The knife is one of the most ancient tools that was created by man. With the beginning of metal processing, people were able to significantly weight and lengthen the structure of the knife, having learned how to turn it into a long blade weapon: swords and sabers. In the history of ancient arms business, exotic weapons are also encountered. For example, the ancient Thracians used bizarre-looking rompheans in battle. It's time to figure out what this weapon is.
In the eastern Balkans, there is a geographical and historical area called Thrace. Today its lands are part of Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria. During antiquity, numerous Thracian tribes lived here, which quite often faced their more civilized and well-organized neighbors, first the Greeks, and later by the Romans. Both those and others, having fought with the Thracian warriors, noted the use of a very strange blade weapon.
We are talking, of course, about the rompheus. Many mistakenly consider it a two-handed sword. In fact, it is not so, or not quite so. Archaeological finds and descriptions by ancient authors clearly indicate that the rhomphea had a curved blade and one-sided sharpening. All this makes it (in the framework of modern terminology) not a sword, but a saber. Large two-handed saber. It is quite ironic that the Greek and Roman authors considered it not a blade weapon, but a polearm, in other words, a spear.
The total length of the saber was 1200-1400 mm of which about 800 mm fell on the blade. Given the impressive dimensions of the weapon, we can safely assume that it was used mainly in two-handed grip, similar to how late medieval landsknechts and knights used one and a half and two-handed swords. It is possible that the rhomfei could indeed be used with a shield as a short spear. This, in particular, is regularly written by all the same ancient authors.
Romphei have been used since the end of the 5th century BC. The earliest written mention of this weapon dates back to 326 BC and relates to the Battle of Hydasp, which took place as part of the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great. Judging by the available data, his army included the allied Thracians, who armed themselves with their traditional arsenal. It is in this description that there are references to how the allies of the Macedonians used their sabers bent in the opposite direction to chop the trunks of the war elephants of the Indian king Pora.
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Subsequently, the Romphei will appear more than once in Greek and Roman written sources. In particular, Titus Livy wrote about this weapon, talking about the battle of 197 BC at Kinoskephal, where the phalanx of the Macedonians and Roman legions converged on the field. The history of the study of the two-handed saber is supported not only by written evidence, but also by numerous archaeological finds (including in burial mounds). Most of the rhomphae and their remains were found on the territory of modern Bulgaria.
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It is extremely difficult to say what tactical niche this weapon had in a real antique battle. One thing can be noted with confidence that romphea has proven to be a very effective means of control. This is proved by the fact that it was used until the end of Roman rule in the Mediterranean. The allied troops of the legions, recruited from the Thracians, almost always had at their disposal a frightening-looking saber.
If you want to know even more interesting things, you should read about how the Romans dressed in winterif they only had tunics and sandals.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/070120/52991/