Most Beautiful Weapon Pre-500 Ad

[Paal_101]

What's your favorite weapon that existed before 500 AD?

Mine would have to be......the falacata, for the amazing curved blade and great hitting power.

Don't be shy

[Aeros]

Falchion

an "exotic weapon", it combines the power of an axe in the blade of a sword. You don't stab or do any slicing with it, but rather you slam people with a blade that looks like this:

[Wijitmaker]

I'd say the Kirburn Sword:

Here is some text for it:

The iron blade of a sword needed great time and skill to make and the sword as a whole is an incredibly complicated weapon and piece of art. The handle of this sword is unusually elaborate. It is made of thirty-seven different pieces of iron, bronze and horn. After it was assembled, the handle was decorated with red glass. The sword was carried in a scabbard made from iron and bronze. The polished bronze front plate was decorated with a La Tène style scroll pattern, and with red glass studs and insets.

and more:

Look Paul I picked something Celtic, your suprised aren't you

[ZeZar]

I dont know to much , but the Viking sword ... (Though Vikings were in another era ... )

[kor]

Cheezy, the Falchion wasn't introduced until the middle ages, so falls outside the category. The Dacian Falx probably comes closest up to 500AD.

I agree with Wijit, that sword is beautiful.

[SUD]

I like the spatha a lot

[Paal_101]

Spatha's rock, both Roman and Celtic versions.

Another weapon I like is the Mainz style gladius, one with the wasp-waisted blade that is a cool one!

[Quacker]

Oh, did you say pre-500 AD? I'm reading pre-2500 AD...

I like my new sniper rifle

[SUD]

LOL but looks like it shoots paintballs or something

[Night Hawk]

Oh, did you say pre-500 AD?  I'm reading pre-2500 AD...

I like my new sniper rifle

that one hell of an old weapon, but how does it work? must be some sort of stick you can hit somebody with

[Quacker]

Suprisingly, it doubles as a boomerang and a club. For the boomerang, grasp it near that orange end and throw it between your legs. For the club, again hold it at the same spot, and do a little hack-and-slash-and-beat.

In all honesty, I'm not much of a history person, I don't know what weapons were exactly available back then. If I had to pick something from my Biblical knowledge, I like slings.

[Khazun]

The M-16 ;P (hehe)

[King Tutankhamun]

Wow very nice weapons everyone. I really like the handle on Wijitmaker's.

[TKRA_FAiDiT]

the sling!

[Phoenix-TheRealDeal]

Slings... were kewl cuz just about anybody could have a sling and learn to use it. They were 'bad news' on the battlefield, too. I particlarly like the way Balearic Slingers did things.

They fought entirely naked except for their 3 slings and a shoulder slung pouch of sling bolts (usually ceramic, sometimes leaden). Why naked? Cuz them suckers didn't want anything interfering with the natural wind-tunnel design of the human body when it came time to RUN!

They were more accurate, as well as being farther ranged, than most slingers back in the day. To achieve their high degree of accuracy and keep the range correctly even when the foe was closing, they used all 3 slings of different lengths. The longest one was held in hand and served for the longest range, of course. The 2nd one was of mid-length wrapped about the waist. As the foemen came into 'mid-range' the slinger took up his 2nd sling without missing a beat. It was told to me, by Piteas aka Alejandro Carneiro, who is a professor of roman-greco-ibero studies at a university in Spain, that when the the slinger took the shortest one down that was wrapped about his head, sort of like a headband, then with the next few shots it was time-to-run. I presume that they held their position until the very last 'seconds', then scooped up their first two slings--dropped to the ground--before taking off for 'safer parts'.

Well, as if these tactics were not enough to make them the most famous slingers of the ancient and classical world, then there is the matter of their training that developed their awesome degree of accuracy. From the time that they were wee lads of only a few years of age they had to throw sling bolts for their supper. A series of posts in the ground placed at intervals of increasing distance were in evry man's 'front yard'. Mama would place the tyke's bread ration atop one of them, however far out was the norm for 'the day', and he then had to knock it off before he could eat of it. As time went on, of course, the distance grew longer, and ultimately the exercise was to include the use of all three slings on posts of varying distance... and I can hear his pop now bellowing, even if he hit every target, "Dammit, you are still too SLOW!" hehe.

Well, and didja know that a good slinger could drive a ceramic sling bolt THRU a bronze helmet and right into a d00d's head! That's pretty 'bad jose' in my book.

It is said that the Rhodian slinger were also quite famous for their developed skill with the sling, but I know naught of their training technique. One thing is pretty sure though... David probably knew exactly what he was doing when going to confront Goliath, eh? Do you suppose that is where the saying came from, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall?"

[ElfTheHunter]

Sting!

[Black Knight]

I'd pick Orcrist

But seriously I'd pick the Roman Gladius. Come on this weapon conquered and maintained the roman empire.

[Paal_101]

So true Black Knight!

*dances* Another one sees the light of Rome!!!!

[Wijitmaker]

Gladius Beautiful? *scoffs*

[Paal_101]

LOL don't tell Ken that his Iberian designed sword is....ahem....un-"beautiful"

[King Tutankhamun]

Yes, it is very nice of a weapon. I like them all very much.