LogFAQs > #962140963

The gladius was almost purely used to thrust. Behind the large shield it was almost impossible to predict the trajectory and your defense was really strong. I gave the example of multiple thrusting weapons to show that thrust tends to be the preferred mode of attack on the battlefield, since you can't exactly swing a huge sword around in formation. Although, I am primarily thinking of a dual situation when I am saying the rapier is the superior weapon.

Yeah, the Napoleon example wasn't a good example because they had bayonets, so swords were pretty much useless anyways, but in the musket and pike era it wasn't too uncommon for musketeers to carry rapiers. Hence, the tale of the three musketeers & thier use of the weapon. The small sword, a shorter thrusting weapon was still pretty popular even in the bayonet era though. It just was that you weren't going to carry a large sword with you when you had the equivalent of spear anyways, so if you were to carry a sword you would want a smaller easy to carry weapon.

The rapier was an insanely popular weapon in its heyday. Whole schools of fencing developed around the use of the weapon all around Europe & even today its descendent the small sword is widely studied. Denying its popularity seems silly.