10-22-2008, 02:14 PM
About sword and battle knife. This was a common thing, Dacians, Romans, Celts, use the knife as a secondary weapon ( see romans with gladius and pugio ). In my opinion Dacians used more then one type of sword, on diferent moments. First, was sica, a daco-thracian short sword ( and since battle knives used by dacians was both straight and curved, and sica was a short sword, sometimes is a confusion, yes, between sica-a short sword/huge knife sized weapon and such battle knifes, but yes, is not the same weapon ). Then, probably after persian Darius the First expedition here the "akinakes", another short sword type apear in dacian use, lately followed probably by those pommel ringed presented at the begining of topic. As well in use was some straight long swords, inspired by celtic ones. A change apear somehwere between last century BC, and first century AD, when long, celtic type swords disapear, and their place is take it by "falx", as a long, curved sword. In this time i think the gladius type apear too in Dacian army. This change i think apeared because of more and more encounters with romans, and as well because a long straight sword was not too good in a aglomerated space of battle, when you need to be as mobile as posible, and have a weapon able to use as good as posible, and short swords are the best in that situation, both as handle and using, because it was exhausting to fight after a while, especialy with an enemy having a shield, and you have small space for using the weapon. We know then in last cen.BC era dacians ( getians )defeated in today Dobrogea the roman army of Caius Hybrida, and capture his legions flags ( recovered decades later from Zyraxes, a local dacian dynast ), then during the time of Burebista, and especialy after, the conections was more and more. So, dacians developed a sword able to breake the roman shield wall, long enough to reache the legs, head or even arms of enemies, but with a distinct shape and construction ( clearly inspired/developed by/from much shorter sica ) who make them able to use well in the big aglomeration of tens of thousands of warriors. As well, the fact that dacians tryied to copy the roman army organization made the use of gladius type sword spread too, alongside sica.
Razvan A.
