Dolabra Explained

The dolabra^[1] is a versatile axe used by the people of Italy since ancient times. The dolabra could serve as a pickaxe used by miners and excavators, a priest's implement for ritual religious slaughtering of animals and as an entrenching tool (mattock) used in Roman infantry tactics. In the 1st century CE, at the Siege of Augustodunum Haeduorum, armoured Gallic gladiators were defeated by legionaries wielding dolabrae.^[2]

Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo said, "you defeat the enemy with a pickaxe".^[3]

See also

• Digging stick
• Pulaski

Bibliography

• Adrian Goldsworthy, The Complete Roman Army
• Strauss, Barry S. The Spartacus War. Simon & Schuster, 2009

Notes and References

1. Web site: William. Smith. 1890. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. live. 4 November 2021. Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University. https://web.archive.org/web/20160514150706/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:id=dolabra-cn . 2016-05-14 .
2. Cowan. Ross. Nov 2021. Tales of the Axe. Ancient Warfare Magazine. 15/2. 9.
3. Strauss, Barry S. The Spartacus War. Simon & Schuster, 2009. Print.