An ancient Roman iron dagger or pugio. The blade is wide at the hilt with a long tang, waisted in the middle with a central mid-rib, tapering to the triangular point.
Ca. 1st - 2nd century AD.
Length: 15 1/4 in. (39 cm).
cf.: Bishop & Coulston, Roman Military Equipment from the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome, (Oxford, 2006), pp. 83-87.
Formerly in the E. S. collection, Berlin, acquired in the 1990s.