The sword, and its diminutive of which it is doubtless an extension, forms a distinct class of arms, in contradistinction to the numerous family of hacking, clubbing, and staff weapons generally. It is difficult to draw any very arbitrary line between the sword and the dagger--the hilt is often the same in form, but some swords are short and some daggers long. Perhaps the best definition of difference is that the dagger is roughly under two feet in length, and was used rather as an auxiliary to the sword, for thrusting only; besides being more capable of concealment, and more efficient at close quarters than the larger weapon. Writers differ in their method of imagining the position of a sword for descriptive purposes--that is to say, whether it be held downwards or upwards. It will here be regarded as being held in the right hand, point uppermost. Bronze swords were deficient in hardness, so that they could not be adequately tempered; they were narrow and leaf-shaped, and this was the characteristic form everywhere. That recorded on Assyrian monuments is straight, narrow, and like the Greek, more for thrusting than cutting. The Roman type was longer, though still not of much use for parrying; and the leaf form became less accentuated. The true sword had its birth early in the “iron age,” which arbitrary period, though usually classified to close with the fifth century, might reasonably be prolonged to the dawning of the middle ages. It is during this interval that we have but little accurate information, still it may be taken generally that the weapon became both longer and broader after the fall of the Roman empire, when it was straight, double-edged, and of varying length. The sword of Chilperic of Soissons (died 584) was found in his tomb at Tournay in 1653, and is now in the Louvre. The weapon has short straight quillons, and the pommel is also cruciform; it bears strong evidences of Oriental influence. Procopius describes the Frankish sword of his day as a short, straight, broad-bladed, and double-edged weapon, somewhat obtusely pointed, and usually about thirty to thirty-two inches long, just about the standard length of the modern small sword; while Agathias, his successor as a chronicler, records it as just the length of a man’s thigh. To judge from the few specimens on record, it has both a cross-guard and pommel, but was by no means uniform either in form or size. Its extremity was rather rounded. A sword found in a grave on Chessel Down, in the Isle of Wight, answers very closely to that of the Franks, as described by Procopius. The Scandinavian sword of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries was long, straight, and double-edged; while the Anglo-Saxon weapon of the eleventh century was about three feet long, cruciform, and rounded at the end. No one under the rank of thane was allowed to carry a sword, which accounts for so few specimens having been found.