Editing Falx (section)

===Effectiveness===

[[Marcus Cornelius Fronto]] described the large gaping wounds that a {{lang|la|falx}} inflicted, and experiments have shown that a blow from a {{lang|la|falx}} easily penetrated the Romans' {{lang|la|[[lorica segmentata]]}}, enough to incapacitate or kill a majority of opponents. These experiments also show that the {{lang|la|falx}} was most efficient when targeting the head, shoulders, legs and especially the right (sword) arm, which was generally exposed. A legionary who had lost the use of his right arm became a serious liability to his unit in battle.<ref name="Schmitz31" />

During the [[Trajan's Dacian Wars|conquest of Dacia]] by [[Trajan]] the Roman army adapted personal equipment while on campaign, and it seems likely that this was a response to this deadly weapon. Roman legionaries had transverse reinforcing iron straps applied to their helmets - it is clear that these are late modifications because they are roughly applied across existing embossed decoration. The legions also reintroduced the wearing of {{lang|la|[[lorica hamata]]}} and {{lang|la|[[lorica squamata]]}} for the Dacia campaign as both were more flexible than the newer {{lang|la|segmentata}} armour which was able to distribute damage more widely. In addition, both these older armour styles had unique modifications, a row of {{lang|la|[[pteruges]]}} was added to the sleeves, a double row of {{lang|la|pteruges}} was added to the skirt and a heavily padded vestment was worn underneath them.  Roman armour of the time left limbs unprotected; Trajan introduced the use of [[greave]]s and an arm protector ({{lang|la|[[Manica (armguard)|manica]]}}) for the right arm, which had previously been used only by gladiators, and which was never used again by soldiers once the Dacia campaign concluded.<ref>Michael Schmitz ''The Dacian threat, 101-106 AD'', pp. 33–36</ref>{{Contradictory inline|article=Manica (armguard)|section=History and usage|date=October 2011}}<!--Is this being claimed for both the greaves and the manica, or just the manica?-->