LEATHER MUSCLE ARMOR (IR80704L)
KEY FEATURES: * Black hardened leather * Replicates an original * Perfect piece for the collector or reenactor.

PRODUCT HISTORY HERE
The pugio was a small dagger used by Roman soldiers as a sidearm. It seems likely that the pugio was intended as an auxiliary or backup weapon, but it found many uses, especially as a utility knife. The Roman Pugio was often highly decorated and were clearly a status symbol. Officials of the empire took to wearing these ornate daggers in the performance of their offices, and some would wear concealed daggers as a defense against contingencies.

Like the gladius, the pugio was a stabbing weapon, the type preferred by the Romans. Of them Vegetius says:
A stroke with the edges, though made with ever so much force, seldom kills, .... On the contrary, a stab, though it penetrates but two inches, is generally fatal. ... the body is covered while a thrust is given, and the adversary receives the point before he sees the sword. This was the method of fighting principally used by the Romans .The dagger was a common weapon of assassination and suicide; for example, it is recorded that the conspirators who stabbed Julius Caesar used pugiones.