Sica
Sica a short curved sword, a weapon of the Thracians (sica Θρακικὸν ξίφος ἐπικαμπές, Gloss. Labb.: cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1.16, 75; Isid. Orig. 18.8). It was used therefore by the Threces in the gladiatorial combats (Suet. Cal. 32; Mart. 3.16): its shape explains the, falx supiua
in Juv. 8.201 (see Mayor ad loc.; GLADIATOR, Vol. I. p. 918 b). The annexed woodcut, from a terra-cotta lamp, shows a sica held by a Thracian (Baumeister, Denkm. p. 2099). As being smaller than the ordinary sword, and therefore more easily concealed, and perhaps as being sharp and deadly for a stab, it was the favourite weapon of robbers and murderers (sicarii), the ferrum with which grassator agit rem
(Juv. 3.305: cf. Cic. Cat. 3.3, 8; pro Mil. 14, 37); and hence, as a legal term, inter sicarios comes to mean on a trial for murder.
[See LEX CORNELIA p. 39.]
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.