The dolabra [1] is a versatile axe used by the people of Italy since ancient times. The dolabra could serve as a pickaxe used by miners and excavators, a priest's implement for ritual religious slaughtering of animals and as an entrenching tool ( mattock) used in Roman infantry tactics. In the 1st century CE, at the Siege of Augustodunum Haeduorum, armoured Gallic gladiators were defeated by legionaries wielding dolabrae. [2]
Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo said, "you defeat the enemy with a pickaxe". [3]
See also
Bibliography
- Adrian Goldsworthy, The Complete Roman Army
- Strauss, Barry S. The Spartacus War. Simon & Schuster, 2009
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Dolabra.
- ^ William, Smith (1890). "A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities". Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University. Archived from the original on 2016-05-14. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
- ^ Cowan, Ross (Nov 2021). "Tales of the Axe". Ancient Warfare Magazine. 15/2: 9.
- ^ Strauss, Barry S. The Spartacus War. Simon & Schuster, 2009. Print.
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