09-20-2010, 08:06 PM
Quote:That must be a doubtful proposition.....unless all the falx wielders strike simultaneously! For it is but the work of an instant for the 'kitchen knife' holder to gut the falx holder ( while he winds up for a swing, let alone struggling to free his weapon from a shield)....what's more it needs room to swing such a weapon - so he's going to be facing several Romans in close order - so one mad Bastarnae ( No Dacian is shown wielding a two-handed falx either on Trajan's column, or the Adamklissi monument) would indeed be facing several Romans. In a battle. you don't just fight the man in front of you!
Even one-on-one I'd opt for the Roman kit over the Bastarnae warrior's armament every time - despite the 'terror weapon' effect of the falx...consider what is about to happen to the central falx wielder in the picture in the next heartbeat/split second, just from the man with the split shield.....the falx wielder is as good as dead.....:wink:
Oh boy, we come to the same obsession of yours again and again :lol: . Falx was a Dacian weapon, as Romans back then said so, and at Adamclissi are depicted ofcourse Dacians with falxes. In fact all falxes discovered are from Dacian capital Sarmisegetuza and sourounding areas (which is not near any Bastarnae teritory) and nobody then (and even now, excepting you) said that falx is somehow a Bastarnae weapon. In fact is clear that is from the same family with Sica and Romphaia, other Dacian and Thracian swords. See below as well, from page 10 (for english part). There are images and dimensions as well, with all Falxes find until now
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33876270/Bora ... bus-I-2009
More on topic, i think Thunder is pretty correct, is no need a large room to swing the swords, as a long right one, since you can use hits over the shield or even hook and pool ones against the legs. Due to shape of the blade, and if it was good sharpened, it can easily cut the tendons just with a swift pool, without to need to swing it too much (which can cut the entire leg off).
So a front of Dacian Falxmen with longer swords compared with Roman Gladius, so longer range and able to hit the legionars from above the shields was very possible. And when the shield wall was broken the job was even more easy, with hits possible to come from all directions, targeting the head, the arms, the legs, sometimes even as in Matthew pics (cuting partialy the shield too, even from lateral).
My opinion was that fron line was made from Dacians equiped with shields and short swords (sica or gladius like type), until the Romans trow their "pilla", and contact was made. Then they make room to Dacians wearing the Falxes, to broke the Roman lines
Razvan A.
