It turned out to be a remarkable find; a Roman sword; a spatha dated to the 2nd-3rd century AD and rare in Britain. It is one of only eight in the country, most of these were recovered from Roman ...

Archaeologists believe the swords were hidden by Judean rebels after ... still in their wooden scabbards were identified as Roman spatha, or long swords, while the fourth, shorter weapon was ...

which are believed to be middle imperial Roman swords and were found alongside a broken copper alloy bowl, are commonly referred to as "spatha" and were likely to be in use by the 160s ...