Sword type La Tène B was one of the most fortunate weapons of the ancient world.
Gauls invented this highly versatile weapon, useful both to cut and to thrust, during the 4th century BC.
This type of sword had a lenticular section and a blade lenght between 60 and 70 cm. Contrary to later La Tène C swords, La Tène B ones were carefully crafted, being an highly technological piece – an expensive piece of gear, destined to the warrior élites among the Celts.
One of our replicas of La Tène B swords with dismountable scabbard. Click here or on the picture to know more.
When the Gauls settled in Italy between 5th and 4th century BC, they took these swords with them. Nearly every people of ancient Italy, among them the Romans, adopted this new weapon en masse (not only the élite, but also and mainly the legionaries).
The first object with the first inscription of the toponym “Roma” is a La Tène B sword, produced in Rome itself bewteen the 4th and the 3rd century BC.
Romans adopted this weapon so much, using it along with the more traditional xiphos of Greek origin, that even the term gladius derives from the Celtic word for the sword, kladios/kladimos (and probably the suspension of the sword on the right side too).
While Gauls will eventually abandon this weapon in the 3rd century BC, developing different swords, the Romans kept using the La Tène B sword for much longer, at least until the 2nd-1sy century BC, alongside the more and more rare xiphos and even after the adoption of the gladius hispaniensis.
To know more about the swords adopted by the Romans, we recommend “A Roma da Cartagine. La spada e lo scudo del legionario repubblicano“, by Gioal Canestrelli
La Tène B sword always had a metallic scabbard (developed already during the 5th century BC), dismountable in three parts put together only by interlocking.
This was a solution to the necessity of more robust scabbards, and dismountable to make a better manteinance – so, an highly technological product, destined to the élites, at least among the Celts.
One of our dismountable scabbards, completely handmade. Click here or on the picture to know more.
Our replicas of La Tène B swords
The La Tène B swords we are presenting here are all of European production – SP008RB is totally made in Italy – and they’re alle battle ready, totally usable on reenactment battlefields.
The blades have lenticular section, like the originals.
One of our replicas of La Tène B swords with dismountable scabbard. Click here or on the picture to know more.
Scabbards in three parts, completely dismountable and mountable like the originals, were totally handmade in Italy by Francesco Galluccio. Each scabbard is unique.
Watch the video to see the dismounting and the mounting of the scabbard in detail.
The decorative dragons of two of the available scabbards are totally handmade too, and are taken from a decorative motif widespread in every part of Celtic Europe, from Britain to Central Europe – examples from Italy may be found for instance in Monte Bibele (BO), dated to the 4th century BC.
One of our replicas of La Tène B swords with dismountable scabbard. Click here or on the picture to know more.
A work totally of craftmanship, with unique scabbards totally handmade in Italy, in limited availability.
Click here, choose the sword you like the most and your favourite scabbard, and prepare to reenact a Celtic warlord or, on the contrary, a Roman legionary from the time of the Republic.
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