meaning of any object considered long and flat.<ref>An online version of "Middle Liddell" is offered at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/, referring to the middle of three sizes in which the most commonly used [[lexicon]] by Liddell & Scott has been published. The unabridged is preferable for research, as it lists all the uses in ancient Greek of the word.</ref> ''Spatha'' appears, first in [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] and then in [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], with different meanings: a spatula, a metal-working implement, a palm-leaf and so on.<ref>An interactive Latin dictionary, Lewis & Short, based on Andrews, is given at www.perseus.com, but any good printed Latin dictionary also states the various uses and sources of spatha.</ref> There is no hint of any native Roman sword called a ''spatha''.

Referring to an actual sword, the term first appears in the pages of Tacitus with reference to an incident of the [[Principate|early empire]].<ref>Annales [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tac/a12030.htm 12.35].</ref> The British king, [[Caratacus]], having rebelled, found himself trapped on a rocky hill, so that if he turned one way he encountered the ''gladii'' of the legionaries, and if the other, the ''spathae'' of the auxiliaries.  There is no indication in Tacitus that they were cavalry.

The next mention of ''spathae'' is in the 5th century, by [[Vegetius]], now as a weapon carried by infantry.

The ''spatha'' remained in use in the [[Byzantine Empire]] and its [[Byzantine army|army]]. In the Byzantine court, ''[[spatharios]]'' (σπαθάριος), or "bearer of the ''spatha''", was a mid-level [[Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy|court title]]. Other variants deriving from it were ''[[protospatharios]]'', ''spatharokandidatos'' and ''spatharokoubikoularios'', the latter reserved for [[eunuchs]]. One of the more famous ''spatharokandidatoi'' was [[Harald III of Norway|Harald Hardrada]].<ref>Kekaumenos, ''Strategikon'', "Oration of Admonition to an Emperor", para. 81</ref>