03-01-2008, 05:37 PM
Attempting to disable a shield with an edge is risky no matter the power of the weapon. If that is your goal I recommend an ax-hammer such as became popular later on. Just because it could potentially cut through a shield doesn't necessarily mean that was its purpose or the way it was typically used. There are a lot of options where it could have been used. A lot of blades could potentially cut through a shield, but it has always been dangerous to do so. For one reason being that Romans no doubt knew how to counter any attempted shield cut and make it dangerous much like later warriors did. I think a lot of the assumption is that since the weapon was very powerful and armour had to be introduced and modified that the falx was used like the cleaver it resembles, but it doesn't have to be the case and even if so could be used for specialized purposes and strategically on the battlefield and not just guys spaced randomly across the battlefield swinging wildly with cleavers.
Derek D. Estabrook
