§ 1. The arms with which we strike the enemy are manifold. For there is no thing which men cannot employ for the destruction of men and have not sometimes employed. We read that men have been killed not only with swords and missiles, but also suffocated with cushions and roses. We also fight with trumpet and drum and put the enemy to flight with sound. Indeed, a part of the enemy supplies arms from his own body. 2 Samuel 2:16: “Each man, taking hold of the head of his companion, drove his sword into the side of his opponent.” Thus the hair, as well as the sword, served as a weapon—so much so that the institution of Theseus appears less ridiculous: he wished the hair to be shaved lest it offer a handle to enemies. Alexander the Great commanded his men to imitate this with respect to the beard. The women of the Thasians and Carthaginians gave their hair for binding machines and for the ropes of ships, Polyaenus, book 8. The women of Aquileia expended theirs upon bowstrings, Fulgosus, book 7, chapter 6.
The arms, therefore, with which we strike and crush an enemy are those by which we fight either at close quarters or at a distance. Those with which the matter is conducted at close quarters have not been so greatly changed; the others are very different.
§ 2. The arms by which an enemy is harmed at close quarters are manifold. Most nations had swords. First they carried a single one, then two: besides a long sword, a paramerium or parazonium—that is, a dagger—sometimes at the right side and sometimes at the left. Polybius mentions the right; Josephus the left, in book 3 of The Jewish War. After the Second Punic War, the Romans carried Spanish swords. They used them by thrusting rather than cutting. For the Romans mocked those who fought by cutting, since the wound is rarely mortal and it exposes the flank. Nevertheless, they sometimes cut as well. Seneca, in On Benefits, says that a helmet was divided by a Spanish saber. Livy, book 31: “After they saw bodies dismembered by the Spanish sword, with arms cut off or the whole neck severed, and the other hideousness of the wounds.” Now there are different kinds of swords for each mode of fighting.
A long sword was given to the horseman. Josephus, book 3 of The Jewish War: “The horsemen have a long sword at the right and likewise a long pike in the hand; a shield lies transversely at the horse’s flank; and in a quiver are carried three or more javelins with broad points and not inferior to spears in size. All have helmets and cuirasses, as do the infantrymen.”
§ 3. One spear is large and used for fighting at close quarters, while another is for casting. Strabo, book 10:
Διτταὶ γὰρ ἦσαν τῶν δοράτων χρεῖαι, ἡ μὲν ἐκ χειρός, ἡ δὲ ὡς παλτοῖς· καθάπερ καὶ ὁ κοντὸς ἀμφοτέρας τὰς χρείας ἀποδίδωσι· καὶ γὰρ συστάδην χρῶνται καὶ κοντοβολοῦντες· ὥστε πρὸς ἑκάτερον δύναται ἡ σύνταξις.
For there were two uses of spears: one from the hand and the other as cast weapons; just as the pike serves both uses, for it can be used at close quarters and can be cast, so that the formation is capable of either use.
Our men today employ only these at close quarters; cannon alone have taken away the other missiles.
There were longer axes, which have been succeeded by our two-edged axes or halberds. To this class men refer the saliba, the three-bladed ax, or the martiobarbulus, with which they broke shields. Vegetius, book 1, chapter 17: “In Illyricum there were formerly two legions which had six thousand soldiers apiece. Because they used these weapons skillfully and bravely, they were called Martiobarbuli. It is established that for a long time all wars were most vigorously concluded through them—so much so that Diocletian and Maximian, when they came to the empire, judged that on account of the merit of their valor these Martiobarbuli should be named Jovians and Herculians, and they are taught to have preferred them to all the legions. Our soldiers, however, were accustomed to carry five martiobarbuli inserted into their shields. If the soldiers cast these opportunely, shield-bearing men appear in a certain manner to assume the office of archers. For they wound the enemies and horses before they can come not only to hand-to-hand combat but even within range of other missiles.”
In Leo, however, martiobarbuli are javelins. Turnebus thinks them named from little barbel fish.
§ 4. The aclides were smooth, and when they had been cast against the enemy they were drawn back by a cord. Men think this was also called the cateia or caia.
§ 5. Horsemen especially were also accustomed to carry hammers, in place of which they now carry broad swords. To this class belong ῥόπαλα, clubs, and gauntlets.
They also employed nooses, as the retiarii used a net or net-like snare. When the Macedonians moved towers forward for an assault upon Tyre, the Tyrians entangled the Macedonians in nets and cast them down, Diodorus, book 17. Olaus Magnus says the same concerning the Finns.