>>1366629
1. It was more mobile and swords have a shock factor when you compare spear wounds to sword wounds. There was an account of a Greek leader encountering the Romans and when his soldiers saw the horrific wounds on those that had died they lost morale.
2. Scutum was phased out because the legions relied more on moving fast as time moved on and I suppose they encumbered the legionaries. Honestly it was the sign of the times of Rome falling apart.
Not too sure about the third point.

>>1366629
>1. Why did the romans use swords instead of spears? I heard they used spears untill the punic wars, were they encountered iberians with the gladius and then adopted it. But why use a sword if you could use a spear wich is cheaper and had more range.
It's harder to use a spear in a tight-packed formation with big shields. It enables you as a soldier to be more versatile and mobile. A spear is also a lot heavier than a sword, and having held a reproduction of a scutum there's no way you could effectively use one with a spear.

>2. Why did the romans stop using the scutum in the 3d century? It seems like the the best shield ever (big, great for formation, protected much thanks to it being curved and being able to put the shield on the ground).
There was a trend towards longer swords. Most Roman soldiers by this point were using the Spatha instead of the Gladius, and like with the spear it's not easy to wield a longer sword and a huge shield.

Vegetius wasn't a military man and pretty much everything he says should be taken with a grain of salt, but he says that there was a tendancy for Late Roman generals to want to engage the enemy "at arm's length" compared to the earlier Imperial army, which is why they started to use spears again, as well as longer swords.

>3. Was the roman infantry the only one to use javelins befor melee? I never heard of it before or after (medieval times).
It's actually not that uncommon. At the time, the Gauls, Carthaginians and Iberians did the same thing. The Late Romans used smaller darts, which the Medieval Irish also used. The Welsh and Norse also did it in Medieval times, and the Zulus in the more modern era.

>>1366629
They got their tactics from Etruscans.

>>1366629

Iberians used falcatas. Celtiberians used gladius, which was an improved version of La Tene short swords.

Both had double edge but most importantly they had a pointy edge that acted as spear. Could be used both to stab and to cut, which was a good tactic for roman legions using big shields defense formation and then stabbing the enemy as they get close.

Roman legions transitioned from heavy infantry to light infantry, adopting germanic long swords and sacrificing compact battle formation and orderly tactics for a more mobility and individual/skirmish-like approach.

>>1366629
>1. Why did the romans use swords instead of spears? I heard they used spears untill the punic wars, were they encountered iberians with the gladius and then adopted it. But why use a sword if you could use a spear wich is cheaper and had more range.
The range didn't matter in the tight formations they used where the enemy would press up close to their shields. The short sword gave them much better mobility and flexibility in stabbing and thrusting in a press. A sword is generally a better weapon than a spear over all. Swords weren't expensive for the Romans after they took Iberia and its endless iron resources.
>2. Why did the romans stop using the scutum in the 3d century? It seems like the the best shield ever (big, great for formation, protected much thanks to it being curved and being able to put the shield on the ground).
Barbarisation of the army, a lack of enforcement on sticking to the older rules of the legions, the more common round sept in and took over especially as the line between auxiliary and legionary almost disappeared.
>3. Was the roman infantry the only one to use javelins befor melee? I never heard of it before or after (medieval times).
No, most forces in ancient times used javelins, the javelin was far more popular in antiquity than it was in medieval times. I'm not really sure why it changed, possibly the medieval poor period made it too costly to buy something just to throw it away and then it never fully caught on again.

>>1367098
>A sword is generally a better weapon than a spear over all
Please stop

>>1367098
>A sword is generally a better weapon than a spear over all
you could just say "all my battle knowledge comes from game of thrones" and i would hear the same.

>>1366687
How do we know they didn't lose morale after getting fucking REKT by a rectangle?

Not saying you're wrong, genuinely curious how we know it was sword wounds

>>1368301
Because it was recorded that they were horrified by the grisly wounds on the bodies of their dead.

>>1367098
>Swords weren't expensive for the Romans after they took Iberia and its endless iron resources.
They adopted the use of the sword over the spear CENTURIES before taking iberia.

Also, they got their iron from noricum, not iberia.
>>1367071
>lat eperiod legionaries
>light
Sure, if men with sword, shield, spear, darts, helmet, and body body armor is light.

Of course, this is heavier than the classical legionary panoply.

>>1366629
>Why did the romans use swords instead of spears?
Because it works very well with the scutum, and the roman fighting style was aggressive and fairly individualized-Romans were given space to use their footwork and skill, and didn't stand close enough to form a wall of spears. They also really, really liked to get close and crowd you with the shield, as well as strike out with it.

>Why did the romans stop using the scutum in the 3d century?

It's not as good for fast moving skirmishes, and it's not as good for forming an actual shield wall.

The late period army did a lot of both of those.

>It seems like the the best shield ever
It isn't. It's massive, heavy, leaves you with fe attack options, interferes with most weapons, and you can't lock them into a wall. It worked for that it was used for, but it isn't a wonder shield.

>>1366629
I can speak to 3. Read up on the etruscan and samnite wars fought by rome in fourth century BC. Both sides used javelins before meele, and many of roman tactics were adopted from the samnites