Falcata or Iberian sword

The old historians describe the iberian soldiers as dressed in white short dresses with borders in purple and their iberian falcatas in their hand. Probably the dress was not white, but the natural color of wool, like Roman gowns, and probably the purple of the borders was not so, but a strip of scarlet color.
In fact, it is easy to think not all Spanish soldiers dressed equal, far from it, but this way of dressing was the common one aat the time Romans identified the Spaniards of the army of Aníbal. An aesthetic one that is most repeated in the iberian art.
The famous relief of Osuna, Sevilla (Spain), shows the most well-known image of the soldier with its iberian sword.
The Spanish soldiers used a great variety of armors to protect themselves in combat. Simplest he was the pectoral one that then also used the Roman legionaries and who consisted of a metal plate that protected the chest.
The most well-known weapon of the iberos is the famous falcata.
The falcata is a weapon of Spanish origin, in fact is a streamlined type of gladius Roman hispaniensis or gladius, that after the arrival of Romans to Spain happened to become a part of the Roman fighting equipment. The leaf of the falcata approximately measures about 45 cm. in length, that is to say, the length of the arm. In fact there were not two equal falcatas, since these valuable Roman swords made of order, reason why each one had measures according to the arm of his sir.
In all Mediterranean the quality of these arms, made with an iron mineral was admired of highest purity. Its flexibility was so that the armorers placed it on their heads doubling them until the end and the grip touched their shoulders. If the Roman sword returned to its straight position when loosen it of blow were an art work, if it were not fused to return to make it. Greek that arrived at Spain took the falcata with himself and had great acceptance, becoming the second used weapon more after the hoplita sword.
The Romans adapted their own grip to gladius, but pugio continued with the typical Spanish grip.
The iberos used two types of shields: the céltico, made oval, and caetra, that was round and smaller
Separate mention deserves the famous "honderos" (stone throwers) of the Balearic islands that formed one of the elite troops best known in the ancient times. They even became part of the auxiliary troops of Julius Caesar.
In the tombs, the iberian arms are doubled carefully, made unusable, since as we have seen in the falcata, they were personal arms, made for each soldier in particular and meant not to be used by any other. For that reason they were buried made unusable with his owner. The bond that tied the Spanish soldier with its arms was more important that their own life, for that reason preferred to die before surrendering and giving their arms. Like soldiers, the Spaniards were the best of the auxiliary troops.
Punic and Roman they used them widely, mainly the heavy infantry and the Balearic "honderos", whose deadly skill in the handling of their arm was very important in the ancient times. In fact, in Cannas, Anibal had to alternate Spanish and Gallic companies because it was not entrusted in these last ones and he knew that Spaniards always fulfilled the orders until the end.
Each nation had its own arms and their way to use them. In Spain, when using the short sword, the formation was in line, but offensive, since gladius is a powerful weapon that is not useful for defense. That is the reason why the remendous loss of life caused by the Spaniards in Cannas and later in many other battles to the Roman legions. Altogether, the ibera tactics were literally copied by the Romans after the I Punic War.
The Spanish infant carried the frightful soliferrum, specially designed to penetrate any kind of shield. After sending it against the enemy he pulled out of a scabbard his frightful short sword and, protected by his celtic shield attacked using the sword for "puncturing", with the arm moving perpendicular to the body. This way of fighting, with the protected affluent body, was lethal against an enemy who used his sword for "striking", since he had to discover part of his body when raising it, moment that the iberian took advantage to hit him with his falcata.
The Romans were so surprised with this way of fighting in Cannas that when they arrived at Spain they adopted the gladius, now call hispaniensis, like standard weapon. Since the Roman shield, the typical samnita shield, was better than celtic and provided greater protection, the Roman legions became authentic machines to destroy their enemies, although in front of the Spanish troops (as an example you have Numantia), with whole generations of training on them, they underwent great disasters one after another one. Why? because the legion was not the best kind of unit to use these tactics, tactics that would find its total yield in the new legions of Mario in which cohortes acted like a block, devastating the enemy lines.