The makhaira is a type of Ancient Greek bladed weapon, generally a large knife or sword with a single cutting edge. Terminology The Greek word μάχαιρα (mákhaira, plural mákhairai), also transliterated machaira or machaera, is related to (mákhē) "a battle", (mákhesthai) "to fight". It derives from the Proto-Indo-European *magh-. Homer mentions the makhaira, but as a domestic knife of no great size. In period texts, μάχαιρα has a variety of meanings, and can refer to virtually any knife or sword, even a surgeon's scalpel, but in a martial context it frequently refers to a type of one-edged sword; a sword designed primarily to cut rather than thrust. The Koine of the New Testament uses the word makhaira to refer to a sword generically, not making any particular distinction between native blades and the gladius of the Roman soldier. This ambiguity appears to have contributed to the apocryphal malchus, a supposedly short curved sword used by Peter to cut off the ear of a slave named Malchus during the arrest of Jesus. While such a weapon clearly is a makhaira by ancient definition, the imprecise nature of the word as used in the New Testament cannot provide any conclusive answer. Makhaira entered classical Latin as machaera, "a sword". The dimachaerus was a type of Roman gladiator that fought with two swords. In modern Greek, means "knife". Modern scholars distinguish the makhaira from the kopis (an ancient term of similar meaning) based on whether the blade is forward curved (kopis), or not (makhaira). Characteristics Makhaira were of various sizes and shapes, being regional, and not exclusively Greek. Greek art shows the Lacedaemonian and Persian armies employing swords with a single cutting edge, but Persian records show that their primary infantry sword was two edged and straight, similar to the Greek xiphos (cf. acinaces). Greek vase painting begins to show makhairai very infrequently from , though their depiction is increasingly common on 'red figure' ceramics from onwards. The makhaira depicted in artworks was single-edged, having an expanded convex portion to the cutting part of the blade towards its tip. This concentrated weight, therefore momentum, to this part of the blade; facilitating particularly forceful cuts. The shape of the blade allowed the makhaira the potential to cut through bone. Despite their relatively frequent depictions in art, archaeological remains of this type of sword are rare. Use While Xenophon states that the xiphos was the