a few questions about knives ???

[Slepcevic]

Greetings from Serbia. My name is Nemanja this is my first post here

Can someone help me? I am interested in a couple of things I see here very professional and qualified people on this issue.

First

I am interested in knives of ancient Rome(eg the period of the Republic, from Marius to Caesar) which type of knives is used by ordinary people, especially those on the other side of the law (you know, robbers, thieves, etc.) I found that "sice" was very popular types of knives for such jobs. As far as I know in Rome were forbidden to carry weapons in public and suppose that such people had to carry their weapon hidden, and do not believe that the gladius (because of its length) were practical for such tasks.

In the HBO series "Rome" I saw a few "short" gladius but I have not found archaeological or artistic evidence for this. Does anybody know if there were such short( swords??

Else

Are in this period people(first century BC) still used the falcata, kopis or makhaira. ??

P.S
I apologize for my bad English

[john roberts]

Nemanja,
Welcome to the forum. First, sica is a very broad term used to describe a usually single-edged, often curved dagger or short sword. At least one source (I'll have to look it up) states that the curved shape facilitated its being drawn from a sheath worn under the arm, suggesting that it was worn beneath the tunic, accessible through the wide arm-opening. It may have commonly looked rather like the Arab jambiyah. The weapon was classified as infamis, as opposed to the "honorable" pugio.
It's from the latter 1st century AD, but the Herculaneum "soldier" carried a short Mainz-type pugio, which may have been a cut-down sword. I know of no other examples.
The falcata was definitely still favored in Spain in the years between Marius and Caesar.
There exist reliefs of cutlery-sellers showing displays of knives of numerous designs along with shears and agricultural cutting tools.

[Crispvs]

I think clubs and cudgels were probably more common weapons for normal people. Although various sizes of domestic knives were certainly available to just about anyone, when we hear about armed civilians (or soldiers posing as civilians) we read of them being armed with wooden cudgels which were sometimes hidden in their clothing.
Examples of this would be the occasions when Caesar was forcing legislation through the popular assembly, using Pompey's veterans, armed with cudgels, to intimidate voters and when Pontius Pilate in around AD30 used soldiers disguised as civilians to first mix with members of a crowd of civilians and then beat them using cudgels which had previously been hidden within their clothing.
It is worth remembering that there could be any number of reasons why a person could legitimately be carrying a stick which could, if he decided, be employed as a weapon. There would be rather fewer reasons which would be accepted by the urban cohorts or their local equivalents for being found carrying a knife, if you were stopped and searched.

Crispvs