JULIA: I just found this fragment of rusty metal. It doesn’t look like much but this was once a sword. A sword known as…the gladius! The gladius was part of the Roman soldier’s equipment ...

But what exactly made the Roman army so successful ... a deadly stabbing sword called a gladius and they used a large shield called a scutum to protect themselves. Especially if they did this ...

While scanning the ground near a small tree, the metal detector emitted a distinctive sound. Proszowski and Lampa began digging and soon unearthed a rusty ancient Roman sword, officials said.