The "Myth" of the "Dacian Falx" as a super weapon

[diegis]

Hi Olaf

The cuvate (inward or outward) of a weapon does provide more cutting leverage then a straight blade against soft targets, but hardly improves penetration against armor in any kind.
The "beak" at the point of the falx might actually help in penetrating a helmet or shoulder armor, but you have to keep in mind how near you would have to be to your adversary to actually reach that far with a weapon that has such a short handle.
My Falx is about 1m in length overal, with about 60cm of this length being the blade - not measuring the curvate:

Though I am the first to admit taht this si not an accurate replica of any blade found, it is meant to be an approximation of the Falxes depicted on the Adamklissi monument. Actually the first thing I might change would be to lengthen the grip to a length shown in the picture on first page of this thread.
Still it is claer from the surviving blades and the depictions of the flax, that it was not a polearm, so it was not suitable to fighting an opponent at more then arms length.

Interesting Falx indeed, but the handle i think need to be more longer, around the same lenght of the blade, as well to have a bit more pronounced curvature (now it looks like a combo betwen Falx and Romphaia). Most common falx blades look like this (there was just few discovered however)
http://htmlimg1.scribdassets.com/2hese9 ... 22/000.jpg
Some images show a smaller blade (maybe with dimensions of a Sica), but with a much longer handle.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... tope32.jpg
About the blades find until now, the lenght of the blade is around 45-50 cm long, and the handle is supposed to be around the same dimension (or even a bit longer), so the total lenght might by somewhere around 1 meter (as you said is your sword too), obviously longer then a gladius. And yes, it is harder to stab with a falx, but is much easy to pierce thru an armour (due to momentum and the shape who make all the force and heavy to be concentrated in the tip), as well to cut

And here the next weakness of this weapon is quite obvious as we also see in the drawing posted here.
The Falx, especially those with a highly pronounced curvate, can not be used to thrust or stab an opponent. Slashing with a weapon however makes it neccessary to fight in a very open formation so you do not hit your own people and also takes a lot more time to carry out and recover from.
Romans new this weakness, as we know they were trained to stab rather then slash with the Gladius.
So if we take the drawing as a battlefield scene - which it is not, unless those falxwielders are uterly desperate or suicidal - the right and left falx wielders are dead from a simple straight thrust of their romans opponents in the next few milliseconds. The middel one might have actually managed to wound or unbalance his opponent slightly, but if his weapon is now stuck in the Scutum so he know has no way of defending or attacking anymore. The wounded Roman would most probaly drop his shield making it even more difficult for the falxwielder to get his weapon out of it while the next Roman in line would just step forward and deliver the killing blow.

Still I do not doubt that the Romans did consider the Falx as an exotic weapon, as the would not feature in on a Thropheum - a dedication to the gods of victory and war - otherwise.

About the battle scene, i say that right and left falxmen are in offensive positions, and the legionars are in defensive, how i saw the things, romans try to keep their scutums in such position to cover from a blow, and the dacians can hit either over the scutum, targeting the head, either lateraly against the arms, and even against the legs if the roman rise the shield. If the dacian keep the good distance, he keep the initiave as well, since his sword is longer then gladius, and can hit the enemy even if that is covered by a shield. Ofcourse this required great skill and great courage, thats why i said the warrior count too, not just the weapon (maybe close to crazzynes as you said, but Dacian religion was anyway centered around the idea of war and death, who was saw just as a journey to the other world, an eternal happy place where brave warriors have the best life, this world was seen as just a temporary home), since they are not protected by a shield and in the mess of the battle they can easily come to close to an enemy who can stab them. Probably they acted in groups, covering eachother, and was used in the first moments of battle, when they need to make breaks in roman lines, and in moments when enemy breake and flee, or in flank attacks.
Falx wasnt anyway a widespread sword, the most common equipment of a dacian soldier was a shield and a shorter sword, either a curved Sica (or smaller one handed variant of falx) either a gladius type.
This is another variant of curved weapon, a large, huge curved battle knife attached to a long handle (it looks like a giant claw)


As it seen it is used by a dacian noble (tarabostes) who was able to have any weapon he desire, but he chose this one so probably had a very good efficiensy too
It looks similar with this one, just this have an even longer handle