1st-2nd century AD. A dagger composed of a short two-edged blade with tip including fragments of its iron scabbard, a broad bronze disc guard with lip to the underside, an iron tang with traces of mineralised wood, knop pommel. See Bishop, M.C. & Coulston, J.C.N., Roman Military Equipment From the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome, London, 1993, for discussion; Miks, C., Studien zur Romischen Schwertbewaffnung in der Kaiserzeit, I-II Banden, Rahden, 2007, s. cat. A318,A319, pp.75-76, for similar guard. 506 grams, 35cm (13 3/4"). From a private London, UK, gallery; acquired in 2014; previously in a private German collection, since the 1980s. The outsized disc guard would be impractical to be worn at the waist. These kinds of dagger (daga) were probably intended as gladiatorial combat weapons offering additional protection to the hand during the fight.