The Book of the Sword - Sir Richard F Burton - Google Books

http://books.google.de/books?id=vfzBORTtzfsC&source=gbs_navlinks_s

As the so-termed founding of Rome took place during the early Iron Age of Southern Europe, it is probable that the citizens, like their predecessors the Etruscans, originally made their blades of copper and bronze, the leaf-shape being borrowed from the…