Description
Most of the northern European tribes were not naval powers, but there were still able seafarers to be found amongst them. Shipbuilding techniques were well understood, so while many vessels were small leather-skinned boats for inland and inshore use, bigger sea-going vessels were also made. Shipwrights used heavy planking for hulls, stitched together and then fastened to a wooden skeleton to create sturdy craft able to cope with Atlantic conditions. Julius Caesar was surprised at the quality of the enemy ships when his fleet clashed with the Veneti from modern-day Brittany. The Veneti vessels had flat bottoms to cope with shallows, but were also of heavy oak construction to cope with rough seas. This made them tough opposition for Roman galleys, and capable of shrugging off a ramming attack. Caesar said that the enemy ships "...were constructed of planks a foot in breadth, fastened by iron spikes the thickness of a man's thumb; the anchors were secured fast by iron chains instead of cables”. When the Romans were forced to board, they faced fearsome warriors used to close-quarters fighting at sea.
The exact origins of the Dacians are something of a mystery. Dacian lands were centred around the Carpathian Mountains but, unlike their Thracian neighbours, they seldom got involved in the conflicts of others. The Dacians fought almost entirely on foot, and usually looked to their Sarmatian allies when serious cavalry were needed. Many Dacian infantry fought as peltasts, equipped with javelins, short swords and oval shields, but they also fielded archers. However, the Dacians were most feared because of a weapon called the 'falx', which they used with deadly, limb-lopping skill. A two-handed sword with a forward-curving blade, a falx could cut a man in two from the top of his head to his breastbone. This weapon was so effective that the Romans improved their legionary armour to cope with it. The brow-ridge on later legionary helmets was there to stop a blow from a falx. Rome’s eventual victory in the Dacian Wars (AD101-106), celebrated by Trajan’s Column, finally dealt with the warlike Dacian tribes once and for all.
