ROMAN PUGIO/DAGGER 07-376 by Deepeeka
The Double edge steel blade measures 8". The scabbard is polished steel and features a brass embossed front plate and 4 brass tie rings. This Embossed Roman Pugio features an unsharpened carbon steel blade with central ridge. The steel grip is built over the blades full tang, riveted through the layers of steel and wood. The included scabbard is made of steel with a leather lined interior and embossed brass plates and rings.

The Roman Pugio
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.