Early 5th century AD. A double-edged iron spatha of Illerup-Wyhl typology, blade with damask-pattern, narrow parallel cutting edges tapering towards the point, part of the tang preserved. See Bishop, M.C. & Coulston, J.C.N., Roman military equipment, from the Punic wars to the fall of Rome, London, 1993; Miks, C., Studien zur Romischen Schwertbewaffnung in der Kaiserzeit, I-II Banden, Rahden, 2007; D’Amato, R., Roman army Units in the Western Provinces, Oxford, 2019; for a very similar specimen see Miks, 2007, no.A536, 83 (Nydam"). 749 grams, 92cm long (36 1/4"). Acquired 1971-1972. Property of a London, UK, collector; from his father's collection. Apanied by an expertise by military specialist Dr. Raffaele D’Amato. Apanied by a positive metal test number HM1460 from an Oxford specialist. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is apanied by AIAD certificate number no.11113-183793. Rosette damask technique B.H.I.2.1-2. The iconographic sources indicate that Roman swords underwent significant changes in the later 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Longer swords, more popular within Germanic and Celtic cultures, although more eful for fighting on horseback, were soon widespread among the infantrymen and widely produced in the Roman workshops, from which they were brought home by many foreigners after mercenary or auxiliary service in Roman army. This, together with the possibility of war booty, explains why a great number of these swords have been found in the territories of the so-called Barbaricum like Nydam Mose and Illerup Adal, modern Denmark. Dr. Miks refers to the spathae of the 'lllerup-Wyhl' type I as a large group of blades which in terms of their proportions, dimensions and shape, are probably a mixture of blades of the more classical 'Straubing-Nydam' and 'Lauriacum-Hromowka' types of long Roman swords. [No Reserve]