Most of the bronze swords are shorter than those of the present day; but the Roman sword would, in the time of Julius, appear to have been longer than ours. Otherwise Cicero’s joke about his son-in-law, Lentulus, would have but little point, however small in person he may have been. Indeed, Macrobius[1016] expressly says that it was a long sword that Lentulus was wearing when Cicero made the inquiry, Who has tied my son-in-law to a sword? The swords in use among the Britons at a somewhat later period appear to have been of great size, for Tacitus speaks of them as “ingentes” and “enormes.” They were also bluntly pointed, or “sine mucrone.” Such a description is entirely inconsistent with the form and size of our bronze swords, though it might well refer to some of the iron blades of the Late-Celtic Period, which are 3 feet in length. Others are, however, shorter. Of the comparative rarity of bronze swords in Italy, and of their abundance in Scandinavia and Ireland, countries never occupied by the Romans, Sir John Lubbock[1017] has already spoken; and he has also summarized the reasons which convince him, as they do me, that our bronze weapons cannot be referred to Roman times. I will only repeat one of the arguments, of which perhaps not sufficient use has been made. It is that at the time when Julius Cæsar was invading Britain, and its inhabitants were thus for the first time brought in contact with Roman weapons, iron had been so long in use for swords in Italy that the term for the weapon was “ferrum.” Another feature in bronze swords, which has been frequently commented on by archæological writers, is the comparatively small size of the hilt. “The handles are always very small, a fact which tends to prove that the men who used these swords were but of moderate stature.”[1018] “The handles of the bronze swords are very short and could not have been held comfortably by hands as large as ours—a characteristic much relied on by those who attribute the introduction of bronze into Europe to a people of Asiatic origin.[1019]