08-08-2005, 11:24 PM
I am not sure yet if I will be able to go to the Hopoite Gathering - I would love to go, but I am searching for a new job at the moment so I am not sure what my money situation will be.
Yes, it does bear quie a resemblance to a Dacian falx. Dacia bordered on Thrace. They are modern day Romania and Bulgaria. The curved rhomphaia bear an even stronger resemblance to the falx.
The falx though is designed almost exclusively for cleaving things. There is a Celtic reenactor who frequently attends events with my Legion who has a reproduction of a falx. He demonstrated some cuts with it using a scutum he built as accurately as the information available to us would allow. Then he rigged up a device that would allow someone to control the scutum from a safe distance. To say the falx went through the scutum like hot knife through butter would not accurately describe the violence involved. It was a bit frightening.
A falx seems to have had a heavier, broader blade and was used a bit more like a specialized axe. A rhomphaia on the other hand seems like it would be best used in the manner of a rifle with bayonet or a zweihander.
Yes, it does bear quie a resemblance to a Dacian falx. Dacia bordered on Thrace. They are modern day Romania and Bulgaria. The curved rhomphaia bear an even stronger resemblance to the falx.
The falx though is designed almost exclusively for cleaving things. There is a Celtic reenactor who frequently attends events with my Legion who has a reproduction of a falx. He demonstrated some cuts with it using a scutum he built as accurately as the information available to us would allow. Then he rigged up a device that would allow someone to control the scutum from a safe distance. To say the falx went through the scutum like hot knife through butter would not accurately describe the violence involved. It was a bit frightening.
A falx seems to have had a heavier, broader blade and was used a bit more like a specialized axe. A rhomphaia on the other hand seems like it would be best used in the manner of a rifle with bayonet or a zweihander.
Dan Zeidler
Legio XX
Legio XX
