I have recently revisited this thread, and was unable to access the second article Romulus has posted. This article contained excellent information on 30 different sica examples, with great illustrations and pictures. Does anyone know where this article can be found, or is anyone able to access it from the link provided without a 404 error?

To Luke Zechman:

You can read or download the article of the romanian archeologist Catalin Borangic about the sica dagger here on SCRIBD: http://www.scribd.com/doc/33875732/Borangic-C...V-7-8-2009
Here is an article about making two replica sica daggers as an experimental archaeology project:
http://www.arheovest.com/simpozion/arheovest1/49_821_836.pdf
Here an article about another curved blade weapon or toll converted to weapon, named "cosor": http://nemvs.sarmizegetusa.net/201001.pdf
And here an article about the falx: http://www.cclbsebes.ro/docs/sebus/08_Borangic.pdf

Hi Mike
Drawing ... here's Dacian falx weapon iron type with measuring tape ... what the ....... kad and how dated I do not know, here is a very interesting presentation of two-edged sword.
The photo is from a museum in Cluj, and there have falx as wooden weapons.
Regards
Waldemar Duszka "Ibor"

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Thanks Waldemar :) Do You or anybody ;) know where come from this double-edged falx from drawing?

Regards,
Mike from Poland

That falx is not double edged , it has only a false edge on a short distance at the tip. It was discovered at Sarmisegetusa Regia, (The dacian capital at Grădiştea Muncelului near present day city Orăştie, Hunedoara County in Transylvania). The weapons in the photo are not falxes but the weapon named "cosor" a shorter deep curved blade on a longer wooden handle. You can find more examples in the pdf documents I have posted the links in my previous post.

Huge thanks Romulus! :)

Regards,
Mike from Poland

Just started working on this long lost project. Found a nice block of wenge and will do a one piece gladius type grip. So far I have only roughed out the grip and the blade.

ks

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Looking forward to this one!

In the Toledo Army Museum (Spain)... there is a rather similar looking dagger, which I can unfortunately recall no other information about, but it is almost the same profile. If you are looking for examples, it may be useful, this is all I have:

Best,

Hadrian

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Hi Hadrian...

Very nice celto-iberian antenna sword/dagger (c.300BC I think). The dimensions are very close to what I am working with... however the shadow pattern under the blade makes it look like it is a thin straight blade that has the last third of the blade bent forward out of the plane of the blade. To my eye, it looks like the curve in the blade is due to the optics of the camera angle and the slight forward bend of the
tip. But you are right in that the apparent shape is very close to my sica blade.

It is also interesting that, I suspect, these celto-iberian daggers may have been the inspiration for the large dagger of the Roman legions called the pugio. If so then it may be the ancestor of the short, straight daggers used by gladiators. I don't know if the pugio was more of a camp knife or a fighting knife or both... however, if it was used for fighting then this up-close melee fighting of the Roman legions with their camp-knives may have become one of the most popular fights of the area. Very very few gladiatorial edged weapons have been preserved (I can only think of a couple from the gladiator barracks at Pompeii) and these are pugio like daggers. These small dagger-like weapons also appear to be much more common in the iconographic material.

Thanks for your interest Hadrian...

ks

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Gladiator's Dagger from Gladiatorial Barracks at Pompeii

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Gladiator's Dagger from Gladiatorial Barracks at Pompeii

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Gladiator's Dagger from Gladiatorial Barracks at Pompeii

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Gladiator's Dagger from Gladiatorial Barracks at Pompeii

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Pugios and Pugio Blades.
Lower left blade shows a beautiful patternwelded core

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Gladiator Daggers from Pompeii

Here is the Encyclopedia Dacica, kindly provided by a Romanian friend who is building a falx for me. I may commission a sica from him later. Many articles, I hope they add to this thread.

http://www.enciclopedia-dacica.ro/?operatie=s...ie=english


This article focuses on the Sica, with some typology, etc: http://www.enciclopedia-dacica.ro/?operatie=s...ian_graves