Images of the Falx from Ancient Dacia

https://www.academia.edu/19730425/Dacorum_falces._Armele_%C3%AEncovoiate_ale_dacilor

The bottom images are of the falx as found at the Birdoswald/Banna fort on Hadrian's Wall, which I have discussed before. The others were described for me by the author of the cited study, and decent English translations describing them are here drawn from the ENCYCLOPEDIA DACICA. For more information on the Legion IV Flavia Felix, see https://www.livius.org/articles/legion/legio-iiii-flavia-felix/.

The most interesting use of the falx in Dacia is in representing the name the Roman legion.  Ignoring obvious translation errors, Dr. Catalan Borangic tells us that

"A marble plaque discovered at Sarmizegetusa and partially preserved shows the name of the IV Legion Flavia Felix through some weapons. Today we have two drawings of the epigraph in which the text of Legio IIII Flavia Felix was rendered with the help of silhouettes of curved arms, swords and daggers alike, represented with the tip down, having the meaning of the letter L, followed by a sickle interpretable as eg, then of two daggers and their keys, resulting in the figure of the unit and of two curved swords with the tip pointing up that build the initials of the legion's name, FF."

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Figure 1

Among the first carvings that portray the Falx is one from a chalk block discovered at Gradistea Muncelului and kept in the Museum of Deva. This was found outside the perimeter of the fortress and it is not large (height-0.83m width-0.57m; thick-0.33m),it is roughly done, poorly maintained and illustrates two characters: one of them standing and holding a lance and the other one sitting down, having his head covered by a cap. Near this character-without any doubt a Dacian tarabostes-there lies a curved sword, actually straight, only with its head curved. This man's nationality is given by the curved sword near him. It is a sword that often appears on Roman Imperial coins especially on those that appeared after the wars with Dacia and on Roman monuments from Britain.

[To which Dr. Borangic adds:

"Limestone fragment, discovered at Sarmizegetusa and kept at the Museum of Dacian and Roman Civilization in Deva. The relief, rudimentary and awkward sculpture, can be understood as a Roman soldier armed with a spear, and another warrior sitting whose ethnic identity is revealed by the silhouette of the weapon in the lower right corner. The advanced state of degradation of the piece does not permit us to see the entire contour of the weapon, only the top part which is thin and curved."]

Figure 2

Other representations of the Falx can be found on the marble plaque discovered at Gradistea Muncelului amongst the ruins of a building and also kept in the Museum of Deva. This plaque is a bit larger than the chalk block (1,115 m X 0,57m) and on its superior side, bordered by a tabula ansata, there are various signs carved and artistically representing the name of the Legion IV Flavia Felix. The researchers established that this legion camped at Sarmizegetusa -probably some watching detachments after the first Dacian war and more of them after the second war (Dio Cassius XVIII, 9, 7). It is very important the fact that a legion chose to carve its name in the shape of curved swords, because this fact shows us just how famous this Falx was. (M. Macrea, Sargetia, II 1941 p 133-36).