Note 914 — Chapter XII · THE SWORD IN ANCIENT ROME; THE LEGION AND THE GLADIATOR.
Reading edition
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.