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The power of
the Dacian army, besides possessing exceptional cavalry, lay in its
exceptional infantry. The cavalry was used in wars fought on the
plains while the infantry soldiers were at their most effective in mountain based
battles.
On the Trajan column we can see three types of weapons used by the Dacian
infantry ranging from light to heavy. The lightly armed infantry use
bows or slings (made of flax, wool or horses' tail hair)
or throw rocks by hand.
The medium-armed soldiers’ offensive weapons were short spears, possibly a
thowing spear like the pilum
and also carried oval shields, or ‘peltas’. Finally the heavily armed
foot soldiers wore helmets called ‘lorice’ and were armed with longer
spears than those above.
Other offensive weapons carried by both the cavalry and infantry were
curved swords called Sica, meaning sickle, which the Romans called
‘falcatus ensis’ or ‘falx supina’, both descriptions of sickle based
weapons. This curved sword was the characteristic weapon of the Dacians
and it appears on the roman coins that were made in Dacia by the Roman
emperors Phillip the Arab, Trajan, Decius and Valerian. Ovidius writes
of another weapon used by the Gets and the Sarmations (Dacian tribes); “
every barbarian is wearing a knife suspended on his left side”. Finally,
the Dacian troops also used the ‘pugio’, or dagger.
The Dacian weapons have their own characteristic, such as shape and
decoration, developed from their own method of fighting and interaction with the German, Celtic and Iranian worlds, but not the
Macedonians, Greeks or Romans.
Also during these times the shepherds and farmers from the lower Danube
were constantly armed o\in order to protect their flocks whilst they
were traveling. Ovidius writes, “here the unfortunate peasant is
holding in one hand a plough and in the other the weapon, the shepherd
has a helmet on his head and he is singing from his two whistles, stuck
with resin and here the poor flock are scared more of wars than of
wolves”. |
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