Did Roman soldiers train with double weight swords?

Etymology The Roman testudo means “tortoise” not “turtle”, even if Rex Harrison, playing Julius Caesar in the 1963 film “Cleopatra”, uses the latter term. To be fair, he was delivering a line from script written by an American, which may sound a little condescending until one realises that in North America “turtle” is used to denote the whole group of creatures. In fact, the order’s name, Testudines , is based on the Latin word testudo  meaning “tortoise” and was coined by

The diet of a Roman soldier consisted of wheat, rations of smoked bacon or fresh meat (when available, usually pork), vegetables, legumes, cheese, vinegar, olive oil, and wine. These rations were issued several times per week so that every soldier would have carried food for around three days. The cost of the ration, around 60 Denarii per year, was deducted from each soldier’s pay. Food Just like for Roman civilians the bulk of the diet of a Roman soldier consisted of wheat t