Sica

The sica was a short sword or large dagger of ancient Thracians, Dacians and Illyrians, used in Ancient Rome too, originating in the Halstatt culture. It was originally depicted as a curved sword (see the Zliten mosaic as well as numerous oil lamps) and many examples have been found in what are today Albania, Romania, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Serbia. It is also depicted on Trajan's Column; notably the Dacian king Decebalus is depicted committing suicide with one.

From a typological point of view, though there is a strong tendency towards standardization, the sica daggers can be organised in three main types that differ only by morphological aspects, not functional.

The first type is characterized by its solidity, sometimes with a broken figure immediately after the blade’s middle part, with a short and sharp point, with a slight curvature, a short handle cane, usually of a triangular shape, that has a hole for the fixing rivet, close to the blade. The blade has incised ornaments and a fuller deeply carved into it. These characteristics are not general, the only standing arguments for this type being the size and the shape approximately similar.

The second type, not very different morphologically speaking, does not have the solid shape of the first type, but a longer blade, with a fuller, and keeps, most often, the haft's tongue short and of a triangular shape.

The third type, more numerous, gathers a series of daggers characterized by a long blade, elegantly manufactured in most cases, by the ornamentation with incised circles and/or lines along the blade, the presence of the fuller, the haft’s tongue as long as the haft and a guard muff. These distinctive elements are found either all together, or some of the pieces present one or more of these characteristic features. The sizes show a relative standardization, somewhere around 30–40 cm length and approximately 3 cm width. From a chronological point of view, this type of dagger is dated mostly in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.

The distinctive shape was designed to get around the sides of an opponent's shield, and stab or slash them in the back. Since the thraex gladiator's usual opponent was the scutum (large shield) carrying murmillo gladiator, such a weapon as the sica was necessary to make the duel more even and exciting.

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