Note 898 — Chapter XII · THE SWORD IN ANCIENT ROME; THE LEGION AND THE GLADIATOR.

Falx is properly a large pruning knife, plain or toothed, with a coulter or bill projecting from the back of the curved head. Besides this, there are many forms; one is a simple curve; another is a leaf-shaped blade with an inner hook, while a third bears, besides the spike, a crescent on the back. ‘Falx’ is the origin of our ‘falchion,’ an Italian augmentative form, or perhaps the Spanish facon. Cæsar (Comm. iii. 14) speaks of falces præacutæ.