Alex's sword.

[maciek]

Hi all!!!I have a question which I can't find the answer anywhere. I'd like to know how Alex's sword looked like. I saw Philip's sword in Vergina and some pictures showing macedonian swords and then I found many beautifoul replicas beeing salen in internet sites. One o them I show here: http://swords.ingali.com/index.html
Allmost every internet shop has the same picture of it so maybe there is some vision of it or they only has the same fiction picture and just coping one from another it.

[yiannis]

I'm quite sure that this has nothing to do with Alex's sword. Ancient Greeks and Macedonians used small swords. This one (as the description shows) is based on the roman "glaudius" that caused terror to the Macedonians due to the horrific wounds that it would inflict to the soldiers. You see, once the phalanx was disrupted and the Roman could make contact with the 1st rank then they could not be stopped by the light shields and short swords of the macedonians.

[maciek]

.

[maciek]

Thanx a lot Yannis!! Altrough I'm dissapointed because I had some hope it could be close to real one. Sarrisa would be easy to recognise as I saw it in museum (just parts) but in "sword subiect" I hadn't any impression. I only thought that if they fought on the horses - and we know that Alexander commanded from horse and as the infantry - we can assume that he had longer sword then ground units. They usually used spear when fighting on the horse but like during Granikos battle we know that Cleistos cutted some persian's arm (I can't remember the name - right now)Thanx again for answer!

[ruthaki]

A good idea of the sarissas is the display surrounding the statue of Alexander on Buchephalus down by the seaside walk in Thessaloniki. They have reconstructed the sarissa as well as the shields of various units of the phalanx. The big sword in the so-called Philip's tomb display was just a ceremonial sword. There was, I think, a sword with the grave offerings in the "Prince's tomb" (Alexander IV) and in my imagination I believed some of those items may have been Alexander's when he was a youth.(This was after talking to an archaeologist on site who said grave offerings were not necessarily the belongings of the dead but 'gifts') In battle, they used short swords and javelins or spears. I believe the cavalry officers used the short swords as there were special units of spear men and javelin throwers.

[maciek]

Thanx a lot Ruth !!!
If I understood correctly - what You mean is that this sword can be the ceremonial one (not used in the battles). So this is possibility when it can be the real image of it. But (seeing how few answest I have got to my question) I assume that we have no historic evidence how it could look like. Maciek

[agesilaos]

The only pictorial evidence for his sword would be the Issos mosaic, where only the hilt is visible; the lion hunt mosaic which shows a kopis/macheira; and the Poros dekadrachm which shows a straight scabbard, however the lion hunt does too so it may not mean a straight sword! The sarcophagus of Abdolymos does not depict any sword.

[maciek]

Yes Karl and this was my hint - because in this mosaic we can see that shown part of the sword has the same shape as in this replica, in this lion hunt mosaic blade shape is simmilar also. Unfortunatelly I've asked people from site where they sell those swords where they took the pictures from and they've got it from internet Anyway it has some elements which can have some historical meanning but it looks like it is generated mostly by someones imagination (and I think quite good one).
Thanks for replies to all who made it!!
Maciek

[ruthaki]

I was at the lecture on the tombs of Vergina the other night and the professor showed slides of the grave offerings in the so-called "Philip's tomb." A good photo of the ceremonial sword. Could it be that your "Alexander's sword" was a copy of this one? (And who's to say it might have been one of Alexander's swords as the grave offerings were gifts.)

[maciek]

Thanks Ruth
Do You know where can I find those sword picture - or it's only on those slides.Maciek