Falx

“A sickle; a scythe; a pruning knife or pruning hook; a bill; a falchion; a halbert. As culter denoted a knife with one straight edge, falx signified any simpiliar instrument the single edge of which was curved. By additional epithets the various uses of the falx were indicted. Thus the sickle, because it was used by reapers, was called falx messoria; the scythe, which was employed in mowing hay, was called falx famaria. A rare coin published by Pellerin, shows the head of one of the Lagida, kings of Egypt, wearing the Diadema, and, on the reverse, a man cutting down corn with a sickle. The lower figure is taken from the MSS. of Columelia, and represents a falx vinitoria, or pruning knife of a vinedresser.” — Smith, 1873.

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