fyeahswords:

The&nbsp;spatha&nbsp;was a type of straight and long&nbsp;sword, measuring between 0.75 and 1&nbsp;m (30 and 39 in), in use throughout&nbsp;first millennium&nbsp;AD Europe, and in the territory of the&nbsp;Roman Empire&nbsp;until about 600 AD. Later swords from 600 AD to 1000 AD are recognizable derivatives, though they are not spathae.
The spatha was used in war and in&nbsp;gladiatorial&nbsp;fights. The spatha of literature appears in the&nbsp;Roman Empire&nbsp;in the first century AD as a weapon used by presumably Germanic auxiliaries and gradually became a standard&nbsp;heavy infantry&nbsp;weapon, relegating the&nbsp;gladius&nbsp;to use as a light infantry weapon. The spatha apparently replaced the gladius in the front ranks, giving the infantry more reach when thrusting. While the infantry version had a long point, versions carried by the cavalry had a rounded tip that prevented accidental stabbing of the cavalryman&rsquo;s foot.
Archaeologically many instances of the spatha have been found in Britain and Germany. It was used extensively by Germanic warriors. It is unclear whether it came from the&nbsp;Pompeii gladius&nbsp;or the longer&nbsp;Celtic swords, or whether it served as a model for the various&nbsp;broadswords&nbsp;and&nbsp;Viking swords&nbsp;of Europe. The spatha remained popular throughout the&nbsp;Migration Period. It may have evolved into the&nbsp;knightly sword&nbsp;of the High Middle Ages from about 1100 AD, but the large number of sword types that appeared during the period make it difficult to establish links. The details of their manufacture remain mostly unknown.
The word comes from the&nbsp;Latin&nbsp;spatha,&nbsp;which derives from&nbsp;Greek&nbsp;&sigma;&pi;ά&theta;&eta;&nbsp;(sp&aacute;thē), meaning &ldquo;any broad blade, of wood or metal&rdquo; but also &ldquo;broad blade of a sword&rdquo;.
The Greek word&nbsp;&sigma;&pi;ά&theta;&eta;&nbsp;was used in the middle&nbsp;Archaic period&nbsp;for various types of&nbsp;Iron Age swords. The word does not appear in&nbsp;Homeric Greek, but it is mentioned in the works of&nbsp;Alcaeus of Mytilene&nbsp;(sixth century BC)&nbsp;and&nbsp;Theophrastus&nbsp;(fourth century BC).
It is likely that&nbsp;spatha&nbsp;is the&nbsp;romanization&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Doric Greek&nbsp;*&sigma;&pi;ά&theta;&alpha;&nbsp;(sp&aacute;thā), considering the Doric acc. plural &ldquo;&sigma;&pi;ά&theta;&alpha;&sigmaf;&rdquo; (sp&aacute;thās).&nbsp;The word survives in Modern Greek as&nbsp;&sigma;&pi;ά&theta;&eta;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&sigma;&pi;&alpha;&theta;ί. The Latin word became the French&nbsp;&eacute;p&eacute;e, Catalan&nbsp;espasa, Portuguese and Spanish&nbsp;espada, Italian&nbsp;spada, Romanian&nbsp;spadă&nbsp;and Albanian&nbsp;shpata, all meaning &ldquo;sword&rdquo;. The English word&nbsp;spatula&nbsp;comes from Latinspat(h)ula, the diminutive of&nbsp;spatha. English&nbsp;spade, from Old English&nbsp;spadu&nbsp;or&nbsp;sp&aelig;du, is the Germanic cognate, derived from a&nbsp;Common Germanic&nbsp;*spadō, ultimately from a&nbsp;Proto-Indo-European&nbsp;stem*sph2-dh-.
The spatha was introduced to the&nbsp;Roman army&nbsp;in the early&nbsp;imperial period&nbsp;by Ce