I've often heard historians say that one thing hollywood gets wrong is the use of swords, and their abundance of them in films and tv shows. From what I understand swords were fairly expensive to make, and were prone to bending or breaking easily. Where as axes or spears were cheaper and easier to make. Please correct me on that if I'm wrong
I was wondering if the gladius was used as a weapon of the roman military as much as we see in popular media? If so how was the roman empire able to produce so many swords due to the fact they're not as cost effective as axes or spears? Or did the roman empire actually use a variety of weapons and we're just used to seeing only one? obviously this is a bit generalized given the fact that the roman empire went through several phases which would have effected their choice of military technology.
A little history first on the Roman Gladius. During the Diadochi wars, the Xiphos and the long phalanx spears ruled supreme, hence why its been suggested that Roman Gladius is based upon the Xiphos. Which might have been the case for the pre-Punic War Iron age sword that Romans used. However the Roman Gladius is actually based on the Celtiberian sword. The Gladius' full name is gladius hispaniensis, or "Hispanic sword".
The Romans adopted the Gladius according to Polybius, after the Battle of Telamon in 225 BCE, as the previous weapon the Romans used was mainly for thrusting, the Celtiberian mercenaries sword could be used for both slashing and thrusting. Texts from Polybius suggest that even before the first Punnic War had ended, the Roman Army had already begun to adopt this style of sword as opposed to their former Iron age sword.
By the Second Macedonian War in 200 BCE, the Roman Gladius became widely known after a cavalry engagement between Roman Equites and Macedonian Cavalry. The Macedonians were horrified by what these weapons could do.
To answer your question, its important to understand that Hollywood often portrays the Roman Legionaries after the Marian reforms in 107 BCE, when every legionary is given a Scutum (Shield), Pila (Javelins), and a Gladius. This for the most part, is fairly accurate if you're seeing a film based from the time of Julius Caeser, or Ben Hurr which is around 40 CE. If you should see a Roman Legionary in a film about the Punnic wars, or anything before 107 BCE, then you'll know this is not an accurate portrayal of the Roman army from that time. The pre-Marian reform Roman Army was usually formed like this:
Velites, made up of the poorest class of citizens lightly armored skirmishers who were not expected to hold a battle line, only armed with javelins, mainly used to harass or screen the main force.
Hastati, also mainly lower citizens, the senate supplied the shields and the gladius, but the rest of their equipment was based upon what they could afford. Made up of the young and the aggressive, suffered the most casualties as they were expected to hold the line. Veterans were ranked up to Pinceps.
Princeps They stood directly behind the hastati and relieved them in the front line if they were unable to break the enemy formation by themselves, which was common. Allowing the enemy to wear themselves out on the lighter hastati before facing the principes usually proved to be a decisively successful strategy.
Triarii The final infantry unit, the triarii, was restricted to experienced veterans of the principes and anchored the entire Roman battle line. Fighting in the manner of hoplites at the rear of the formation, the triarii were considered the elite infantry of the pre-Marian legion and were not usually needed, instead used as a last resort if the hastati and principes could not break the enemy line and were forced to retreat. The Roman idiom ad triarios redisse ("to fall back on the triarii") was used to refer to a final, mighty attempt to salvage a desperate situation.
Then finally you had the men who could afford horses, called the Equites, armed with spears and the Gladius, they acted as a reconnaissance force and were not meant for charging into ranks of infantry but rather for harassing archers and skirmishers, as well as chasing routed infantry.
The Roman Republic and eventually Roman Empire, had flourished in steel making. Most of the iron age powers at this time also were very wall acquainted with the steel making process.
Now because the Gladius came about relatively late in the Republic era, it is safe to assume that other weapons were widely used, like for instance that pre-gladius iron age sword mainly used for thrusting. Spears have always been relatively easy to make but exceptionally hard to master, and knowing what we know about the Romans and the Triarii one can guess that they might also have wielded a gladius or another style of sword as these were also the more wealthy citizens.
Once the Marian reforms came into play, most of the army was outfitted the same way and the variety of weapons was most likely low.