Ancient Zealot daggers

[fearn]

Hi All,

Just saw this. My understanding of the term "sica" was that it was a product of Roman society. Basically, "sica" is a generic term for a single-edged, curved knives. This also had a strong social component: good Romans used straight, two-edged weapons such as the gladius (sword) and pugio (dagger). Only barbarians (and gladiators, and other such "uncultured scum" ) would use curved, single-edged blades.

So far as I know, "sica" did not define which side of the curve the edge was on. Sica is pretty obviously the predecessor to the modern english sickle, but so far as I know, it was perfectly possible for a sica to be sharpened on the outer edge instead. I think most people reading this could come up with a long list of knives that could be classified as "sica" in this way.

Given the social context of "straight, double-edged=good Roman" vs. "curved, single-edged=foreign," it's not surprising that there would be Jewish sicarii. What I think might get missed are the social and political connotations of the term.

F