02-18-2011, 07:58 PM
Quote:
The Berzobis helmet (found in excavations at Berzovia in Romania) is the earliest so far known, the reinforces being crude additions, and that fortress was only occupied by IV Flavia Felix for a comparatively short period (somewhere between AD 106 and 119, but you'll find different versions of the start and end dates in different places). Probably the nearest to a smoking gun you're going to get, unless someone identifies another piece of Trajan's memoirs with the Latin word for 'cross-piece' in it.
Actualy the only phrase find from Trajan "De bello Dacico" (unfortunately lost) mention that he, after pass over the Danube in Dacia followed the road thru Berzobis (this is the first war, 101-102 AD)
Quote:As for the effect of the falx on an unprotected helmet, David Sim did some experiments on this and used the facilities of the weapons research centre at Shrivenham to produce high-speed film of the moment of impact (the tip of the blade turns to plasma apparently). He is working on another book on armour at the moment and I think I have persuaded him to produce a companion website with some of these weapons-testing film clips on it.
Mike Bishop
Cool
, Dacian plasma swords, i knew it 
Just kidding, but Romans themsleves was quite impressed by the effect of Dacian curved swords
<<Trajan engaged the war with hardened soldiers, who despised the Parthians, our enemy, and who didn't care of their arrow blows, after the terrible wounds inflicted by the curved swords of the Dacians.>>
"Fronto, Principia Historiae, II"
Razvan A.
