The sica was a short sword

Sword

A sword is a bladed weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration...

 or large dagger

Dagger

A dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...

 of ancient Thracians/Dacians peoples, used in Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 too. It was originally depicted as a curved sword, (see the Zliten mosaic

Zliten mosaic

The Zliten mosaic is a Roman floor mosaic from about the 2nd century AD, found in the town of Zliten in Libya, on the east coast of Leptis Magna. The mosaic was discovered by the Italian archaeologist Salvatore Aurigemma in 1913 and is now on display at The Archaeological Museum of Tripoli...

 as well as numerous oil lamps) with a blade about 16-18 inches long (40 – 45 cm) and many examples have been found in what are today Romania, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Serbia, as well as depicted on the Trajan Column. 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, doesn’t 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, some- where 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 second and first 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 traex gladiator's usual opponent was the Scutum

Scutum (shield)

Scutum is the Latin word for "shield", although it has in modern times come to be specifically associated with the rectangular, semi-cylindrical body shield carried by Roman legionaries.-History:...

 (large shield) carrying myrmillo gladiator

Murmillo

The murmillo was a type of gladiator during the Roman Imperial age. The murmillo-class gladiator was adopted in the early Imperial period to replace the earlier Gallus, named after the warriors of Gaul...

, such a weapon as the sica was necessary to make the duel more even and exciting.

The daggers’ decoration, remarkably complex, offers them a sum of spiritual, artistically and symbolical valences. On the blade geo- metrical shapes were incised, but also eagles and snakes, in which case their schematization requires the existence of a certain "code", or they were an emblem that underlined the membership of a certain brotherhood at arms or a certain social status, as well possible to have a mistical/magical component included.

From the facts presented above, it can be stated that the sica dagger represents an important historical artefact which, due to it’s importance and the role it played in the Thracian world, contributes to the understanding of the social and military mechanisms of this society and, through the special spiritual dimension, to the reception of a new side from the religious mosaic of this people. From all the curved weapons used in the Thracian area, the sica daggers are the only ones that make the connection between the Southern Thracians and the Thracians North to the Danube, being spread the same on both sides of the river.

Origin of name

According to Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines, tome 4, volume 2 (R-S), Paris, 1926, p. 1300, s. v. sica, the name Sica comes from Proto-Indo-European root sek-, meaning "to cut", "to section". Roman author Valerius Maximus, III, 2.12, said that sica was the Dacian name for the curved short sword/bigger knife of this type.

Sicarii

To the Romans the weapon seemed to be one used by criminals.Sicarii

Sicarii

Sicarii is a term applied, in the decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, to an extremist splinter group of the Jewish Zealots, who attempted to expel the Romans and their partisans from Judea using concealed daggers .-History:The Sicarii used...

 the Jewish rebels in ancient Jerusalem practised terrorism against neutrals during the Roman occupation.

Illyrians

The Romans regarded the sica as a distinctive Illyrian weapon, used by inhabitants of Dalmatia and present day Croatia, parts of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Albania.

The principal melee

Mêlée

Melee , generally refers to disorganized close combat involving a group of fighters. A melee ensues when groups become locked together in combat with no regard to group tactics or fighting as an organized unit; each participant fights as an individual....

 weapon of the Illyrians

Illyrians

The Illyrians were a group of tribes who inhabited part of the western Balkans in antiquity and the south-eastern coasts of the Italian peninsula...

 was the Sica. According to historian John Wilkes:

Although a short curved sword was used by several peoples around the Mediterranean the Romans regarded the sica as a distinct Illyrian weapon used by the stealthy 'assassin' (sicarius)

Fighting style

Sica was used only with the curve pointing down, which proves the tool part of it, and the fighting style was similar to the Kama

Kama (weapon)

The is a traditional Filipino and Japanese farming implement similar to a small scythe used for reaping crops and also employed as a weapon...

. It will easily sever a limb with one slash-pull-cut technique. It was much feared by the Roman legionaries, and brought some changes to their armour style design. The most famous gladiator who ever wielded a sica was a Roman slave by the name of Jesaer, who lived from 215 BC - 173 BC.

The sword could also be used, in experienced hands, to kill in one hit. With the curve pointed down the tip would often catch on the enemy's helmet. The Thracian could then lurch the sword upward into the jaw and through the face, killing the opponent instantaneously.

See also

• Gladius
  Gladius
  Gladius was the Latin word for sword, and is used to represent the primary sword of Ancient Roman soldiers. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those used by the Greeks. From the 3rd century BC, the Romans adopted swords similar to those used by the Celtiberians and others during the early...
  
  
• Falx
  Falx
  Falx is a Latin word originally meaning sickle, but was later used to mean any of a number of tools that had a curved blade that was sharp on the inside edge such as a scythe...
  
  
• Spatha
  Spatha
  The spatha was a type of straight sword, measuring between , in use throughout first millennium AD Europe, and in the territory of the Roman Empire until about 600 AD. Later swords from 600 AD to 1000 AD are recognizable derivatives, though they are not spathae.The spatha was used in gladiatorial...
  
  
• Pugio
  Pugio
  The pugio was a dagger used by Roman soldiers as a sidearm. It seems likely that the pugio was intended as an auxiliary weapon, but its exact purpose to the soldier remains unknown for sure...
  
  
• Gladiator
  Gladiator
  A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
  
  
• Illyrian warfare
  Illyrian warfare
  The history of Illyrian warfare spans from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC up to the 1st century AD in the region of Illyria and in southern Italy where the Iapygian civilization flourished....
  
  
• Thracian warfare
  Thracian warfare
  The history of Thracian warfare spans from ca. 10th century BC up to the 1st century AD in the region defined by Ancient Greek and Latin historians as Thrace. It concerns the armed conflicts of the Thracian tribes and their kingdoms in the Balkans...
  
  
• Dacian warfare
  Dacian warfare
  The history of Dacian warfare spans from c. 10th century BC up to the 2nd century AD in the region defined by Ancient Greek and Latin historians as Dacia. It concerns the armed conflicts of the Dacian tribes and their kingdoms in the Balkans...
  
  

External links

• http://www.scribd.com/doc/33875732/Borangic-C-Sica-Tipologie-Si-Functional-It-Ate-NEMVS-IV-7-8-2009
• A later Sica
• An early Sica
• Sica 3rc century BC
• Celtic La Tene Sica,3rd century BC
• Sicas
• Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines, tom 4, vol. 2 (R-S), Paris, 1926, p. 1300, s. v. sica