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

[Paullus Scipio]

Matt wrote:

For starters, I'm a little leery about identifying different tribes by their clothing, at least so categorically. It's just a gut feeling, I'm not about to say "You can't do that!", because I agree that Roman artwork used conventions like that.

Not so much 'tribes', as ethnic groups - and as you can see from the picture I posted, the three are quite distinctive - I didn't caption them, but I bet you can easily identify which is which :wink:

I'm also not entirely comfortable with a strict definition of how "falx" may be used in Roman literature. They used a lot of other terms loosely or interchangeably, so a narrow definition makes me a little uneasy.

Huh? Not sure what you mean by this - my point was that "falx' was a broad definition, not a narrow one - it literally means 'curved blade', any kind of curved blade.

Finally, it seems a little contradictory that on the one hand you say that ONLY the Bastarnae are using these things, but on the other hand that blades and implements like this are found all over Europe! Just sayin'...

Not really, I'm saying the 'brush cutter/bill hook' was a common tool in Europe from the iron age down to the twentieth century ( and similar tools are worldwide).
I am also saying in a Dacian Wars context, it is only depicted in the hands of these Celto-germanic Bastarnae people, and never by Dacians. Furthermore, what little evidence we have of Dacians fighting Romans ( on the column)and in Roman service seems to indicate the single-handed 'falx' was identified as the 'Dacian national weapon'.

Be careful! It is true that we tend to think that modifications such as helmet bracing and the use of manica and greaves was because of the falx, but we don't KNOW that. Cross-braced helmets are found in Israel and Germany, and the manica turns up in Spain and Britain. Big threat of the falx in those areas? Nope. It could be that we are simply seeing a trend in armor towards the heavy side, which happened now and then through history (alternating with trends in lightening armor). Now, even I still believe that these new additions *may* well have been inspired by the falx, just because a little more metal makes it more likely that you can survive a hit from one of those things (at which point the wielder is doomed because he lacks armor and shield!). But I always throw in the caveat that we do NOT *know* that for certain!

I entirely agree! Rather than Phil Barker's idea, it is equally possible, maybe more so, that the 'improvised' use of a tool was a counter to troops in heavy armour - and there is an excellent precedent for this. During the revolt of Sacrovir in Gaul in AD21, the rebels included a small group of trainee gladiators of the fully-armoured 'Crupellari' type. The Roman legionaries resorted to using tools of the 'two-handed chopper' variety - their 'dolabra' (! hock: ) to deal with these! [Tacitus Annals III.43 ff].....perhaps the Bastarnae trapped with their families at the 'wagon massacre' also desperately improvised against heavily armoured Roman troops. Let us not forget too that after, this 'weapon' is never heard of again.....that surely implies it was an 'improvisation' used as a one-off rather than a newly developed formidable weapon.