The inventiveness of the Celts

[Tarbicus]

Also more is being discovered all the time about the Celts. Apparently they had advanced metal making skills, greater than the Romans who copied some things, like chain mail. I also have a theory about the gladius and the Celtic swords. I feel the Romans just didn`t have (or copy) Celtic skills for making a longer sword. Romans perhaps only could smelt a sword that was short and fatter because of this. A superior blade can be longer and narrower which requires advanced smelting. Either the Romans never copied whatever reason, stubbornness for sentimental reasons to stick with the gladius perhaps or the Celts were able to keep their secrets.

There's a very specific reference in a primary source to Scipio capturing Celt-Iberian swordsmiths after the siege of Carthage (? IIRC), and forcing them to teach his own how to make the Spanish steel swords / Gladius Hispaniensis which had been impressing the Romans so much during the Punic Wars. Given that so much had been adopted from the Celts, I personally think that the incredibly high quality Spanish steel sword was peculiar to that region and a closely kept secret. There are just too many references to other Celtic swords bending in battle, the Celts having to find space and possibly a rock to bend it back into shape again.