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

[Sean Manning]

Ave diegis,

Two thoughts about your comments. First, the idea that Roman soldiers adapted their armour to deal with the two-handed falx is a modern hypothesis based on signs that the Romans improved their armour around the time of the Dacian Wars, and the idea that Dacian warriors used the two-handed falx which was more powerful than most ancient weapons. But they could have changed their armour for other reasons ... I don't know enough about the period to have an opinion.

And second, so-called blood channels aka. fullers just lighten a blade without weakening it (like a I-beam) and decorate it. They have nothing to do with making it easier to pull a blade out of a human body or anything like that.

Salve Sean

Yes, thats a modern hypothesis, but i think is the most logical one.

Second- i know the hypotese that blood channels are in fact useless at short blades, knives, daggers etc., since is not any evidence that help somehow to pull out quicker the blade, or have other effect in wounding, but to long blades is possible to have some efficiency

Hi Diegis,

I don't know of any evidence that fullers were intended as blood channels on any blade. As far as I know, that's a 20th century idea by people who didn't know much about smithing or stabbing things and wanted to sound gruesome. They reduce the amount of metal you need, and they look nice, and those are enough reason for a smith to use them.

Greaves and manicae would be useful against lots of weapons, and cross-braced helmets would be better at resisting stones from above. So while they could have been adopted to resist a two-handed war falx, there are lots of other explanations. Reading that Bishop and Coulston quote, they don't think the evidence shows that this armour first became common in the Dacian Wars, and they know a lot about Roman arms.

Couldn't this theta symbol on blades be just a maker's mark? I can't read that article in Romanian, but it seems like assuming it was protective and only used on weapons is just a guess.