Details

LOT 1485

Roman Pugio Type Dagger in Scabbard

3RD CENTURY BC

12 1/2" (312 grams, 31.5cm).

A dagger and sheath with suspension fittings; the bronze sheath with decorated bands, raised panels with repoussé and punched-point detailing, discoid chape with central knop, lateral loops with attached sliding rings attached to D-shaped strap ends; the iron blade within the sheath, iron tang extending from a tiered lower guard to the rectangular pommel with three poppy-head finials; possibly Villanovan workmanship.

Provenance

From an important English collection; acquired in the 1990s.

Literature

Cf. Capwell, Dr. T. Knives, Daggers and Bayonets, London, 2009, p.21.

Footnotes

The pugio was a dagger used by Roman soldiers as a sidearm. It seems likely that the pugio was intended as an auxiliary weapon for the soldiers but officials of the empire also took to wearing ornate daggers in the performance of their offices, and some would wear concealed daggers as a defence against contingencies. The dagger was a common weapon of assassination and suicide; for example, the conspirators who stabbed Julius Caesar used pugiones. References to the pugio are common in the literature of the Empire, especially in Tacitus and Suetonius. Tacitus reports that Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo had a soldier executed for not wearing a sword while digging a trench and another for wearing only a pugio in the same activity. This does not mean however, that the pugio was carried universally and a study of 1st century AD figural tombstones reveals that there were certainly soldiers who did not carry the pugio. It is not known whether it was simply an optional weapon or if it was issued only to soldiers with certain duties and not to soldiers who were not seen to need it. The evidence of a preserved 1st century AD writing tablet also reveals that some cavalrymen carried the pugio.

CONDITION