*Flanged* maces?

[Urselius]

Roman accounts, such as those describing Aurelian's battles with cataphract-containing armies, describe "iron-tipped clubs", by my reckoning these are de-facto maces. However, it is obvious that Romans did not have a specific word for this weapon, which argues for its rarity and possibly its crudity of construction. Flanged maces seem to have been developed by Central Asian Turks in the Early Middle Ages and I imagine their use spread more-or-less in parallel with their other weapon invention, the sabre.

The Romans had plenty of iron nails, perhaps the easiest way of creating an "iron-tipped club" would be to drive lots of close-spaced iron nails into the head of a wooden club. This would give extra weight to the tip and create a hard and uneven surface not easily deflected by armour.