Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius was a Roman historian . Little is known of Q. Claudius Quadrigarius's life, but he probably lived in the 1st century BCE .
78-543: Gladius ( Classical Latin: [ˈɡɫadiʊs] ) is a Latin word properly referring to the type of sword that was used by ancient Roman foot soldiers starting from the 3rd century BC and until the 3rd century AD. Linguistically, within Latin, the word also came to mean "sword", regardless of the type used. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those of the Greeks, called xiphe ( pl. , sg. : xiphos ). From
156-422: A compromise, with straight edges and a long point. The gladius Hispaniensis was a Roman sword used from around 216 BC until 20 BC. Its blade had a length of 60–68 cm (24–27 in), and the sword was 75–85 cm (30–33 in) long. The width of the sword was 5 cm (2.0 in). It was the largest and heaviest of the gladii , weighing 1 kg (2.2 lb) or 900 g (2.0 lb). This gladius
234-469: A dagger ( pugio ), and perhaps, in the later empire period, darts ( plumbatae ). Conventionally, soldiers threw pila to disable the enemy's shields and disrupt enemy formations before engaging in close combat, for which they drew the gladius . A soldier generally led with the shield and thrust with the sword. Gladius is a Latin masculine noun. The nominative plural of it is gladiī . However, gladius in Latin refers to any sword, not only
312-691: A few in German , Dutch , Norwegian , Danish and Swedish . Latin is still spoken in Vatican City, a city-state situated in Rome that is the seat of the Catholic Church . The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part, in substantial works or in fragments to be analyzed in philology . They are in part the subject matter of the field of classics . Their works were published in manuscript form before
390-519: A general meaning as any type of sword. This use appears as early as the 1st century AD in the Biography of Alexander the Great by Quintus Curtius Rufus . The republican authors, however, appear to mean a specific type of sword, which is now known from archaeology to have had variants. Gladii were two-edged for cutting and had a tapered point for stabbing during thrusting. A solid grip was provided by
468-454: A knobbed hilt added on, possibly with ridges for the fingers. Blade strength was achieved by welding together strips, in which case the sword had a channel down the centre, or by fashioning a single piece of high-carbon steel, rhomboidal in cross-section. The owner's name was often engraved or punched on the blade. The hilt of a Roman sword was the capulus . It was often ornate, especially the sword-hilts of officers and dignitaries. Stabbing
546-574: A loan from Welsh]; the root of the word may survive in the Old Irish verb claidid "digs, excavates" and anciently attested in the Gallo-Brittonic place name element cladia / clado "ditch, trench, valley hollow"). Modern English words derived from gladius include gladiator ("swordsman") and gladiolus ("little sword", from the diminutive form of gladius ), a flowering plant with sword-shaped leaves. According to Polybius ,
624-562: A new Classical Latin arose, a conscious creation of the orators, poets, historians and other literate men, who wrote the great works of classical literature , which were taught in grammar and rhetoric schools. Today's instructional grammars trace their roots to such schools , which served as a sort of informal language academy dedicated to maintaining and perpetuating educated speech. Philological analysis of Archaic Latin works, such as those of Plautus , which contain fragments of everyday speech, gives evidence of an informal register of
702-476: A remarkable unity in phonological forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilising influence of their common Christian (Roman Catholic) culture. It was not until the Muslim conquest of Spain in 711, cutting off communications between the major Romance regions, that the languages began to diverge seriously. The spoken Latin that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from the other varieties, as it
780-709: A small number of Latin services held in the Anglican church. These include an annual service in Oxford, delivered with a Latin sermon; a relic from the period when Latin was the normal spoken language of the university. In the Western world, many organizations, governments and schools use Latin for their mottos due to its association with formality, tradition, and the roots of Western culture . Canada's motto A mari usque ad mare ("from sea to sea") and most provincial mottos are also in Latin. The Canadian Victoria Cross
858-411: Is Veritas ("truth"). Veritas was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn, and the mother of Virtue. Switzerland has adopted the country's Latin short name Helvetia on coins and stamps, since there is no room to use all of the nation's four official languages . For a similar reason, it adopted the international vehicle and internet code CH , which stands for Confoederatio Helvetica ,
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#1732787518717936-420: Is a kind of written Latin used in the 3rd to 6th centuries. This began to diverge from Classical forms at a faster pace. It is characterised by greater use of prepositions, and word order that is closer to modern Romance languages, for example, while grammatically retaining more or less the same formal rules as Classical Latin. Ultimately, Latin diverged into a distinct written form, where the commonly spoken form
1014-640: Is a reversal of the original phrase Non terrae plus ultra ("No land further beyond", "No further!"). According to legend , this phrase was inscribed as a warning on the Pillars of Hercules , the rocks on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar and the western end of the known, Mediterranean world. Charles adopted the motto following the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and it also has metaphorical suggestions of taking risks and striving for excellence. In
1092-660: Is highly fusional , with classes of inflections for case , number , person , gender , tense , mood , voice , and aspect . The Latin alphabet is directly derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets . Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church at the Vatican City . The church continues to adapt concepts from modern languages to Ecclesiastical Latin of
1170-689: Is modelled after the British Victoria Cross which has the inscription "For Valour". Because Canada is officially bilingual, the Canadian medal has replaced the English inscription with the Latin Pro Valore . Spain's motto Plus ultra , meaning "even further", or figuratively "Further!", is also Latin in origin. It is taken from the personal motto of Charles V , Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain (as Charles I), and
1248-1011: Is taught at many high schools, especially in Europe and the Americas. It is most common in British public schools and grammar schools, the Italian liceo classico and liceo scientifico , the German Humanistisches Gymnasium and the Dutch gymnasium . Occasionally, some media outlets, targeting enthusiasts, broadcast in Latin. Notable examples include Radio Bremen in Germany, YLE radio in Finland (the Nuntii Latini broadcast from 1989 until it
1326-543: The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL). Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same: volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance and relevant information. The reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy . About 270,000 inscriptions are known. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. In
1404-570: The First Punic War (264-241 BC), not the second. In any case, the gladius hispaniensis became particularly known in 200 BC during the Second Macedonian War , in which Macedonian soldiers became horrified at what Roman swords could do after an early cavalry skirmish. It has been suggested that the sword used by Roman cavalrymen was different from the infantry model, but most academics have discarded this view. Arguments for
1482-528: The Holy See , the primary language of its public journal , the Acta Apostolicae Sedis , and the working language of the Roman Rota . Vatican City is also home to the world's only automatic teller machine that gives instructions in Latin. In the pontifical universities postgraduate courses of Canon law are taught in Latin, and papers are written in the same language. There are
1560-502: The Late Latin period, language changes reflecting spoken (non-classical) norms tend to be found in greater quantities in texts. As it was free to develop on its own, there is no reason to suppose that the speech was uniform either diachronically or geographically. On the contrary, Romanised European populations developed their own dialects of the language, which eventually led to the differentiation of Romance languages . Late Latin
1638-607: The Middle Ages as a working and literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance , which then developed a classicizing form, called Renaissance Latin . This was the basis for Neo-Latin which evolved during the early modern period . In these periods Latin was used productively and generally taught to be written and spoken, at least until the late seventeenth century, when spoken skills began to erode. It then became increasingly taught only to be read. Latin grammar
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#17327875187171716-574: The Middle Ages , borrowing from Latin occurred from ecclesiastical usage established by Saint Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century or indirectly after the Norman Conquest , through the Anglo-Norman language . From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed " inkhorn terms ", as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by
1794-455: The Pompeii gladius . Finally, in the third century AD the heavy Roman infantry replaced the gladius with the spatha (already common among Roman cavalrymen), relegating the gladius as a weapon for light Roman infantry. A fully equipped Roman legionary after the consulships of Gaius Marius was armed with a sword ( gladius ), a shield ( scutum ), one or two javelins ( pila ), often
1872-407: The common language of international communication , science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the early 19th century, by which time modern languages had supplanted it in common academic and political usage. Late Latin is the literary language from the 3rd century AD onward. No longer spoken as a native language, Medieval Latin was used across Western and Catholic Europe during
1950-635: The 3rd century BC, however, the Romans adopted a weapon based on the sword of the Celtiberians of Hispania in service to Carthage during the Punic Wars , known in Latin as the gladius hispaniensis , meaning " Hispanic -type sword". The Romans improved the weapon and modified it depending on how their battle units waged war, and created over time new types of " gladii " such as the Mainz gladius and
2028-637: The British Crown. The motto is featured on all presently minted coinage and has been featured in most coinage throughout the nation's history. Several states of the United States have Latin mottos , such as: Many military organizations today have Latin mottos, such as: Some law governing bodies in the Philippines have Latin mottos, such as: Some colleges and universities have adopted Latin mottos, for example Harvard University 's motto
2106-561: The Celtiberian source of the weapon have been reinforced in recent decades by discovery of early Roman gladii that seem to highlight that they were copies of Celtiberian models. The weapon developed in Iberia after La Tène I models, which were adapted to traditional Celtiberian techniques during the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC. These weapons are quite original in their design, so that they cannot be confused with Gallic types. As for
2184-703: The Germanic and Slavic nations. It became useful for international communication between the member states of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies. Without the institutions of the Roman Empire that had supported its uniformity, Medieval Latin was much more liberal in its linguistic cohesion: for example, in classical Latin sum and eram are used as auxiliary verbs in the perfect and pluperfect passive, which are compound tenses. Medieval Latin might use fui and fueram instead. Furthermore,
2262-575: The Gladius Hispaniensis. The Mainz Gladius still had wasp-waisted curves. The decoration on the scabbard illustrates the ceding of military victory to Augustus by Tiberius after a successful Alpine campaign. Augustus is semi-nude, and sits in the pose of Jupiter, flanked by the Roman gods of Victory and Mars Ultor, while Tiberius , in military dress, presents Augustus with a statuette of Victory. The Fulham gladius or Mainz-Fulham gladius
2340-599: The Grinch Stole Christmas! , The Cat in the Hat , and a book of fairy tales, " fabulae mirabiles ", are intended to garner popular interest in the language. Additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissner's Latin Phrasebook . Some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series,
2418-630: The Latin language. Contemporary Latin is more often studied to be read rather than spoken or actively used. Latin has greatly influenced the English language , along with a large number of others, and historically contributed many words to the English lexicon , particularly after the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest . Latin and Ancient Greek roots are heavily used in English vocabulary in theology ,
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2496-467: The United States the unofficial national motto until 1956 was E pluribus unum meaning "Out of many, one". The motto continues to be featured on the Great Seal . It also appears on the flags and seals of both houses of congress and the flags of the states of Michigan, North Dakota, New York, and Wisconsin. The motto's 13 letters symbolically represent the original Thirteen Colonies which revolted from
2574-563: The University of Kentucky, the University of Oxford and also Princeton University. There are many websites and forums maintained in Latin by enthusiasts. The Latin Misplaced Pages has more than 130,000 articles. Italian , French , Portuguese , Spanish , Romanian , Catalan , Romansh , Sardinian and other Romance languages are direct descendants of Latin. There are also many Latin borrowings in English and Albanian , as well as
2652-658: The adoption of this design by the Romans even before the end of the war , which canonical Polybius reaffirms by calling the later Roman sword gladius hispaniensis in Latin and iberiké machaira in Greek . It is believed Scipio Africanus was the promoter of the change after the Battle of Cartagena in 209 BC, after which he set the inhabitants to produce weapons for the Roman army. In 70 BC, both Claudius Quadrigarius and Livy relate
2730-502: The author and then forgotten, but some useful ones survived, such as 'imbibe' and 'extrapolate'. Many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French . Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and Dutch vocabularies. Those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius Quadrigarius's annals spanned at least 23 books. They began with
2808-477: The authors believe the process was continuous from the Etruscans to the Romans. The Vetulonian sword was crafted by the pattern welding process from five blooms reduced at a temperature of 1,163 °C (2,125 °F). Five strips of varying carbon content were created. A central core of the sword contained the highest: 0.15–0.25% carbon. On its edges were placed four strips of low-carbon steel, 0.05–0.07%, and
2886-403: The back side of the sword to 0.35–0.4% on the blade, from which the authors deduce that some form of carburization may have been used. The sword was 40 cm (16 in) long and was characterized by a wasp-waist close to the hilt. Romans continued to forge swords, both as composites and from single pieces. Inclusions of sand and rust weakened the two swords in the study, and no doubt limited
2964-535: The beginning of the Renaissance . Petrarch for example saw Latin as a literary version of the spoken language. Medieval Latin is the written Latin in use during that portion of the post-classical period when no corresponding Latin vernacular existed, that is from around 700 to 1500 AD. The spoken language had developed into the various Romance languages; however, in the educated and official world, Latin continued without its natural spoken base. Moreover, this Latin spread into lands that had never spoken Latin, such as
3042-425: The benefit of those who do not understand Latin. There are also songs written with Latin lyrics . The libretto for the opera-oratorio Oedipus rex by Igor Stravinsky is in Latin. Parts of Carl Orff 's Carmina Burana are written in Latin. Enya has recorded several tracks with Latin lyrics. The continued instruction of Latin is seen by some as a highly valuable component of a liberal arts education. Latin
3120-430: The comic playwrights Plautus and Terence and the author Petronius . While often called a "dead language", Latin did not undergo language death . By the 6th to 9th centuries, natural language change eventually resulted in Latin as a vernacular language evolving into distinct Romance languages in the large areas where it had come to be natively spoken. However, even after the fall of Western Rome , Latin remained
3198-555: The conquest of Rome by the Gauls ( c. 390 BCE), reached Cannae by Book 5, and ended with the age of Sulla , c. 84 or 82 BCE. The surviving fragments of his work were collected by Hermann Peter . The largest fragment is preserved in Aulus Gellius , and concerns a single combat between T. Manlius Torquatus and a Gaul . Quadrigarius's work was considered very important, especially for
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3276-609: The contemporary history he narrates. From its sixth book onward, Livy 's History of Rome used Quadrigarius and Valerius Antias as major sources, (if not uncritically), and it seems Livy especially drew on Quadrigarius for trophies placed in the Capitoline temple and lost before Livy's time in the fire of 83 BCE. He is cited by Aulus Gellius, and he was probably the "Clodius" mentioned in Plutarch 's Life of Numa . The judgment of his prose has varied. Some considered that it
3354-465: The country's full Latin name. Some film and television in ancient settings, such as Sebastiane , The Passion of the Christ and Barbarians (2020 TV series) , have been made with dialogue in Latin. Occasionally, Latin dialogue is used because of its association with religion or philosophy, in such film/television series as The Exorcist and Lost (" Jughead "). Subtitles are usually shown for
3432-503: The decline in written Latin output. Despite having no native speakers, Latin is still used for a variety of purposes in the contemporary world. The largest organisation that retains Latin in official and quasi-official contexts is the Catholic Church . The Catholic Church required that Mass be carried out in Latin until the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965 , which permitted the use of the vernacular . Latin remains
3510-568: The development of European culture, religion and science. The vast majority of written Latin belongs to this period, but its full extent is unknown. The Renaissance reinforced the position of Latin as a spoken and written language by the scholarship by the Renaissance humanists . Petrarch and others began to change their usage of Latin as they explored the texts of the Classical Latin world. Skills of textual criticism evolved to create much more accurate versions of extant texts through
3588-413: The earliest extant Latin literary works, such as the comedies of Plautus and Terence . The Latin alphabet was devised from the Etruscan alphabet . The writing later changed from what was initially either a right-to-left or a boustrophedon script to what ultimately became a strictly left-to-right script. During the late republic and into the first years of the empire, from about 75 BC to AD 200,
3666-445: The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and some important texts were rediscovered. Comprehensive versions of authors' works were published by Isaac Casaubon , Joseph Scaliger and others. Nevertheless, despite the careful work of Petrarch, Politian and others, first the demand for manuscripts, and then the rush to bring works into print, led to the circulation of inaccurate copies for several centuries following. Neo-Latin literature
3744-546: The history of Latin, and the kind of informal Latin that had begun to move away from the written language significantly in the post-Imperial period, that led ultimately to the Romance languages . During the Classical period, informal language was rarely written, so philologists have been left with only individual words and phrases cited by classical authors, inscriptions such as Curse tablets and those found as graffiti . In
3822-703: The invention of printing and are now published in carefully annotated printed editions, such as the Loeb Classical Library , published by Harvard University Press , or the Oxford Classical Texts , published by Oxford University Press . Latin translations of modern literature such as: The Hobbit , Treasure Island , Robinson Crusoe , Paddington Bear , Winnie the Pooh , The Adventures of Tintin , Asterix , Harry Potter , Le Petit Prince , Max and Moritz , How
3900-704: The language of the Roman Rite . The Tridentine Mass (also known as the Extraordinary Form or Traditional Latin Mass) is celebrated in Latin. Although the Mass of Paul VI (also known as the Ordinary Form or the Novus Ordo) is usually celebrated in the local vernacular language, it can be and often is said in Latin, in part or in whole, especially at multilingual gatherings. It is the official language of
3978-405: The language, Vulgar Latin (termed sermo vulgi , "the speech of the masses", by Cicero ). Some linguists, particularly in the nineteenth century, believed this to be a separate language, existing more or less in parallel with the literary or educated Latin, but this is now widely dismissed. The term 'Vulgar Latin' remains difficult to define, referring both to informal speech at any time within
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#17327875187174056-585: The links below often differ both in theory and in detail. They should not necessarily be understood as fully professional articles but should be appreciated for their presentational value. Latin Latin ( lingua Latina , pronounced [ˈlɪŋɡʷa ɫaˈtiːna] , or Latinum [ɫaˈtiːnʊ̃] ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages . Latin
4134-431: The meanings of many words were changed and new words were introduced, often under influence from the vernacular. Identifiable individual styles of classically incorrect Latin prevail. Renaissance Latin, 1300 to 1500, and the classicised Latin that followed through to the present are often grouped together as Neo-Latin , or New Latin, which have in recent decades become a focus of renewed study , given their importance for
4212-572: The origin of the word gladius , one theory proposes the borrowing of the word from * kladi - during the Gallic wars, relying on the principle that K often became G in Latin. Ennius attests the word gladius may have replaced ensis , which until then was used mainly by poets. By the time of the Roman Republic , which flourished during the Iron Age , steel and the steel-making process
4290-545: The place of the gladius in the Roman legions. Several different designs were used; among collectors and historical reenactors , the three primary kinds are known as the Mainz gladius , the Fulham gladius , and the Pompeii gladius (these names refer to where or how the canonical example was found). More recent archaeological finds have uncovered an earlier version, the gladius Hispaniensis . The differences between these varieties are subtle. The original Hispanic sword, which
4368-425: The porous surface. A recent metallurgical study of two Etrurian swords, one in the form of a Greek kopis from 7th century BC Vetulonia , the other in the form of a gladius Hispaniensis from 4th century BC Clusium ( Chiusi ), gives insight concerning the manufacture of Roman swords. The Chiusi sword comes from Romanized etruria ; thus, regardless of the names of the forms (which the authors do not identify),
4446-421: The sciences , medicine , and law . A number of phases of the language have been recognized, each distinguished by subtle differences in vocabulary, usage, spelling, and syntax. There are no hard and fast rules of classification; different scholars emphasize different features. As a result, the list has variants, as well as alternative names. In addition to the historical phases, Ecclesiastical Latin refers to
4524-410: The shield wall. The gladius was sheathed in a scabbard mounted on a belt or shoulder strap. Some say the soldier reached across his body to draw it, and others claim that the position of the shield made this method of drawing impossible. A centurion wore it on the opposite side as a mark of distinction. Towards the end of the 2nd century AD and during the 3rd century the spatha gradually took
4602-530: The story of Titus Manlius Torquatus using a "Hispanic sword" ( gladius Hispanus ) in a duel with a Gaul in 361 BC. However, the Gladius was not yet used by the Romans in the 4th century BC, and because of that this has been traditionally considered a terminological anachronism caused by the long established naming convention. It's possible that the Celtiberian sword was first adopted by Romans after encounters with Carthaginian mercenaries of that nationality during
4680-542: The strength of swords during the Roman period. The craftsmen with the strategic task of making the gladii were called gladiarii . They were part of the Roman legions as fabri , enjoying the status of immunes . There were also public workshops, fabricae , dedicated to the making of the gladii . Epigraphic attestations of the gladiarii have been found in Italy, especially in areas of ancient metallurgic tradition such as Capua and Aquileia . The word gladius acquired
4758-578: The styles used by the writers of the Roman Catholic Church from late antiquity onward, as well as by Protestant scholars. The earliest known form of Latin is Old Latin, also called Archaic or Early Latin, which was spoken from the Roman Kingdom , traditionally founded in 753 BC, through the later part of the Roman Republic , up to 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin . It is attested both in inscriptions and in some of
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#17327875187174836-440: The sword described here. The word appears in literature as early as the plays of Plautus ( Casina , Rudens ). Gladius is generally believed to be a Celtic loan in Latin (perhaps via an Etruscan intermediary), derived from ancient Celtic * kladi(b)os or * kladimos "sword" (whence modern Welsh cleddyf "sword", modern Breton klezeff , Old Irish claideb /Modern Irish claidheamh [itself perhaps
4914-467: The sword used by the Roman army during the Battle of Telamon in 225 BC, though deemed superior to the cumbersome Gallic swords, was mainly useful to thrust. These thrusting swords used before the adoption of the Gladius were possibly based on the Greek xiphos . Later, during the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC, they found Hannibal's Celtiberian mercenaries wielding swords that excelled at both slashing and thrusting. A text attributed to Polybius describes
4992-454: The whole thing was welded together by forging on the pattern of hammer blows. A blow increased the temperature sufficiently to produce a friction weld at that spot. Forging continued until the steel was cold, producing some central annealing . The sword was 58 cm (23 in) long. The Chiusian sword was created from a single bloom by forging from a temperature of 1,237 °C (2,259 °F). The carbon content increased from 0.05–0.08% at
5070-422: The written form of Latin was increasingly standardized into a fixed form, the spoken forms began to diverge more greatly. Currently, the five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish , Portuguese , French , Italian , and Romanian . Despite dialectal variation, which is found in any widespread language, the languages of Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy have retained
5148-440: The years, the Pompeii got longer, and these later versions are called semi- spathes . The length of the blade was 45–50 cm (18–20 in). The length of the sword is 60–65 cm (24–26 in). The width of the blade is 5 cm (2.0 in). The sword weighs 700 g (1.5 lb) (wooden hilt). ^ This is only true for the nominative case ; For more information, see the Latin declension page. The articles in
5226-492: Was a Roman sword that was used after Aulus Plautius' invasion of Britain in 43 AD. The Romans used it until the end of the 1st century. The Fulham gladius has a triangular tip. The length of the blade is 50–55 cm (20–22 in). The length of the sword is 65–70 cm (26–28 in). The width of the blade is 6 cm (2.4 in). The swords weighs 700 g (1.5 lb) (wooden hilt). A full size replica can be seen at Fulham Palace , Fulham . The Pompeii gladius
5304-475: Was a very efficient technique, as stabbing wounds, especially in the abdominal area, were almost always deadly. However, the gladius in some circumstances was used for cutting or slashing, as is indicated by Livy 's account of the Macedonian Wars , wherein the Macedonian soldiers were horrified to see dismembered bodies. Though the primary infantry attack was thrusting at stomach height, they were trained to take any advantage, such as slashing at kneecaps beneath
5382-406: Was also the earliest and longest blade. It had a pronounced leaf-shape. The Mainz Gladius is made of heavily corroded iron and a sheath made of tinned and gilded bronze. The blade was 50–55 cm (20–22 in) long and 7 cm (2.8 in) in width. The sword was 65–70 cm (26–28 in) long. The sword weighed 800 g (1.8 lb). The point of the sword was more triangular than
5460-730: Was also used as a convenient medium for translations of important works first written in a vernacular, such as those of Descartes . Latin education underwent a process of reform to classicise written and spoken Latin. Schooling remained largely Latin medium until approximately 1700. Until the end of the 17th century, the majority of books and almost all diplomatic documents were written in Latin. Afterwards, most diplomatic documents were written in French (a Romance language ) and later native or other languages. Education methods gradually shifted towards written Latin, and eventually concentrating solely on reading skills. The decline of Latin education took several centuries and proceeded much more slowly than
5538-491: Was extensive and prolific, but less well known or understood today. Works covered poetry, prose stories and early novels, occasional pieces and collections of letters, to name a few. Famous and well regarded writers included Petrarch, Erasmus, Salutati , Celtis , George Buchanan and Thomas More . Non fiction works were long produced in many subjects, including the sciences, law, philosophy, historiography and theology. Famous examples include Isaac Newton 's Principia . Latin
5616-461: Was known to the classical world. Pure iron is relatively soft, but pure iron is never found in nature. Natural iron ore contains various impurities in solid solution , which harden the reduced metal by producing irregular-shaped metallic crystals. The gladius was generally made out of steel. In Roman times, workers reduced ore in a bloomery furnace. The resulting pieces were called blooms , which they further worked to remove slag inclusions from
5694-503: Was largely separated from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire. Spoken Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the 9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance writings begin to appear. They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing. For many Italians using Latin, though, there was no complete separation between Italian and Latin, even into
5772-484: Was named by modern historians after the Roman town of Pompeii . This type of gladius was by far the most popular one. Four examples of the sword type were found in Pompeii, with others turning up elsewhere. The sword has parallel cutting edges and a triangular tip. This is the shortest of the gladii . It is often confused with the spatha , which was a longer, slashing weapon used initially by mounted auxilians . Over
5850-732: Was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio ), the lower Tiber area around Rome , Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire . By the late Roman Republic , Old Latin had evolved into standardized Classical Latin . Vulgar Latin refers to the less prestigious colloquial registers , attested in inscriptions and some literary works such as those of
5928-529: Was perceived as a separate language, for instance early French or Italian dialects, that could be transcribed differently. It took some time for these to be viewed as wholly different from Latin however. After the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 and Germanic kingdoms took its place, the Germanic people adopted Latin as a language more suitable for legal and other, more formal uses. While
6006-482: Was shut down in June 2019), and Vatican Radio & Television, all of which broadcast news segments and other material in Latin. A variety of organisations, as well as informal Latin 'circuli' ('circles'), have been founded in more recent times to support the use of spoken Latin. Moreover, a number of university classics departments have begun incorporating communicative pedagogies in their Latin courses. These include
6084-399: Was used during the republic, had a slight "wasp-waist" or "leaf-blade" curvature. The Mainz variety came into use on the frontier in the early empire. It kept the curvature, but shortened and widened the blade and made the point triangular. At home, the less battle-effective Pompeii version came into use. It eliminated the curvature, lengthened the blade, and diminished the point. The Fulham was
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