that was usually made of iron at both the front and back of the sheath. This plate surrounded wooden "lining." The front plate was usually heavily decorated with inlaid brass, silver, niello and red, yellow or green enamel. These sheaths featured round free-running suspension rings, attached by bifurcated mountings which were riveted on. Modern reconstructions of these sheaths which feature applied brass plates attached by rivets are incorrect and nothing of this type has ever been found. The second type was a wooden sheath, probably covered with leather. One metal plate was attached to the front of the wooden sheath. This plate was fairly flat and was heavily decorated with inlaid silver and enamel. Occasionally tin was used. The suspension rings resembled small Roman military buckles and were hinged to the sides of the sheath. The third type, called frame type, was made of iron and consisted of a pair of curved channels which ran together at the lower end of the sheath, where they were normally worked into a flattened round terminal expansion and pierced with rivet. There is an example from Titelberg whose channels have been inserted into a bulbous terminal formed with a ferule to accept the channels before a decorated rivet has been used to fix all three elements together. The channels were joined by two horizontal bands at the top and middle of the sheath and these bands also retained the suspension rings. These sheaths would have been built around a wooden core, which does not survive in the archaeological record. Like other items of legionary equipment, the dagger underwent some changes during the first half of the 1st century AD. Rod tangs were introduced, and the hilt was no longer riveted through the tang but was instead secured only at the shoulders of the blade. This in itself caused no great change to the pugios appearance, although the archaeological evidence strongly suggests that the rod tang was less secure and that handles attached in this way could become detached, a possibility that may be proved by the existence of two surviving pugiones from different sites which both retain replacement handles, one of which is a recycled sword grip. Some of the blades associated with rod tangs were narrower (under 4.5 cm (1.75 in) wide), with little or no waisting, or reduced or virtually non-existent midribs (type "C" blades). Throughout the period, the outline of